<p>This paper studies the structural issues concerning possible human rights violations found in the Dublin Regulation; An EU regulation aiming to allocate a responsible member state to a third-country-nationals asylum application. It is one of the criticized legal documents within the scholarly field of human rights. Hence, this study aims to study the details of the regulation to find out the elements of the regulation that are prone to human rights violations. Asking the question: What are some details of the Dublin Regulation that could potentially result in human rights violation of the third-country nationals seeking international protection within the territory of member states? Hence, exploring the gap found between the regulation and human rights of the asylum seekers. This was done by a normative legal analysis study of the law, studying the text of the regulation, relevant human rights law, and jurisprudence from two courts of law: ECHR and ECJ. The findings of the study highlights, first, the regulation upholds only the superficial elements of human rights law. Second, the regulation assumes that every member state is a safe country. Third, there is an imbalance of responsibility on either of the two or more member states involved. These are the details of the regulation highlighted in this study that is potentially the result of possible human rights violations and the criticism of the topic. </p>

Sveriges inträde i EU 1995 har lett till många förändringar i det svenska rättssystemet. Svenska domstolar har därmed fått en ny arbetssituation och nya skyldigheter. Flera förändringar har skett i svensk processrätt, och grundläggande EU-rättsliga principer som de om direkt effekt och EU-rättens företräde framför nationell rätt, har ställt de nationella domstolarna inför flera utmaningar. Den mest grundläggande skyldigheten de svenska domstolarna har gentemot EU är förpliktelsen att inhämta förhandsavgörande från EU-domstolen. Sistainstansrätterna är skyldiga att göra detta närhelst de är osäkra på tolkningen och/eller tillämpningen av en EU-rättslig bestämmelse. Detta är en långtgående förpliktelse som endast har två undantag: det första är i de fall EU-domstolen redan dömt i ett identiskt fall (acte éclairé); det andra är då den nationella domstolen anser att den EU-rättsliga bestämmelsen är tillräckligt klar och tydligt för att den självständigt ska kunna tillämpa den (acte clair). Dessa skyldigheter har lett till ett flertal problem för de svenska domstolarna. Sverige har fått skarp kritik från Kommissionen för sistainstansrätternas obenägenhet att inhämta förhandsavgörande. Huruvida EU borde ta hårdare tag mot medlemsstaternas nationella domstolar eller om kriterierna för när skyldigheten att inhämta förhandsavgörande borde mjukas upp diskuteras flitigt i nuläget. Det finns företeelser som talar för en utveckling åt både det ena och det andra hållet, vilket gör detta till ett väldigt spännande ämne att studera. / Since Sweden joined EU in 1995 many things has changed in the Swedish legal order. This has led to several new obligations for the Swedish courts. There have been a number of changes in Swedish law of procedure, and fundamental principles of law set down by EU, like the principle of direct effect of EU law and its precedence over national law, has presented many challenges before the national courts. The most fundamental obligation of the Swedish courts to EU is the duty to make a reference for a preliminary ruling to the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The courts of last instance are obligated to do this in any case where they are insecure of the appropriate application of EU-law. There are only two exceptions to this rule, namely when the ECJ already has ruled in an identical matter (acte éclairé) and in cases where the national court feels that the correct interpretation of the rule of law in question is obvious (acte clair). These obligations have lead to a number of problems for the Swedish courts. The Commission has criticized Sweden because of the national courts of last instance unwillingness to request preliminary rulings. Whether EU should toughen up and take action against the national courts disobedience or if the criteria for when an obligation to make a reference for a preliminary ruling should get more flexible is constantly discussed at this time. There are several things that speaks for both of these developments and that makes this a very interesting topic to study.

Since the late 1980s, efforts made by the international community to deal with the complex and global problem of money laundering have stimulated the creation and definition of the so-called 'international crime of money laundering', which is included in various United Nations and Council of Europe international treaties, as well as European Union Directives. The Central purpose of this thesis is to investigate if the main goal of effectiveness in the adaptation of the international crime of money laundering at the domestic level, might undermine other values that international law is seeking to protect, namely the guarantee of due process and the adequate protection of human rights principles. Then, if the adoption of any element of the crime shows to be inconsistent with civil rights and guarantees, to propose how deficiencies could be remedied.

