“‘Novel food’ for thought” on law and policymaking in the global creative economy Rostam J. Neuwirth Published online: 27 October 2013 © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013 Abstract Law and policymaking form a central theme of the global governance debate. In these times of an emerging global creative economy the debate is becoming increasingly complex as global governance is faced with serious chal- lenges of a political, economic, cultural, environmental, social, technological and, last but not least, legal nature. Against the backdrop of a global food crisis, both in terms of food security and food safety for all, the present article explores some of the broader regulatory aspects of these challenges by looking at the regulation of food and notably novel food as engineered by the use of bio- and nano-technologies. It aims to show how the preservation of the integrity of law over time, and with it the objectives of providing legal predictability and legal certainty, are threatened by deficiencies in the institutional design of the current international legal framework as well as in the conceptual understanding underlying the legal instruments adopted by these institutions. The analysis at the international level is complemented by a brief look at the domestic level exemplified by the situation in the European Union and the People’s Republic of China against the backdrop of their attempts to for- mulate and successfully implement policies enhancing their competitive advantages in the creative economy. Keywords Global governance · Creative economy · International law · Regulation · Novel food · Food safety JEL Classification K0 · K10 · K30 · K32 R. J. Neuwirth (&) Faculty of Law, University of Macau, Avenida Padre Tomas Pereira S315, Taipa, Macao e-mail: rjn@umac.mo 123 Eur J Law Econ (2014) 37:13–50 DOI 10.1007/s10657-013-9415-y