EU Legal Acts

Abstract

In this collection of essays, which were first presented at the Academy of European Law in Florence, we bring together a series of contributions which explore the changing landscape of the EU’s legal acts, and the boundaries between legal acts and acts and processes which may create norms but which do not create ‘law’ in the traditional sense. We bring together two different ways of looking at this picture. The first is to focus on the transformations in and challenges to the EU’s ‘classic’ or traditional legal acts, in particular since the reconfiguration of the categories of legal act and the procedures for their adoption by the Lisbon Treaty. The second perspective is to focus on those acts found at – or beyond – the margin of the classic EU legal acts, including acts of the Member States such as inter se treaties; self-regulation and collective agreements; so-called soft law; and decision-making outside the normal legislative procedures. On the one hand, the volume is concerned to explain this somewhat puzzling adaptability of the EU legal order given that the legal instruments at the Union’s disposal appear essentially the same as they were when the Treaty of Rome came into force 60 years ago (regulations, directives, decisions and international agreements). On the other, it explores the challenges the making and quality of acts pose for the EU’s legal order, such as alterations to institutional balance and the roles of the different institutional actors and challenges to the rule of law.