Although social policy was once perceived to be solely within the purview of the nation state, there has been a move toward a more European social policy. The European Court of Justice for the European Communities (‘Court of Justice’ or ‘Court’) determines the scope of European law and how it affects national welfare states. The court’s decisions will affect not only the national law of the member states with regard to social policy but also the direction of European social policy as it expands. However, the ECJ does not choose the policy areas in which it makes its decisions, but instead reacts to the preliminary references that are sent by the national courts of the Member States. These preliminary references from the Member States will set the Court’s agenda. Preliminary references are unevenly distributed across the Member States of the EU, and some Member States’ preliminary references are concentrated in particular policy areas. The jurisprudence of the Court, and consequently the social policy of the EU, could be steered by this uneven distribution. This thesis will answer the threshold question of why scholars of social policy should care about the Court of Justice, with a legal analysis of some key themes in the Court’s decisions in the area of social policy. It will then employ a mixed methods research design to explain the variation in rates of social policy preliminary references from the EU-15. First, a Time Series Cross-Section (TSCS) model will be used to test a series of hypotheses generated from the literature, and three novel hypotheses, in a dataset of social policy preliminary references from the EU-15 from 1996 to 2009. Next, a Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) (Ragin 2000) will group the variables that were found to be significant into sets of conditions, or ‘causal pathways,’ that lead to higher and lower rates of social policy preliminary references. Finally, two qualitative case studies will be conducted, in the UK and France. Analysis of documentary evidence and 25 expert interviews in the two member states and at the Court of Justice will further explain and illuminate the differing usage of preliminary reference process. The analysis of the mixed methods is integrated in the final stage. Implications for the direction of EU law related to social policy and the future development of European social policy will be considered in the concluding chapter.

This thesis analyses whether the concept of monetary sovereignty evolves under the impact of globalization and financial integration, and provides a framework for assessing what this implies. Thereby, this thesis contributes to a better understanding of both the contemporary exercise of sovereign powers in monetary and financial matters and of the driving forces behind the evolution of international law in this field. As elaborated in chapter 1, the contemporary concept of monetary sovereignty proposed by this thesis is not static but dynamic in nature. Due to the dual nature of sovereignty as a concept having not only positive but also important normative components, monetary sovereignty cannot become eroded under the impact of legal and economic constraints. Chapter 2 examines the ongoing hybridization of international monetary law arising from changes in the sources of this complex body of law, from the unsuitability of the categories of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ law for characterizing all normative evolutions in this field, and from the rise of private and transnational monetary law. Chapter 3 scrutinizes the phenomenon of exchange rate misalignment under monetary and trade law. Intrinsically related, it assesses which aspects of the IMF’s legal framework should be reformed in order to tackle contemporary challenges to the stability of the international monetary system, such as global current account imbalances. Chapter 4 analyses the increasing regionalization of monetary sovereignty. It argues that, to the extent that transferring sovereign powers to a monetary union is what provides a state’s population with maximum monetary and financial stability, the underlying transfers are not a surrender of monetary sovereignty, but its effective exercise under the form of cooperative sovereignty. Finally, chapter 5 assesses the implications of the contemporary concept of monetary sovereignty proposed herein for the reorganization of the international financial architecture in the wake of the Great Recession.

