Logics of Decision-making on Community Asylum Policy: A Case Study of the Evolvement of the Dublin II Regulation

This case study of the evolvement of the so-called Dublin II Regulation on asylum demonstrates the role of Council-specific informal rules and procedures in facilitating intergovernmental agreement. The paper addresses a Rationalist "puzzle", namely the question why the Justice and Home Affairs Council reached political agreement on Dublin II in spite of the Regulation's likely redistributive effects on the number of asylum applications processed by individual Member States. The empirical material suggests that issue-linkage, informal decision-making procedures, and a strong reluctance on the part of Council members to exercise their right to veto are jointly sufficient conditions for reaching political agreement.asylum policy; Council of Ministers; Dublin asylum convention; national interest; deliberative democracy

Eurodac: A Solution Looking for a Problem?

This study accounts for the emergence of a supranational biometric control regime in Europe. The empirical focus lies on the institutionalization of Eurodac, an automated fingerprint identification system covering asylum seekers and 'illegal' immigrants. Who promoted the idea of setting up an automated biometric system in the European Community? Which behavioral logics were underlying the negotiation of the Eurodac Regulations in the Justice and Home Affairs Council? And how did the European Commission get involved in policing the so-called 'Area of Freedom, Security and Justice'?new technologies; institutionalisation; asylum policy; immigration policy; Schengen; security/internal; Council of Ministers; joint decision making; unanimity; national interest; game theory; sociological institutionalism; political science

Conjunctural Causation in Comparative Case-Oriented Research: Exploring the Scope Conditions of Rationalist and Institutionalist Causal Mechanisms

This paper highlights one of the major benefits of qualitative comparative methodology as applied within a “small-N” research design, namely its potential use for specifying the scope conditions of (theoretically competing) causal mechanisms. It is argued that the identification of set-theoretic relationships, multiple paths, and analytic efforts in typological mapping can make valuable contributions to the elaboration and further development of middle-range theory.methodological issues; political science; institutionalism

EU Governance in an Area of Freedom, Security and Justice: Logics of Decision-making in the Justice and Home Affairs Council

This collection of articles examines some of the legislative cornerstones of the emerging EU Area of Freedom, Security and Justice in light of the research question whether the relevant decision-making processes in the Justice and Home Affairs Council may best be understood from a Rationalist or from an Institutionalist perspective. The empirical focus lies on a handful of important legislative acts adopted by the Justice and Home Affairs Council after the entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam, namely the Dublin II Regulation, the Eurodac Regulation, the Biometric Passports Regulation and the cross-pillar Facilitators Package. Based on a comparative analysis of these case studies, the author specifies the conditions under which the members of the Justice and Home Affairs Council adhered to the logic of consequentiality, the logic of appropriateness, or both.game theory; governance; institutionalism; methodological issues; national interest; policy analysis; acquis communautaire; free movement; asylum policy; cross-border crime; immigration policy; new technologies; passport policy; police cooperation; police cooperation; Schengen; Schengen; security/internal; access to documents; joint decision making; Council of Ministers; political science

Eurodac: A Solution Looking for a Problem?

This study accounts for the emergence of a supranational biometric control regime in Europe. The empirical focus lies on the institutionalization of Eurodac, an automated fingerprint identification system covering asylum seekers and "illegal" immigrants. Who promoted the idea of setting up an automated biometric system in the European Community? Which behavioral logics were underlying the negotiation of the Eurodac Regulations in the Justice and Home Affairs Council? And how did the European Commission get involved in policing the so-called "Area of Freedom, Security and Justice"? This article has been publixhed in EIpO European Integration online Papers Vol. 10, No.6immigration policy; cross-border crime; Council of Ministers

Decision-making under Pressure: The Negotiation of the Biometric Passports Regulation in the Council

This paper accounts for the so-called Biometric Passports Regulation of the European Community. Formally adopted by the Council of the European Union (EU) in December of 2004, the Biometric Passports Regulation prescribes the compulsory biometric “enrollment” of all EU citizens applying for a new passport or passport renewal. Member States fully participating in the Schengen regime and Schengen-affiliated third countries like Norway are obliged to include two biometric identifiers into their citizens’ passports by the end of June 2009. Schengen-made “e-Passports” will contain a chip storing a facial scan of the passport holder and two of his or her fingerprints. The author employs both Rationalist and Institutionalist perspectives in order to explain why the Council of the EU unanimously endorsed a bill which, as far as the mandatory incorporation of fingerprints into EU citizens’ passports is concerned, goes beyond what was necessary for meeting U.S. and international requirements. Rationalists may interpret the final legislative outcome as a reflection of the political success of “first mover” strategies on the part of relatively powerful executive actors engaged in a Battle-of-the-Sexes game. From an Institutionalist point of view, on the other hand, the substantive profile of the Biometric Passports Regulation stems from the reproduction of police-specific standard operating procedures, the “consensus reflex” among the members of the Council’s Permanent Representatives Committee (COREPER), and the recognitional character of decision-making processes under time pressure.

Conjunctural causation in comparative case-oriented research

Comparative methodology, Causal complexity, Theory development, Political science, Social mechanisms, Decision-making, European Union,