This will be done:
1) by searching for different modes of legalization and de-legalization: constitutional changes resulting from a treaty revision; legislative changes depending on the adoption of secondary law; judicial changes due to an interpretation of the CJEU (when the court takes soft law into account in its case-law) and / or national courts. For each case study, we will identify the ways and means of norms transformation, through the study of official documents.
2) by looking at the causal factors explaining legalization and de-legalization. Four potential explanations will be tested: the impact of crisis (is the occurrence of an –internal or external crisis- the main driving factor for normative changes?); the weak implementation of norms (are changes due to a malfunctioning of an existing norm? or, on the contrary, does it occur when norms are correctly implemented?); consensus among the member states; consensus among EU institutions more generally. Testing the hypotheses will require a series of interviews with EU officials in Brussels.
The case selection is based on three arguments: 1°) the cases cover different categories of norms (soft/hard); 2°) they offer a combination of change and continuity; 3°) they have been affected by different crises (refugee crisis, crisis over Iraq, terrorist attacks, economic and financial crisis).
