The Common Agricultural Policy is one of the most developed of the common policies of the EU and has been a model for many of the general principles of EU Law. To date, discussion of the policy has centred on the political and financial problems that have arisen, rather than the legal aspects of the policy. This book examines those legal aspects through the evolution of the CAP. It traces the legal transformation of the CAP from a market and price-driven policy
towards its current emphasis on the multifunctionality of European agriculture and the development of a common food policy, incorporating food safety and quality, animal health and welfare and the protection of the environment.

This book also covers international developments, especially the creation of the World Trade Organisation and the introduction of various agreements, on agriculture, on sanitary and phytosanitary measures and on technical barriers to trade. These agreements, and disputes arising under them, have had and will continue to have a significant impact on the transformation of the Common Agricultural Policy and are analysed in this work. The book also contains a fully up to date discussion of the
increasing role of the Member States in the development of a European model of agriculture, the transformation of which remains incomplete, and it is thus unclear how the policy will develop in years to come.

This work derives from a section in the looseleaf Law of the EU (Vaughan & Robertson, eds), and is made available here in a revised and expanded form.