Le droit international privé de l’Union européenne se réapproprie le problème de la qualification. Non content d’en altérer fondamentalement la configuration, il en réoriente laborieusement la résolution. Or, la qualité du système tout entier, sa stabilité à un instant t, de même que sa capacité à se développer, à s’ouvrir et à se déployer sur le monde extérieur, sont placées dans l’étroite dépendance de l’efficacité de la qualification ; efficacité qui se mesure à l’aune de l’analyse méthodologique de l’opération, comme de la cohérence des résultats auxquels elle conduit. Et si à ce titre le système déçoit aujourd’hui, il est néanmoins tout aussi possible que souhaitable de le refonder rationnellement. Qui peut le plus peut le moins… Exemple sera donc pris de la matière contractuelle, soumise à la règle la plus complexe qui soit, la plus sujette à polémiques aussi, afin d’ouvrir la voie à davantage de cohérence.La reconfiguration du problème de qualification, ayant sa source dans la rupture imposée par le droit de l’Union entre la législation matérielle et la législation conflictuelle, en accentue naturellement la complexité. Curieusement, la construction jurisprudentielle multiplie sans raison les difficultés, imposant deux nouvelles ruptures, entre l’interprétation de la catégorie érigée au fondement de la compétence et l’interprétation du facteur de rattachement d’une part, entre l’opération de qualification et l’opération de coordination des compétences concurrentes d’autre part. La refondation du système de qualification suppose ainsi la combinaison harmonieuse de ce que la jurisprudence a dispersé, qualification, rattachement et coordination concourant conjointement à la détermination de la compétence spéciale, la cohérence des résultats de la qualification déterminant le choix des orientations méthodologiques de l’opération. Dans cette perspective simplificatrice, parce que la complexité des réponses juridiques ne se conçoit que lorsqu’elle reflète adéquatement et efficacement la complexité des questions, il apparaît naturel de confier à l’opération de qualification les moyens de prévenir les difficultés que ne manque pas de susciter sa pratique purement analytique, cause naturelle d’un dépeçage des situations entraînant à son tour une dispersion excessive du contentieux. Appuyé au contraire sur une opération de qualification à visée préventive, et recourant à des catégories plus synthétiques aux contours flexibles, le système de détermination de la compétence spéciale en matière contractuelle gagnerait en simplicité, en efficacité, en adaptabilité, et il pourrait peut-être être envisagé, enfin, de donner une dimension mondiale à ce qui fonctionnerait à l’échelle régionale. / Formally disassociating the sources of material and conflict legislation, European Private International law alters the classical problem of characterisation, resolution of which cannot be borrowed from BARTIN or RABEL theories any longer. Yet, the quality of the whole system, its stability at a given moment, as well as its capacity to develop and to deploy on the outside world, are placed in the narrow dependence of the efficiency of the characterisation process. Analysing this efficiency calls for an examination of the theoretical and methodological implications, as well as of the consistency of the achieved results. On both grounds, the current system of characterisation is undoubtedly disappointing, and should be reconsidered rationally. In this perspective, attention will be focused on “matters relating to contract”, submitted to the more complex and criticized rule of the Brussels I regulation. The importation of a conflict of laws issue within a conflict of jurisdiction reasoning (De Bloos/Tessili) constitutes a terrible factor of complexity, interpretation of the conflict category belonging to the European legal order while the interpretation of the connecting factor is abandoned to the national legal order. As a consequence, the reasons behind the choice of a specific connecting factor simply cannot impact the characterisation process, as the exclusion of all claims formed by third parties from the scope of article 5-1° illustrates (Handte). Moreover, complexity and heterogeneity of situations seem to radically oppose the exercise of adjudicatory authority by a unique jurisdiction other than that of the defendant’s domicile. In such a context, conflicts of litigations are more than frequent and are not always dealt with in a consistent manner. Gubisch, for instance, coerces the very thing Shenavai and Leathertex prohibit, i.e. the exercise of adjudicatory authority by the first judge seized, be it the judge of a secondary obligation. Kalfelis drastically opposes consolidation of parallel proceedings in the event a litigation implies claims founded on different grounds. Observation can thus be made that the Brussels I system currently separates three intellectual operations; characterisation, location of the connecting factor, and coordination of concurring jurisdictions are insulated from each other. Yet, those three operations not only chronologically follow one another, but also functionally pursue the same objective, and characterisation could, and should be provided with the means to anticipate the following difficulties. In this perspective, it is suggested that the dispersive consequences of every conceivable characterisation should constitute the very cause of the definitive and centralising characterisation. In other words, the results’ consistency, as well as the cohesion of the heterogeneous components of the claim should dictate methodological choices. It appears, in turn, that departing from the dogmatic attachment to actor sequitur and prior tempore would enable a well functioning regional system to deploy rationally on worldwide scale.

