Policies and Influence

The European Union's ban on trade in seal products prohibits the placing on the market of seal products stemming from commercial hunts. It is based on the assumption that the commercial seal hunt is inherently inhumane, although the design of the ban does not contribute to alleviating this concern. This article takes the perceived problems in eu documents relating to the seal hunt under closer scrutiny and analyses the composition and characteristics of the stakeholders involved. While political processes are marginally touched upon, it is the ban's underlying principles and effects that the article considers and it embeds the crafting process and the ban itself in a normative and discursive environment.