IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/erp/euirsc/p0081.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Evolution of Asylum Legislation in the EU: Insights from Regulatory Competition Theory

Author

Listed:
  • Ségolène Barbou des Places

Abstract

The paper proposes to use regulatory competition theory in order to better understand the evolution of the EU member States' asylum legislation. It argues that regulatory competition theory can explain the rapid trend of legislative amendments from the mid-80's onwards, the progressive yet incomplete convergence of the EU member States' legislation, and the spiral of restrictions of legal norms originally enacted to protect asylum seekers. Competition among legal norms also explains EU Member States' reticence to collaborate and share the burden. The first argument of the paper is that a phenomenon of competition developed because Member States were convinced that generous asylum policies would be a pull factor for asylum seekers. They feared that regulatory arbitrage (i.e. asylum shopping) would lead asylum seekers to select their destination State on the basis of the level of protection offered. States have entered into a process of de-regulation and, because of their interdependence, national measures have become instruments of a general race to externalise. The result has turned out to be negative and corresponds to a 'race-to-the-bottom'. This negative result can be observed at two levels : competition was detrimental to both asylum seekers and States; the rules enacted were suboptimal.The paper then explains why the first cooperation instruments introduced at the end of the 80's and onwards have failed to meet their objective. The effects of cooperation schemes like the Dublin Convention or burden sharing projects are negligible and there was no shift from costly and unilateral aylum policies towards fairer and more efficient collective action. It is an example of cooperation in the shadow of competition.Finally the paper evaluates the communautarisation of the competence to act in the field of asylum. It is unlikely to permit the emergence of a federal and centralised regulation able to change the nature of the game. In conclusion, the paper seeks to assess if a good combination of cooperation and competition is likely to produce 'good' asylum policy in Europe and investigates the 'co-opetition' model promoted by Esty and Gerardin.

Suggested Citation

  • Ségolène Barbou des Places, 2003. "Evolution of Asylum Legislation in the EU: Insights from Regulatory Competition Theory," EUI-RSCAS Working Papers 16, European University Institute (EUI), Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies (RSCAS).
  • Handle: RePEc:erp:euirsc:p0081
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.eui.eu/ERPA/RSCAS/../../RSCAS/WP-Texts/03_16.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: http://www.eui.eu/ERPA/RSCAS/../../RSCAS/WP-Texts/03_16.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gatsios, Konstantine & Seabright, Paul, 1989. "Regulation in the European Community," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 5(2), pages 37-60, Summer.
    2. Brennan,Geoffrey & Buchanan,James M., 2006. "The Power to Tax," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521027922, September.
    3. Jeanne‐Mey Sun & Jacques Pelkmans, 1995. "Regulatory Competition in the Single Market," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(1), pages 67-89, March.
    4. Simon Deakin, 2000. "Regulatory Competition Versus Harmonisation in European Company Law," Working Papers wp163, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    5. Virginie Guiraudon, 2000. "European Integration and Migration Policy: Vertical Policy‐making as Venue Shopping," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 251-271, June.
    6. Romano, Roberta, 1985. "Law as a Product: Some Pieces of the Incorporation Puzzle," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 1(2), pages 225-283, Fall.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Veshi Denard, 2020. "The EU Regulatory Competition in Asylum Law," Central European Journal of Public Policy, Sciendo, vol. 14(1), pages 19-30, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lars P. Feld, 2006. "Regulatory Competition and Federalism in Switzerland: Diffusion by Horizontal and Vertical Interaction," CREMA Working Paper Series 2006-22, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    2. Lars P. Feld & Wolfgang Kerber, 2006. "Mehr-Ebenen Jurisdiktionssysteme: Zur variablen Architektur von Integration," Marburg Working Papers on Economics 200605, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    3. Hans-Günter Krüsselberg, 2005. "Milton Friedman und der Wissenschaftliche Beirat für Familienfragen Elternkompetenz und Anteilscheine am Schulbudget – Gedanken über Reformpotenziale," Marburg Working Papers on Economics 200506, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    4. Wolfgang Kerber & Oliver Budzinski, "undated". "Towards a Differentiated Analysis of Competition of Competition Laws," German Working Papers in Law and Economics 2004-1-1090, Berkeley Electronic Press.
    5. Wolfgang Kerber, 2003. "Wettbewerbsföderalismus als Integrationskonzept für die Europäische Union," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 4(1), pages 43-64, February.
    6. Lars P. Feld & Ekkehard A. Köhler & Leonardo Palhuca & Christoph A. Schaltegger, 2021. "Federalism and Foreign Direct Investment - An Empirical Analysis," CESifo Working Paper Series 9120, CESifo.
    7. Lars P. Feld & Ekkehard A. Köhler & Leonardo Palhuca & Christoph A. Schaltegger, 2024. "Fiscal federalism and foreign direct investment – An empirical analysis," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(6), pages 2287-2331, June.
    8. Yingyi Qian & Barry R. Weingast, 1997. "Federalism as a Commitment to Reserving Market Incentives," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 11(4), pages 83-92, Fall.
    9. Wolfgang Kerber & Stefan Grundmann, 2006. "An optional European contract law code: Advantages and disadvantages," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 215-236, May.
    10. des Places, Segolene Barbou & Deffains, Bruno, 2003. "Cooperation in the shadow of regulatory competition: the case of asylum legislation in Europe," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 345-364, December.
    11. Klaus Heine & Wolfgang Kerber, 2002. "European Corporate Laws, Regulatory Competition and Path Dependence," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 47-71, January.
    12. Alessandra Arcuri & Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci, 2010. "Centralization versus Decentralization as a Risk-Return Trade-Off," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 53(2), pages 359-378, May.
    13. Tanja Börzel, 2010. "European Governance: Negotiation and Competition in the Shadow of Hierarchy," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(2), pages 191-219, March.
    14. Kessing, Sebastian G. & Konrad, Kai A. & Kotsogiannis, Christos, 2006. "Federal tax autonomy and the limits of cooperation," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 317-329, March.
    15. Dwight Lee, 1985. "Reverse revenue sharing: A modest proposal," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 45(3), pages 279-289, January.
    16. Bryan Caplan & Edward Stringham, 2005. "Mises, bastiat, public opinion, and public choice," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(1), pages 79-105.
    17. Francisco de Castro, 2006. "The macroeconomic effects of fiscal policy in Spain," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(8), pages 913-924.
    18. Cao, Chunfang & Li, Xiaoyang & Xia, Changyuan, 2021. "The complicit role of local government authorities in corporate bribery: Evidence from a tax collection reform in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    19. Zodrow, George R, 2003. "Tax Competition and Tax Coordination in the European Union," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 10(6), pages 651-671, November.
    20. Ribstein Larry E., 2005. "Cross-Listing and Regulatory Competition," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 1(1), pages 97-148, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:erp:euirsc:p0081. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Valerio PAPPALARDO (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rsiueit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.