In any circumstances this book would be one of the best works on European Union health policy and law, and a notable contribution to research on law and society or the European Union in general. In the circumstances of COVID-19 it is also one of the most important. Anniek de Ruijter's book is almost the only work of law or social science scholarship to explain European Union communicable disease control policy and politics. That makes the book necessary reading for those interested in learning what the European Union did and might do in public health during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, or why it was so seemingly invisible early in the pandemic.
EU Health Law and Policy works so well because it is both a legal and a qualitative empirical study. It is notoriously difficult to combine legal and political science research. Yet it is also necessary to combine both...
