Law and economics

Statistics

European Union law

Enforcement

Softening

International law

Economics

Computer science

Soft law

International trade

Corporate governance

Mathematics

Politics

Political science

Normative

Economic policy

Sociology

Artificial intelligence

Finance

Situated

European union

Obligation

West European Politics

Until the late 1980s, European integration was generally said to be based on 'integration through law'. However, in the 1990s, a group of scholars observed that law seemed to be increasingly challenged and new modes of governance tended to distance themselves from legal integration. They were confronted with another group arguing that the EU was still subject to processes of judicialisation, juridification and Eurolegalism. Against this background, this special issue aims at understanding what triggers normative transformations, be it the hardening or the softening of law, at both EU and national levels. In this introduction, soft and hard law are given a definition based on obligation and enforcement. Then, normative transformations are situated in a framework which makes a distinction between processes, normative levels and political/administrative levels of transformation. Finally, three types of explanations are suggested to help us understand when and why transformations occur.

Normative transformations in the European Union: on hardening and softening law