Preliminary References in Civil and European procedural law JUDr. Štangová Eva 1 Abstract (EN) The main purpose of this doctoral thesis was to provide an comprehensive analysis of the Preliminary questions under Slovak and Czech national legislations and to provide the same analysis of Preliminary questions under Treaties and Legislation of European Union Law (hereinafter referred to as "Union law"). This analysis shall cover both, Slovak and Czech code of judicial procedure which have the same numerical designation as Act No. 99/1963 Coll. and are known as Code of civil procedure (hereinafter referred to as OSP) in Slovakia and Code of civil procedure (hereinafter referred to as OSŘ) in the Czech Republic as well. The research in this thesis is structurally divided into 5 independent chapters. Using bellow stated research methods and science procedures; each part focuses on different context of preliminary questions. The first two chapters focus the historical context, concept, importance and scope of the preliminary questions under legislation of Czech and Slovak Republic. This chapter also outlines the normative legal regulations of these issues in the "de lege lata" status. At the same time, the author pays more attention to the eligibility of preliminary questions to be considered as preliminary ones,...

<p>Sveriges inträde i EU 1995 har lett till många förändringar i det svenska rättssystemet. Svenska domstolar har därmed fått en ny arbetssituation och nya skyldigheter. Flera förändringar har skett i svensk processrätt, och grundläggande EU-rättsliga principer som de om direkt effekt och EU-rättens företräde framför nationell rätt, har ställt de nationella domstolarna inför flera utmaningar.</p><p>Den mest grundläggande skyldigheten de svenska domstolarna har gentemot EU är förpliktelsen att inhämta förhandsavgörande från EU-domstolen. Sistainstansrätterna är skyldiga att göra detta närhelst de är osäkra på tolkningen och/eller tillämpningen av en EU-rättslig bestämmelse. Detta är en långtgående förpliktelse som endast har två undantag: det första är i de fall EU-domstolen redan dömt i ett identiskt fall (acte éclairé); det andra är då den nationella domstolen anser att den EU-rättsliga bestämmelsen är tillräckligt klar och tydligt för att den självständigt ska kunna tillämpa den (acte clair).</p><p>Dessa skyldigheter har lett till ett flertal problem för de svenska domstolarna. Sverige har fått skarp kritik från Kommissionen för sistainstansrätternas obenägenhet att inhämta förhandsavgörande.</p><p>Huruvida EU borde ta hårdare tag mot medlemsstaternas nationella domstolar eller om kriterierna för när skyldigheten att inhämta förhandsavgörande borde mjukas upp diskuteras flitigt i nuläget. Det finns företeelser som talar för en utveckling åt både det ena och det andra hållet, vilket gör detta till ett väldigt spännande ämne att studera.</p> / <p>Since Sweden joined EU in 1995 many things has changed in the Swedish legal order. This has led to several new obligations for the Swedish courts. There have been a number of changes in Swedish law of procedure, and fundamental principles of law set down by EU, like the principle of direct effect of EU law and its precedence over national law, has presented many challenges before the national courts.</p><p>The most fundamental obligation of the Swedish courts to EU is the duty to make a reference for a preliminary ruling to the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The courts of last instance are obligated to do this in any case where they are insecure of the appropriate application of EU-law. There are only two exceptions to this rule, namely when the ECJ already has ruled in an identical matter (acte éclairé) and in cases where the national court feels that the correct interpretation of the rule of law in question is obvious (acte clair).</p><p>These obligations have lead to a number of problems for the Swedish courts. The Commission has criticized Sweden because of the national courts of last instance unwillingness to request preliminary rulings.</p><p>Whether EU should toughen up and take action against the national courts disobedience or if the criteria for when an obligation to make a reference for a preliminary ruling should get more flexible is constantly discussed at this time. There are several things that speaks for both of these developments and that makes this a very interesting topic to study.</p>

