Soft Law in the European Union - The Changing Nature of EU Law

This article is based on the assumption that there is a continuum running from non-legal positions to legally binding and judicially controlled commitments with, in between these two opposite types of norms, commitments that can be described as soft law. It aims at defining soft law in international relations in order to provide a mapping of EU law on the basis of the soft law / hard law divide. It helps categorize EU competences and public policies, and see how they fit with the distinction between two kinds of processes: legalization (transformation of non-legal norms into soft or hard law) and delegalization (transformation of hard law norms into soft law and evolution from hard to soft law)

Resisting EU Norms. A Framework for Analysis

This article provides a framework for analysing resistance to norms in the European Union. It argues on the one hand that the development of EU governance makes it necessary to systematically study resistances to EU norms beyond the current concentration on non-compliance with legal norms. On the other hand it develops a typology of the instruments of resistance used by domestic actors to object to the implementation of EU norms. Based on a systematic analysis of case studies stemming from both legal and political science literature, the paper will show that resistances to EU norms have a long history in the EU. We will first analyse the forms of resistance to hard law based on the widespread secondary literature available. This will then be compared to areas in which soft law reigns, with a view to demonstrate that soft law triggers as much resistance as hard law. Based on this empirical data and using a policy instruments approach, the paper develops a typology of instruments used by domestic actors to circumvent or to resist European norms. This allows for establishing possible causalities between the political context, norms and types of resistances

Resisting EU Norms. A Framework for Analysis

This article provides a framework for analysing resistance to norms in the European Union. It argues on the one hand that the development of EU governance makes it necessary to systematically study resistances to EU norms beyond the current concentration on non-compliance with legal norms. On the other hand it develops a typology of the instruments of resistance used by domestic actors to object to the implementation of EU norms. Based on a systematic analysis of case studies stemming from both legal and political science literature, the paper will show that resistances to EU norms have a long history in the EU. We will first analyse the forms of resistance to hard law based on the widespread secondary literature available. This will then be compared to areas in which soft law reigns, with a view to demonstrate that soft law triggers as much resistance as hard law. Based on this empirical data and using a policy instruments approach, the paper develops a typology of instruments used by domestic actors to circumvent or to resist European norms. This allows for establishing possible causalities between the political context, norms and types of resistances

Analyser les résistances nationales à la mise en œuvre des normes européennes : une étude des instruments d’action publique

Depuis une vingtaine d’années, les oppositions des citoyens à l’intégration européenne deviennent plus visibles : manifestations contre des politiques européennes spécifiques, rejet de referendums, abstention accrue aux élections européennes. Une autre forme d’opposition, moins visible, existe depuis le début du projet européen : celle des administrations appelées à mettre en œuvre des décisions européennes, qu’il s’agit de règles de hard law ou de soft law. L’objet de cet article est de revenir de manière critique et dans une perspective historique sur la littérature qui porte sur ces « résistances » actives autant que passives à la mise œuvre des normes européennes. Sur cette base, nous présentons un cadre conceptuel qui permettra d’analyser ces oppositions bureaucratiques de manière systématique. Il s’agit de mieux identifier les types d’instruments utilisés pour « résister » aux normes européennes en prenant comme point de départ l’action de l’administration, considérée comme l’acteur central dans la mise en œuvre des normes européennes.Over the last twenty years, Europeans seem to increas­ingly oppose European integration: protests against certain European policies, negative results on refer­enda, increased abstentions in elections to the European Parliament. Another form of resistance to European integration existed however since the 1950s: that of national administrations who implement European decisions, whether they are hard or soft law. The aim of this article is to revisit the forms and instruments of administrative resistance to implementation in a historical perspective and to present a conceptual framework, which will help us to systematically anal­yse these bureaucratic resistances beyond specific

Solidarité et droit de l’Union européenne : un principe à l’épreuve

Les occasions de « tester » la solidarité dans l’Union européenne ont été nombreuses et invitent à s’interroger sur la place et le rôle du droit à cet égard. Le droit de l’Union se présente-t-il comme un vecteur de solidarité ? A-t-il contribué à affermir la constitution d’un espace intégré ? A-t-il laissé au contraire apparaître des failles justifiant un aggiornamento ? C’est précisément l’objet de cet ouvrage que de proposer un bilan du principe de solidarité, de ses formats comme de ses applications dans les principales politiques européennes, depuis le traité de Lisbonne et dans un contexte marqué par de nombreuses crises

A União Europeia como potência global? As alterações do Tratado de Lisboa na política externa e de defesa

Este artigo aborda as alterações que o Tratado de Lisboa introduziu na política externa e de defesa, tendo em conta a gradual alteração do conceito estratégico da União Europeia que pretende transformá-la numa potência global. Começa por enquadrar a intervenção da União Europeia na política internacional, com a adoção de uma política externa e de segurança pelo Tratado de Maastricht. Em seguida, refere as inovações do Tratado de Lisboa nessa política, analisando os aspectos de maior relevo

Understanding EU legal integration/disintegration : in search of new perspectives

This report summarises the UACES/ James Madison Trust EUFutures Research Network Launch Workshop entitled 'Understanding legal integration/disintegration: in search of new perspectives'. The event consisted of four panels on 'Interdisciplinary research on EU law', 'Research Methods and EU law', 'Understanding the EU's integration processes' and 'Understanding EU law through soft law, discourse, ideas & beliefs', respectively. The future of EU legal integration is at a significant juncture with the departure of the UK, substantial rule of law challenges, internal and external crises, and an increasingly apathetic multilateral legal order. There is increased recognition amongst EU lawyers, who have historically limited themselves to doctrinal analysis and legal hermeneutics, that methodology plays an essential role in order to understand EU integration and shape its future. The question remains though how to connect interdisciplinary approaches to EU law, policy and politics. How should EU law (as an object) be studied? What are the respective merits of each discipline (political science, sociology, economy, history) in explaining the way EU law is created, applied, used, transformed in the process of EU integration? What is the added value of bringing together different approaches to law? In particular, how can EU law (as an academic discipline) open itself up to the methods of the social sciences and what, in return, can law offer to our understanding of EU studies more widely? In order to answer these questions, EUFutures brings together scholars for this workshop to: reflect on the future methodological direction(s) of EU law and EU integration and consider both how law could open itself up to methodologies from other disciplines, and what legal analysis could offer political, economic and historical approaches

"France and the European Security and Defense Policy"

[From the Introduction]. In the 1990’s, the CFSP and its military component the ESDP have become core elements of the French defense doctrine. Whereas the Gaullist doctrine in the 1960’s put the emphasis on sovereignty and independence as the best ways to maintain the French position in international politics, the European political unification being a complementary option, the new strategy is much more aware of the necessity to act within a European framework. In 1994, the building of a European defense policy is quoted in the Livre blanc on defense as one of the French priorities, which is quite a new idea. Two decades earlier, the 1972 Livre blanc on national defense did not even mention the possibility of creating a European defense

Le Privacy Shield et l’échange de données entre l’Union européenne et les Etats-Unis

International audienc

L'exécutif (présidence et gouvernement)

International audienc