Administrative Law Beyond the State: Participation at the Intersection of Legal Systems

This chapter assesses, on a first approach, the impact that the reception of international or global norms by European Union (EU) law may have on participation opportunities and guarantees that would otherwise be granted to private persons at the EU level. The analysis is premised, inter alia, on the assumption that the varied forms of interaction between the European and international or global regulatory regimes intertwine procedures developed at different regulatory levels and may lead to unitary outcomes. This may require a unitary conception of the procedure when procedural guarantees – in this case participation – are at stake. The difficulties in securing participation in the realm of, in fact, intertwined procedures are explained. Three different types of interaction between international regulatory regimes and the EU legal order – direct reception, reception filtered by EU procedures specifically created for this purpose, reception following existing EU procedures – elucidate how the possible impacts of this interaction between legal systems on EU participation rules and practices may operate. This chapter concludes that the impact interactions between legal systems may have on participation is not sufficiently accounted for in EU law. The reception of rules and decisions adopted by international bodies in EU law entails risks to the very purpose of EU participation procedures. It may devoid them of sense or, at least, hinder their effectiveness. As a result, and given that procedural standards may be less developed in the international and global arena, the values and rationales of participation as endorsed in EU procedures may be compromised.