Wine Law

27 European law is confined to agri-food, which allows member states to engage in regulatory exercises in other areas. Within this framework and in regions to which legislative power has been devolved, the power to approve the supplementary norms is devised through the internal norms of devolution. In Spain, devolution from the state to autonomous regions over geographical designations has led to the former waiving its right to pass a law that would be enforceable nationally and contented itself, rather, with a legal framework (in reality, there are more than one, once in the regulation stage) applicable to cross-region geographical designations. Incidentally, the consequence of this for Spanish law is that, given the lack of European regulations or the explicit referral to domestic ones, the regulation of core elements of designations will be, fully and unjustifiably, at the discretion of autonomous regions. 5. The Scope of Designations of Origin within the Agri-food Sector The scope of designations of origin and geographical indications is rigorously defined their regulations, from the very title, as in the current Regulation No. 1151/2012. The status of wine, despite being the product that pioneered this new legal interest, is still very contested by scholars. We must remember that ALDO or TRIPS content themselves with making use of an ambiguous “product” as the object of protection, and that despite the fact that the wording of their definitions would seemingly require more distinct boundaries for the scope. In addition, those who advocating — even after those agreements were approved — sharper and more precise definitions — as Mascareñas did, in 1950s —, did not oppose the inclusion of products so diverse that, in practice, would render such definitions pointless. This blurring of boundaries for the scope can also be seen in the continued exercise in stretching the concept. Not only should industrial products should be regulated under the designations framework, as suggested by some, we should also realise that we “cannot dismiss the possibility of extending the protection of designations