I dag är det vanligt att EU-medborgare företar en gränsöverskridning med sin familj inom EU. Samkönade par har möjlighet att ingå äktenskap i fem medlemsstater, men eftersom äktenskapet inte erkänns i övriga 22 medlemsstater riskerar det samkönade paret att mottagarstaten ser äktenskapet som ogiltigt i rättslig mening vid en gränsöverskridning inom EU. Samkönade par som redan är gifta kan dock erhålla visst skydd för de fall en medlemsstat föreskriver samkönat registrerat partnerskap. EU-rätten föreskriver inga minimikrav för hur registrerat partnerskap bör utformas i medlemsstaters nationella rättssystem. Det har i sin tur vilket lett till att rättskyddet för samkönat registrerat partnerskap ser olika ut bland medlemsstaterna. Samkönade civilstånd är därför rättsosäkert vid gränsöverskridningar sett ur ett helhetsperspektiv. Familjerätten är ett rättsområde där medlemsstaterna har suveränitet. Medlemsstaterna har därför själva rätten att besluta hur familjerätten utformas i det nationella rättssystemet, men det finns vissa restriktioner. Medlemsstaternas utövande av sin suveränitet måste ske i konformitet med etablerade EU-principer och annan relevant EU-rätt. Kommissionen har kommit med ett förslag om ett automatiskt erkännande av civilståndshandlingar och uppsatsens syfte är därför att utreda om ett automatiskt erkännande är kompatibelt med gällande EU-rätt. För att besvara syftet i uppsatsen utreds gällande EU-rätt med direkt eller indirekt inverkan på samkönade relationer. Vidare utreds förslaget om ett automatiskt erkännande av civilståndshandlingar i kommissionens grönbok om minskad byråkrati för medborgarna tillsammans med de yttranden som grönboken mottagit från olika organisationer. Genom att ställa ett automatiskt erkännande av civilståndshandlingar mot gällande EU-rätt leder slutsatsen fram till vilka hinder och möjligheter som föreligger vid genomförandet av förslaget. De hinder och möjligheter som föreligger talar för att ett automatiskt erkännande av civilståndshandlingar är genomförbart. EU-rätten ställer vissa krav på medlemsstaterna även om medlemsstaterna har suveränitet inom familjerätten. Följden blir att EU måste samarbeta med medlemsstaterna för att säkerställa rättssäkerheten av civilståndshandlingar när EU-medborgare vidtar gränsöverskridningar inom EU. / Today it’s common for EU-citizens to move across borders with their families within the EU. Same-sex couples have access to marriage in five Member States, but because their marriage is not recognized in the other 22 Member States the same-sex marriage might be void in a legal sense in another Member State. Same-sex couples who are already married may benefit from some protection in the event that a Member State provides same-sex registered partnership. EU law does not provide a minimum requirement when Member States develop legal protection for same-sex couples through registered partnership in their legal system. This in turn has led to the differences among the Member States when it comes to same-sex registered partnership. Therefore, a same-sex civil status doesn’t provide a legal certainty in cross-border situations when looked upon from a broader perspective. Family law is an area of law where Member States have sovereignty. Therefore, the Member States have the right to shape the family law themselves in their national legal system, although there are some restrictions. When Member States exercise their sovereignty they must still exercise it in conformity with established EU principals and other relevant EU law. The Commission has now proposed an automatic recognition of civil status records and the purpose for this thesis is therefore to analyze whether an automatic recognition of civil status record are compatible with existing EU law. In order to answer the purpose in the thesis, EU law with direct or indirect impact on same-sex relationships is analyzed. Furthermore, the proposal of an automatic recognition of civil status records in the Commissions Green Paper on less bureaucracy for citizens is analyzed together with the opinions the Green Paper received from different organizations. When looking at the compatibility of an automatic recognition of civil status records and existing EU law, the conclusion highlights the obstacles and opportunities that exist with the implementation of the proposal. The obstacles and opportunities that exist suggest that an automatic recognition of civil status records is achievable. EU law imposes certain requirements on Member States, although Member States have sovereignty over their national family law. The previous suggests that the EU must work together with the Member States in order to ensure the legal certainty of civil status records when EU-citizens cross the borders within the EU.

