PhD Defence: A Legal Framework for the Circular Economy in the European Union

On Friday 22 November, Ida Mae de Waal will defend her dissertation in which she provides insight into the European laws and regulations designed to enable the development of, and transition to, a circular economy (CE). The European Union (EU) is currently transitioning towards a CE. An important part of the ‘legal’ transition towards a CE focuses on the legal acts that can roughly be divided into EU chemicals, EU product and EU waste legislation, which together can be said to govern the life cycle of materials and products. At the interface of these areas of law, barriers and (unutilized) incentives for the CE transition can be identified. Achieving coherence in law seems to be suggested to create a legal framework that enables the CE transition. 

This dissertation contributes to understanding the potential of achieving coherence in law in light of the CE transition, as well as to the aim of developing the ‘right’ legal framework governing the life cycle of materials and products that does not hamper but rather stimulate the CE transition. By means of legal doctrinal and empirical legal research, the notion of coherence in law was analysed, three product value chains (electrical and electronic equipment, plastic packaging and batteries) were examined using a case study approach and, lastly, the results of the case studies were combined to provide more general recommendations.

The analysis of these overarching recommendations revealed three overarching themes and accompanying recommendations: 1) the legal framework should better reflect the highest step of the waste hierarchy, or steps when considering the R-hierarchy (see picture); 2) the inherent interlinkages between not only all life cycle stages, but also all provisions, legal acts and areas of law that regulate the life cycle of materials and products should better be taken into account; 3) there is a need to continuously pay attention to the possible conflicting objectives, negative trade-offs and unintended consequences that can exist regarding circularity strategies. 

In the end, this research shows that, considering the CE transition, the focus should not be on the aspiration to achieve ‘full coherence’. Instead, the focus should be directed towards the wide variety of identified barriers and incentives, which could provide the substantial outlines for an improved legal framework that does indeed enable rather than hamper the transition to a CE in the EU.