Transatlantic Regulatory Affairs and Governance: The Roles of the EU and US Legislatures

This paper analyses the role of the European Parliament and the US Congress in addressing regulatory interdependencies between the EU and the US as two key global strategic partners. This inquiry examines the problem of intergovernmental dominance and intransparency in transatlantic relations, because it hampers democratic participation and oversight. The analysis probes the institutional relations between these two polities and conducts two groups of case studies that examine how the EP and Congress shape law and policy in areas of regulatory divergence. The first group analyses parliamentary involvement in the making of international agreements (TTIP and ACTA). The second group inspects legislative action with extraterritorial or otherwise spillover effect (US Sarbanes-Oxley and Helms-Burton Acts). The paper argues that parliaments have so far exerted negative influence in transatlantic relations and discusses whether an interparliamentary early warning mechanism in transatlantic affairs could reduce legislative discrepancies and interpolity frictions.