Aden, Hartmut --- "Administrative Governance in the Field of EU Police and Judicial Co-operation" [2006] ELECD 281; in Hofmann, C.H. Herwig; Türk, H. Alexander (eds), "EU Administrative Governance" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006)

Book Title: EU Administrative Governance

Editor(s): Hofmann, C.H. Herwig; Türk, H. Alexander

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845422851

Section: Chapter 10

Section Title: Administrative Governance in the Field of EU Police and Judicial Co-operation

Author(s): Aden, Hartmut

Number of pages: 20

Extract:

10. Administrative governance in the
fields of EU police and judicial
co-operation
Hartmut Aden

INTRODUCTION

The European Union is characterised by a mix of intergovernmental and
supranational forms of governance since its creation by the Maastricht
treaty in the early 1990s. The constitutional treaty will reduce the areas
of intergovernmental co-operation if it enters into force. This chapter will
outline the specificity of governance in the fields of police and judicial co-
operation ­ the policies that remained in the EU's `Third Pillar' after the
1997 Amsterdam treaty. Governance in these fields is closely linked to the
multi-level structure of the EU polity. I aim to show that specific forms of
multi-level administrative and judicial governance have been developed in
these two closely connected , but also very different fields.
In spite of the intergovernmental structure of the `Third Pillar' as it was
installed in the early 1990s by the Maasticht treaty, decision-making in these
fields is not purely political, but even more influenced by administrative
actors than in other fields of European integration. This is mainly due to
the specific mix of administrative and judicial governance that characterises
these fields. The impact of judicial decision making, occasionally considered
a mere `fine-tuning' for other policies, is central not only to the direction
policy will take but also to its legitimacy. The institutional balance within the
policy area raises questions of legal character, like ­ for instance ­ concerns
about the appropriate division of power between executive and ...