I read in !emc-pstc that Nick Rouse <[email protected]> wrote (in <000f01c1d454$c9b2e390$0c4aacac@nick>) about 'U.S. Safety Regulations', on Mon, 25 Mar 2002: >I fail to follow your argument, The fact that you have >not been challenged or taken to law by any member state >does not mean that it is not the laws of the member states >that have legal juristriction. You have not been taken to >the European courts of justice either. >you say:- >>For ITE, the EU requires compliance to the Low Voltage >> and EMC Directives >No, the EU requires that member states put in place >national laws requiring compliance in that country >of the requirements of the Low Voltage and EMC Directives. >This is somewhat different. Had you transgressed >and been prosecuted you would have been prosecuted >under the national law of the country.
Well, you are BOTH right, and the difference is one of 'de facto' versus 'de jure'. If one were to be prosecuted under any of the cited national laws, one *could*, if it was appropriate, present a prima facie defence of compliance with the Directive in question, not with the national law, accompanied by a claim that the national law did not interpret the Directive correctly. This *might* be significant in the UK, because the parliamentary draftsmen who interpret the Directives as Statutory Instruments, under the guidance of Ministers, have been accused of 'gold-plating' the Directives, i.e. 'stretching' the provisions in the direction of higher stringency. This criticism may be justified, but it may also be balanced by an official reluctance to prosecute unless advice and warnings are disregarded. -- Regards, John Woodgate, OOO - Own Opinions Only. http://www.jmwa.demon.co.uk Interested in professional sound reinforcement and distribution? Then go to http://www.isce.org.uk PLEASE do NOT copy news posts to me by E-MAIL! ------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. Visit our web site at: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/pstc/ To cancel your subscription, send mail to: [email protected] with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Ron Pickard: [email protected] Dave Heald: [email protected] For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: [email protected] Jim Bacher: [email protected] All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://ieeepstc.mindcruiser.com/ Click on "browse" and then "emc-pstc mailing list"