L’obiettivo del presente lavoro di ricerca è quello di porre in luce la cosiddetta “dimensione relazionale” dell’informazione fornita ai consumatori di alimenti tramite l’etichettatura nutrizionale e salutistica, intesa quale strumento normativo per l’attuazione delle politiche nutrizionali perseguite dall'Unione Europea. Il presente scritto analizza come le funzioni dell’etichettatura alimentare siano mutate durante i decenni, a partire dalla fine degli anni settanta del secolo scorso, quando essa era sì concepita come strumento informativo, ma il cui scopo principale rimaneva tuttavia quello di appianare le varie difformità legislative o regolamentari esistenti tra i vari Stati Membri – potendo queste rappresentare un ostacolo alla creazione di un mercato comune – sino ai giorni nostri, che vedono l’etichetta come una protagonista attiva in seno ad un più ampio programma di politica nutrizionale; più precisamente, attraverso un’adeguata etichettatura alimentare, le istituzioni dell’Unione Europea ambiscono a plasmare le abitudini alimentari dei consumatori, indirizzandoli verso percorsi nutrizionali più salutari. In tale contesto, il Regolamento sulle indicazioni nutrizionali e sulla salute fornite sugli alimenti rappresenta un ambizioso e, al tempo stesso, controverso tassello del diritto alimentare europeo, le cui premesse ispiratrici erano indubbiamente lodevoli, ma che è stato vittima, successivamente, di un’attuazione che ha generato notevole scontento ed incertezza sia tra i consumatori che nell'industria, al punto tale che da più parti si nutrono dubbi in merito alla sua efficacia e validità. Il presente lavoro di ricerca ambisce quindi a fornire una profonda analisi del Regolamento sulle indicazioni nutrizionali e sulla salute, offrendo una panoramica di esso in chiave storica, sociale, ed economica, imprescindibile al fine di una corretta e completa comprensione delle scelte normative e delle loro implicazioni di mercato. In ossequio a tale intento, in ogni apertura di paragrafo è offerto un inquadramento di taglio storico-normativo, mentre, in conclusione, si tenta di fornire qualche spunto critico da cui potrebbe, o avrebbe potuto, derivare una migliore attuazione del Regolamento. Dopo una breve introduzione, la ricerca entra nel suo vivo attraverso l’analisi di ogni aspetto del Regolamento (CE) n. 1924/2006, soffermandosi, in particolar modo, su quello che è l’aspetto cruciale e problematico relativo alla sua attuazione: il ruolo della scienza e, più precisamente, la valutazione circa la fondatezza scientifica dei claims, procedimento che, in assenza di chiare definizioni normative ed operative, è di fatto rimesso alla discrezionalità interpretativa dell’EFSA, avallata (implicitamente o esplicitamente) dalla Commissione Europea e dalla Corte di Giustizia dell’Unione Europea, generando così reazioni critiche tra pratici ed accademici che accusano una illegittima applicazione del principio di precauzione in un ambito che gli è estraneo, vale a dire quello dell’informazione alimentare al consumatore finale. Il lavoro prosegue poi con una riflessione sull'esito finale di un siffatto adagiamento sul processo di validazione scientifica condotto dall’EFSA, che ha ridotto la più parte della conoscenza nutrizionale a poco più di 200 indicazioni sulla salute autorizzate, la cui formulazione letterale, tra l’altro, si dubita assai possa essere agevolmente compresa dal cosiddetto consumatore medio. Inoltre, il Regolamento lascia irrisolti e aperte molti dilemmi e questioni, che devono urgentemente trovare un positivo interessamento al fine di non vanificare gli apprezzabili sforzi di spinta alla ricerca innovativa e di garanzia di una leale ed effettiva concorrenza nell'industria alimentare; il riferimento corre, tra gli altri, ai cosiddetti “claims botanici” ed ai “probiotici”, in relazione ai quali è ad oggi impedito reclamizzare in etichetta un’indicazione salutistica, sull’assunto per cui non è ancora stato raggiunto un livello accettabile di consenso scientifico relativamente alla loro sicurezza d’uso ed efficacia. Di conseguenza, se lo stato dell’arte è connotato da un simile proibizionismo, gli operatori del settore alimentare si trovano nella situazione di dover ricorrere a diverse strategie commerciali, quali l’utilizzo di claims suggestivi che, proposti attraverso messaggi non testuali, come nel caso del food design, si rivelano cionondimeno in grado di veicolare un messaggio salutistico, senza però la soggezione allo stretto rigore scientifico richiesto dall’EFSA. Infine, il presente lavoro, seppur prevalentemente rivolto alla descrizione dello scenario regolativo europeo, non dimentica di fornire una utile prospettiva del tema anche in chiave comparata, spaziando dalle linee guida