Symposium: The impact of EU legislation on national legilsations: Denmark, The Netherlands and Austria compared

Abstract:
The EU with its supranational powers is a unique institution. Contrary to other international organisations, it can make laws that are binding to its member governments as well as to their citizens and enterprises. However, reviewing the literature, we find little consensus as to its true role as a lawmaker. The articles in this symposium remedy this empirical deficiency.

The lead overview article presents a comprehensive analysis of the scope of binding EU regulation. The EU is presented as an important lawmaker. It has, with considerable effectiveness, been able to overcome recurrent crises that have often called its very viability into question. But the same analysis also reveals that the EU, in spite of several treaty reforms expanding its responsibilities into new policy areas, remains a predominantly economic regulator. Finally, EU lawmaking is to an increasing extent delegated to the European Commission, dedicated to the de facto task of maintaining the internal market. Although this article and the articles that follow it cover the present, and refer to the European Union (EU), the EU, since its creation in the 1950s, has changed its official name several times.

Articles:
- EU legislation and national regulation: Uncertain steps towards a European public policy
- Keeping in control: The modest impact of the EU on Danish legislation
- From the europeanisation of lawmaking to the europeanisation of national legal orders: the case of Austria
- The EU as lawmaker: The impact of EU directives on national regulation in the Netherlands
- Legal Europeanisation - comparative perspectives