Geographical indications and the EU legal and policy discourse : a pursuit of legitimacy?

Abstract

This thesis examines the EU system of protection of Geographical Indication and raises the questions of how and why the EU justifies its application, despite external opposition on the grounds that it is a barrier to free trade. The thesis does so by focusing on the EU legal and policy discourse, analysing the various strands of an institutional narrative that has been constructed since the early 1990s. The enquiry is divided into the following sub-questions: How have GIs and their legislations emerged? What is the EU legal and policy discourse around GIs and how has it developed? How has the academic literature challenged or contributed to this EU discourse on GIs? Is the EU legal and policy discourse around GIs justified by evidential bases? And if not, why is the EU furthering this system of protection? Based on its findings, the thesis argues that the EU legitimises the protection of GIs within the EU by deploying an institutional multifunctional legal and policy discourse that treats as self-evidently true claims regarding a range of socio-economic benefits of GIs. The thesis demonstrates, however, that the EU presumes rather than evidences these claims in an attempt to establish an authoritative and unquestioned narrative. It, therefore, seeks to avoid the accusations that the protection of GIs is a way of satisfying the purely economic and trade interests of the Union. In the absence of another plausible explanation, the thesis suggests that the EU does this to entrench a form of socio-economic protectionism and further its legitimacy as a body representing the best interests of its various constituencies, from Member States to individual businesses and consumers. The thesis concludes that the EU will need to provide significantly more evidence for its multifunctional claims if the EU GI system is to gain more acceptance internationally