Protection of Health and Safety at the Workplace - A Comparative Legal Study of the European Union and China

This book investigates four core characteristics of occupational health and safety legal systems in order to provide a comparative and critical analysis of the similarities and differences in protecting the health and safety of workers at the workplace. In addition to analysing the health and safety regulations, the book addresses corresponding oversight and enforcement mechanisms. It compares and contrasts five different legal systems, namely those of the EU, the Netherlands, the UK, Sweden and China. Beyond offering an overview of the modes of OHS regulation, instruments and legal enforcement practices, the book helps to answer the question of how to improve working environments in order to protect workers from all kinds of dangers encountered at the workplace. The intended readership includes researchers with a background in labour law, comparative law, Chinese law and/or European Union law.


Kai Liu, PhD in Law (Utrecht University, the Netherlands), is an Associate Professor at the Law School of Jiangsu Normal University, China. His research chiefly focuses on health law, occupational health and safety law, labour law and social law. Before studying in the Netherlands, Kai obtained a Bachelor's degree in Law and a Master's degree in Occupational Safety and Health Law in China. He subsequently pursued his Ph.D. at Utrecht University, under the co-supervision of Prof Frans Pennings and Prof Teun Jasper, and completed his degree in December 2017. Dr Kai Liu has been a contributor to United Nation's LEGOSH database (Global Database On National Occupational Safety And Health Legislation) since September 2015. He has been a Visiting Scholar to Lund University, Sweden and to the School of Law, Erasmus University Rotterdam.