Evropeizace českých zákonů 1998-2013: Empirické údaje o míře vlivu práva EU a dopadech na legislativní proces
Europeanisation of Czech Laws between 1998-2013: Empirical Evaluation of EU Law Influence and Impact on the Legislative Process

Summary/Abstract: Europeanisation affects almost all aspects of social relations in the EU Member States and law is no exception. Yet we still know quite little about the overall extent of EU influence on Czech legal order, also because the research concentrates on more particular issues. This article presents results of a long-term empirical research that collected data on EU impulses on all bills submitted to the Chamber of Deputies between 1998 and 2013. After discussing methodology and data sources, the overall impact of EU law on Czech bills is determined through various innovative methods. Across them, it was found out that the influence is relatively stable after the accession, but varies profoundly between different thematic fields. The second part of the article explores the divergences between bills based on their level of Europeanization, namely in selected features of the legislative process and content of the proposal. A central hypothesis predicting lower involvement of Members of Parliaments in the case of Europeanized proposals is tested. The quantitative analysis offers inconclusive results, in some variables the differences are clearly visible (success rate of EU affected bills, length of plenary discussions), in others there is almost no variance (duration of the legislative process, voting results).

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