This book presents a conceptual analysis of the definitions of State Aid and subsidy in EC and WTO law. It provides a comparative analysis of the regulation of subsidy in both systems, examining the coherence of the conceptual understanding of subsidy and the grounds for legitimate state
intervention.
The book focuses on the substantive provisions relating to core properties of a notion of subsidy, ie the public intervention and the conferral of an economic and selective advantage. In addition to preventative measures, it analyses the regulation of subsidy's negative and
positive effects (distortions of international competition and trade, and remedial of insufficiencies in the market).
The current regulation in EC and WTO law is analysed, compared and assessed in depth, and tested against a proposed benchmark of optimal regulation of subsidies in each
legal system and, more generally, at the international level. Drawing on the comparative analysis, the book argues that both systems can learn valuable lessons from each other to achieve a greater coherence and more efficient regulatory system.
1. Scope and Methodology of the Research
Scope of the Research
Methodology of the Research
Exposition of Chapters, Selection of Issues
2. The Public Intervention
Introduction: the Public Intervention in the Economy
Forms of Governmental Action Covered by Subsidy and State
Aid rules
Bringing WTO and EC Law Together: Critical and Comparative Analysis
3. The Advantage Analysis
Introduction: the Advantage Analysis
Economic Activity and Market Benchmarks
Non-Economic Activity and Normative Benchmarks
Case Study on the Financing of Public Services:
Quasi-Market Transaction or Disadvantage Compensation?
4. The Beneficiaries
The Identification of Beneficiaries
The Idea and Analysis of Specificity
5. The Effects of Public Subsidies, their Control and Remedies
The Economics and Politics of Subsidies and State Aids
The
Current Legal Framework: Brief Review and Critique
Conclusive Recommendations
6. Conclusion
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Luca Rubini is lecturer in law at the School of Law of the University of Birmingham. Previously, he was lecturer at the University of Leicester (2005-2007) and legal secretary to Advocate General Francis Jacobs at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg (2002-2003).
