The Brussels Effect by Anu Bradford

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Brussels Effect by Anu Bradford Quentin Levin (bio) A Review of The Brussels Effect by Anu Bradford The United States and China are hurriedly competing for traditional military and economic superiority just as multipolarity and the rise of developing economies make both forms of power less effective for realizing unilateral ambitions.1 Enter the inconspicuous world power: the European Union (EU). In her insightful book, the Brussels Effect, Columbia Law School professor Anu Bradford exposes how the EU operates as the subtle giant lurking beneath the steely surface of the international system, exercising a novel form of international power. The Brussels Effect, named after the EU's capital, is as indirect as it is powerful. Market forces, the implicit risk of losing access to the lucrative EU economy, and the overt emulation of EU rules in foreign laws, enable the EU's robust institutions to de facto set rules for noncapital markets that many companies subscribe to worldwide. Overall, Bradford's book provides an excellent description of a rarely covered form of EU power and influence. Her addition of a theoretical model for understanding how and why the EU exercises this unilateral global regulatory power is academically and practically useful because it helps readers better understand how power is exercised in the international system. Yet, her work has two weaknesses. First, her qualified defense of the normative merits of the Brussels Effect is undermined by her deference toward the legitimacy of EU institutions compared to other democracies. She apparently assumes that more robust regulations of noncapital markets, on net, increase people's welfare even when they oppose those policies. Second, Bradford's theoretical model overlooks how the dominance of key economic sectors, like emerging technology, compensates for market power disparities and enables China to increasingly set global standards. The book proceeds in three sections. Bradford describes the theoretical model for understanding why and how the EU exercises this global power. Next, the book offers examples of this power–from agriculture to data privacy. Finally, Bradford defends, on balance, the normative merit of this power, and she argues that the Brussels Effect can survive challenges associated with the EU's shrinking relative global market share, the retreat of globalization, and the rise of technology that enables companies to customize their products for individual markets, as opposed to conforming all their products worldwide to a single standard. She contends that the Brussels Effect hinges on five key factors. First, market size and a wealthy consumer base generate power for the EU single market (the customs, economic, and regulatory union that is at the heart of the EU).2 Ultimately, this factor means that companies may value access to the EU economy so highly that they are willing to obey its rules even if they are costly, rather than withdraw from the European market. Second, institutions with the expertise and capacity to execute these policies are also needed.3 Third, Bradford believes that market regulators must have the "political will" to "promulgate stringent regulatory standards" in order to set global trends.4 Fourth, the Effect only takes hold when regulations are applied based on the consumer being located in the EU, rather than where the product is made.5 This prevents companies from simply shifting production to evade this process. They must either comply, face penalties, or withdraw from business with European consumers. [End Page 307] These four factors are necessary but not sufficient conditions for the Brussels Effect. The fifth factor is the key: Bradford believes that the Effect only occurs when companies "voluntarily opt to extend the regulatory requirements of the most stringent regulator to their global operations."6 Companies tend to make this choice only in a specific circumstance: when the benefits of standardizing their operations around a single regulatory standard, rather than dividing their operations between Europe and the rest of the world, outweigh the costs. Bradford's book is strongest in its description of how the Brussels Effect operates. Although she claims that her work leaves it "for the reader to decide" whether the Brussels Effect is good or not, she proposes a "normative stand" on the Effect at the end of the book.7...