Professional services are a key component
of the EU internal market economy, yet also significantly challenge the legal
framework governing this internal market. Indeed, specific professional
regulatory structures, which are often the result of a blend of government and
self-regulation, hold clear potential for conflict with EU free movement and
competition law rules. Hence, this book looks at the manner in which both free
movement and competition laws might apply to such self- and co-regulatory
set-ups, as well as the leeway given to quality considerations (apparently)
conflicting with free movement or competition objectives. In addition, since
court action will seldom suffice to genuinely integrate a market, the book also
explores those instruments of EU secondary legislation that are likely to impact
the most on the provision of professional services. However, the book goes
beyond a mere inventory to ask how EU internal market policy could contribute to
the optimal legal environment for professional services. A law and economics
analysis is employed to investigate the need for specific professional rules,
the preferred type of regulator (self-, co-, or government regulation), and the
level - national and/or European - at which regulation should be adopted. As it
becomes clear, the story of the market for professional services is one of
market and government failure. The book is thus left to compare imperfect
situations where market failures compete with rent-seeking efforts, the tendency
towards over-centralization, and national protectionism. The book offers both an
in-depth legal analysis of the EU framework as it applies to professional
services, as well as a more normative evaluation of this framework, based on
insights from law and economics scholarship. It will therefore be a valuable
resource for all practitioners, policy-makers, and academics dealing with
professional services, as well as, more generally, with questions of quality-
and self-regulation. (Series: Modern Studies in European Law - Vol. 28)
