Rethinking European Cooperation on Asylum and Migration: The Quest for Alternative Theoretical Frameworks

Abstract

The institutional architecture governing Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) in Europe has witnessed many changes during the last ten years. Most prominently, the European Parliament is now on equal footing in decision-making with the Council. The European Commission and the European Court of Justice have increased their influence. These institutional dynamics shifted JHA from “Black Market to Constitution” but were nevertheless quickly condemned as being insufficient to break member states’ dominance in this policy area. Consequently, policy analysis continues to be dominated by neorealist and intergovernmental thinking. We argue, however, that the recent developments in the policy field might qualify those former evaluations as out of date. There is an increasing number of institutional and policy developments which hardly fit the predictions of these established theoretical frameworks. Standards have actually been raised and we are moving closer towards the completion of the Common European Asylum System. New actors have entered the field and presumably transform norms and the policy-making process as such. In response, the panel brings together papers which aim at a more thorough description of the consequences of those institutional changes. Each of them evaluates existing theories in light of new empirical findings and proposes alternative or revised explanatory models. 1. Ripoll-Servent/Trauner: Do supranational institutions matter in EU asylum? A case study of the Receptions Directive 2. Desomer: Processes of Judicialization: An Analysis of the Inter-Play between the Judiciary and the Legislators in the Area of Migration Policies 3. Thielemann/Zaun: Raising Regulatory Standards: Bargains, Institutions and Norms in the Development of the Common European Asylum System 4. Ette: Provincialize venue-shopping! A typology of Europeanization mechanisms explaining the dynamics of national asylum and migration policies 5. Engelmann: Looking for alternatives: how to theorize operationalization and other recent forms of European asylum cooperation? Discussant: Roderick Parkes

Title	Details
Looking for Alternatives: How to Theorise Operationalisation and Other Recent Forms of European Asylum Cooperation?	View Paper Details
Provincialise Venue Shopping! A Typology of Europeanisation Mechanisms Explaining the Dynamics of National Asylum and Migration Policies	View Paper Details
Raising Regulatory Standards: Bargains, Institutions and Norms in the Development of the Common European Asylum System	View Paper Details
Judicialisation of EU Migration Policies? An Analysis of the Inter-Play Between the Judiciary and the Legislators in Decision-Making Processes on EU Migration Legislation	View Paper Details
Do Supranational Institutions Matter in EU Asylum? - A Case Study of the Receptions Directive	View Paper Details