This article examines ‘essential use’ as a novel form of regulatory control. An essential use approach to the regulation of potentially hazardous chemicals has not been used extensively (if at all) in European Union (EU) regulatory law and warrants further consideration. Essential use, as initially proposed by scientists and later referred to in the EU 2020 Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability, is a radical departure from the current method of regulating hazardous substances. The purpose of this article is to contribute to legal scholarship on essential use by (i) scoping its origins in United States law and subsequently in international law; (ii) noting its limited incorporation into the EU legal order over the past 30 years; (iii) analyzing how it could be further incorporated into the EU legal order; and (iv) considering the impact of such a move on the future regulation of hazardous substances in the EU.

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基本用途的概念：一种在欧盟监管化学品的新方法

本文将“必要用途”作为一种新的监管控制形式进行考察。欧盟 (EU) 监管法中尚未广泛使用（如果有的话）监管潜在危险化学品的必要使用方法，值得进一步考虑。正如科学家最初提出的、后来在欧盟 2020 年化学品可持续发展战略中提到的那样，必要用途与当前的有害物质监管方法大相径庭。本文的目的是通过 (i) 界定其起源于美国法律以及随后的国际法；(ii) 注意到其在过去 30 年中有限地融入欧盟法律秩序；(iii) 分析如何将其进一步纳入欧盟法律秩序；