predisposte dal Codex Alimentarius agli accordi vigenti in ambito OMC applicabili all’etichettatura degli alimenti, alimentando, per l’appunto, perplessità circa la compatibilità del Regolamento (CE) n° 1924/2006 con le obbligazioni gravanti sull’Unione Europea imposte dalla sua appartenenza al WTO. / The topic of the present research is to highlight the relational dimension of the information provided to consumers via food labelling, intended as a legal tool for the implementation of the nutrition policy carried out by the EU institutions since the establishment of the European Economic Community. The present work analyses how the function of food labelling has changed during the decades, since the late Seventies of the past century, when it was merely conceived as a mean of information whose main purpose was the harmonisation of the different national legislations, which could constitute an unnecessary obstacle to the realization of the common internal market, to the most recent days, when food labelling is thought as a tool of active nutrition policy; more precisely, through an adequate labelling, the EU institutions try to shape consumers’ behaviours, driving them toward a healthier eating. In this regulatory scenario, the Regulation on Nutrition and Health Claims made on foods is an ambitious and controversial piece of European food law, whose premises were undoubtedly laudable, but which has been during the years (partially) implemented in a manner which has caused much more discontent and confusion among both consumers and manufacturers, so that nowadays many doubts are still arising for what concerns its efficacy and its validity. This research represents a deep analysis of the Regulation on Nutrition and Health Claims, also taken into consideration from the historical, sociological, and economic perspective, which must be necessarily intertwined for a complete and critical comprehension of the legal framework and its implications for the various stakeholders. For this reason, each paragraph begins with a sort of normative background, and concludes with a critical analysis of the existing situation, providing some hints for a better implementation of the NHCR. After a brief introduction, the core of the research is completely and deeply focused on each and every aspect of the Regulation, with a central part which takes into consideration the very crucial aspect of its partial and problematic ongoing implementation: the role of science and, more precisely, the requirement of the scientific substantiation of the claims, whose assessment is demanded to the EFSA that, in the absence of definitions and clear guidelines on how to conduct such an evaluation, has de facto given its personal interpretation of the normative provisions of the Regulation, on which also the Commission and the European Court of Justice (implicitly or explicitly) rely, causing discontent among operators and legal scholars who see this as an illegitimate application of the precautionary principle to the field of food information, and a possible departure from the traditional categories of the risk assessment, risk management, and legal interpretation. The analysis proceeds then by criticizing the results of the total reliance on the scientific evaluation carried out by the EFSA, which reduced most of the knowledge about nutrition science in few more than 200 approved health claims, whose wording is probably incomprehensible for the average consumer. Moreover, there are also many other open issues in the Regulation on Nutrition and Health Claims which need to be urgently addressed in order not to vanish the laudable purpose of stimulating innovation and competition in the food sector, namely the botanical claims and probiotics, which are now prevented from bearing health claims on the consideration that a complete scientific consensus about their safety and efficacy has not yet been reached. But if this is the largely prohibitive state of the art, manufacturers are of course encouraged to find different escape routes, one of which is recurring to implied health claims, adopted through non-textual messages, or, to rephrase, through a smart food design, which can convey the same representation of healthiness without being subject to the strict scientific boundaries standardised by the EFSA. In addition, and as a conclusion, the present work, although mainly focused on the European Union regulatory environment, tries to give a comparative view on what the international arena offers on the topic, from the Codex Alimentarius Commission to the various WTO Agreements pertaining to food labelling, instilling doubts about the NHCR compatibility with the obligations that the EU must fulfil in the international trade law relations.