Recent constitutional thinking has directed its attention to the profound impact of ‘soft’ norms on the way legislation is made. This book identifies the European Union’s impact assessment regime as a source of these norms. In 2002 the European Commission – later followed by the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers – committed to performing rigorous assessment of the economic, social and environmental impacts of policy options before adopting (legislative) proposals.
Applying a ‘constitutional lens’ to this ‘regulatory’ topic, Anne Meuwese examines both the details and the framework of IA in EU lawmaking to date, drawing attention to its strengths, its contradictions, and its power to enhance the deliberative quality of legislative debates.
Integrating the perspectives of political scientists and economists with the concerns of legal scholars and practitioners, Dr Meuwese describes and interrelates such aspects of the subject as the following:-
Impact Assessment in EU Lawmaking is a significant milestone in a number of emerging legal debates around Europe’s constitutional future , accountability regimes, ‘meta-regulation,’ and the growing awareness of de facto binding norms. Its vital implications reach far into the future, not only for EU legislation but for the entire field of constitutional law as it adapts to prevailing structures of public power everywhere
