Legislative Authority and Interpretation in the European Union

Abstract

Despite the fact that legislation has, in the past decades, become the cornerstone of European integration, the legislature’s place in the European Union’s (EU’s) institutional framework remains neglected in legal scholarship. This book explores the virtues of the legislative process and the nature of legislative acts, and it asks how moving the legislature from the sidelines to the centre of legal analysis changes our understanding of the judiciary’s proper role in EU law-making. The first part of the book elaborates an account of the allocation of EU legislative versus judicial authority, examining when judicial deference is due to legislation and when, on the other hand, legislative provisions may legitimately be subject to judicial review. The second part sets forth a theory of legislative interpretation according to which judicial officials can interpret legislative provisions in accordance with legislative intent. The book shows, in a nutshell, that the legislative process should be associated with important values that the judicial process cannot be associated with to the same extent. Legislative decision-making lends demo(i)cratic legitimacy to EU law and improves the quality of EU law-making, while legislation is more likely to be complied with by its addressees than case law. These values militate for judicial deference to the choices of the legislature in all but exceptional circumstances and for an interpretation of legislation that observes legislative intent.