Does Legalisation Matter? An Assessment of Legalisation and Implementation in EU Arms Export Control

Similar to other areas of EU policy, there is widespread assumption that implementation of EU export control norms into national law is key to ensuring enforceability and compliance with the export licensing norms of the EU arms export control regime. However, little academic attention has been devoted to studying the nature and success of the domestic implementation process and the extent to which and how intra-EU variance in domestic legalisation lead to different export control policies. In comparison, several studies have pointed towards highly varying export practices among member states and differing interpretation of the licensing criteria. This paper fills an important void in this research by comparatively scrutinising the levels of transformation of EU arms export control norms into national legislation and assesses the resulting enforceability of the export control rules. Thus, it sheds light on the often ignored but likely-to-be essential link between domestic implementation and export outcome.