ABSTRACT

This paper starts from the premise that argumentation in EU (Commission) soft law instruments is essential for their effectiveness, mainly due to its function to persuade addressees as a means to enhance compliance. Notwithstanding their importance in the EU legal-political landscape, the problem is how to ensure that these instruments devoid of formal legally binding force can function as effective governance tools by convincing addressees to comply, particularly during crisis periods such as the Covid-19 crisis, when fast and effective action is urgently needed. By pointing at a number of significant legal problems and concerns deriving from the Commission’s ‘hardened’ soft law instruments, we suggest a normative approach focusing on the potential of EU soft law instruments to act as highly persuasive tools. By making the instruments’ argumentation a core concern, we examine its role as a means to improve the intrinsic quality of EU (Commission) soft law and to foster effective compliance. To this end, we propose a theoretical-analytical framework combining insights from law and argumentation theory, that puts forward an argumentative toolbox for the analysis and assessment of EU (Commission) soft law instruments. This toolbox comprises four argumentative parameters that need to be taken into account in the drafting and evaluation of EU (Commission) soft law instruments: (1) the content of the argumentation, (2) the design of the arguments pointing at persuasive suggestions for cooperation, (3) the factors influencing argumentative effectiveness, and (4) the soundness of argumentation.

摘要

本文从这样一个前提出发，即欧盟（委员会）软法律文书中的论证对其有效性至关重要，主要是因为它的作用是说服收件人作为增强合规性的一种手段。尽管它们在欧盟法律政治环境中很重要，但问题是如何确保这些没有正式法律约束力的工具可以通过说服收件人遵守，特别是在 Covid-19 危机等危机时期，作为有效的治理工具，当迫切需要快速有效的行动时。通过指出来自委员会“强化”软法律文书的一些重大法律问题和担忧，我们建议采用一种规范方法，重点关注欧盟软法律文书作为具有高度说服力的工具的潜力。通过将文书的论证作为核心关注点，我们检验了其作为提高欧盟（委员会）软法的内在质量和促进有效合规的手段的作用。为此，我们提出了一个结合法律和论证理论的理论分析框架，为欧盟（委员会）软法律文书的分析和评估提供了一个论证工具箱。该工具箱包含在起草和评估欧盟（委员会）软法律文书时需要考虑的四个参数：（1）这为分析和评估欧盟（委员会）软法律文书提出了一个论证工具箱。该工具箱包含在起草和评估欧盟（委员会）软法律文书时需要考虑的四个参数：（1）这为分析和评估欧盟（委员会）软法律文书提出了一个论证工具箱。该工具箱包含在起草和评估欧盟（委员会）软法律文书时需要考虑的四个参数：（1）论证的内容，（2）针对有说服力的合作建议的论证设计，（3）影响论证有效性的因素，以及（4）论证的合理性。