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Photo of John Woodlock by Emma Lord.

John Woodlock

Affiliated researcher

Photo of John Woodlock by Emma Lord.

(f)Lex avionica; How soft law serves as an instrumental mediator between professional norms and the hard law regulation of European civil aviation maintenance

Author

  • John Woodlock
  • Håkan Hydén

Summary, in English

The regulation of safety in civil aviation in Europe has become subject to a process of juridification. The role of law in the pro-active perspective of European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) governance, requires understanding how hard law and soft law interact. The rationality of regulatory systems can be regarded as the normative core from which different normative claims (norms) are deduced depending on the conditions applying to particular domains. Safety surrounding aviation professionals’ work practices is one such condition where the influential ‘knowledge society’ of safety science focuses on risk and human error in aviation. This article addresses the safety scholarship behind occurrence reporting and the ‘just culture’ concept which have arguably shaped the content and form of current civil aviation regulation in Europe. The article points to the flexible utilization of hard and soft law in aviation which innovatively upholds the market based core rationality of the European Union.

Department/s

  • Department of Sociology of Law

Publishing year

2020

Language

English

Pages

54-63

Publication/Series

Safety Science

Volume

121

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Elsevier

Topic

  • Law (excluding Law and Society)

Keywords

  • Flexibility
  • Juridification
  • Just culture
  • Norms
  • Soft law

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0925-7535