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The evolution of European legal integration

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Abstract

This article contributes to the development of theories on European integration by testing and exploring statistical models on the long-term development of legislative activity of the European Commission. Drawing on legal information gained from the European Union’s PreLex database and analyzing it with the help of statistical analyses, we map out growth patterns of EU law between 1976 and 2003. We construct time-series models and models based on non-linear regression. While the performance of models based on the traditional theoretical approaches, intergovernmentalism and neo-functionalism, is rather poor, the analysis suggests that nonlinear dynamic models might be an interesting avenue for future conceptualizations of the EU integration process.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Politics and International Relations, University Park, NG7 2RD, UK

    Torsten J. Selck

  2. Swedish Institute of International Affairs, Drottning Kristinas väg 37, Box 27035, Stockholm, 102 51, Sweden

    Mark Rhinard

  3. Department of Public Administration, P.O. Box 9555, Leiden, 2300 RB, The Netherlands

    Frank M. Häge

Authors
  1. Torsten J. Selck
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  2. Mark Rhinard
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  3. Frank M. Häge
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Torsten J. Selck.

Additional information

This article is based on a paper presented at the ECPR Standing Group on the European Union Second Pan-European Conference on EU Politics, “Implications of a Wider Europe: Politics, Institutions and Diversity”, 24–26 June 2004, Bologna, Italy. We would like to thank the seminar participants for useful comments.

Appendix

Appendix

The ELI data set*

Year

Number of documents

Intra-EU trade volume in goods

1976

494

12.6

1977

660

12.6

1978

585

12.4

1979

653

13.4

1980

905

13.3

1981

732

13.1

1982

685

13.5

1983

619

13.7

1984

1066

14.5

1985

1200

14.9

1986

1319

13.5

1987

1234

14.1

1988

1279

14.2

1989

1125

14.9

1990

1287

14.5

1991

1250

13.8

1992

1332

13.4

1993

1404

12.6

1994

1203

13.6

1995

1291

14.5

1996

1467

14.6

1997

1422

15.5

1998

1597

15.4

1999

1566

15.6

2000

1555

16.9

2001

1619

16.9

2002

1465

16.3

2003

1445

16.7

  1. * The observations for the analysis in this article are years

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Selck, T.J., Rhinard, M. & Häge, F.M. The evolution of European legal integration. Eur J Law Econ 24, 187–200 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10657-007-9024-8

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