Legal uncertainty may hinder the effective implementation of public policies. Still, the political and legal dynamics that underpin its persistence are underexplored. This article proposes that legal uncertainty is more likely to persist in multi-level political and legal systems where actors with authority on the same issue hold different interpretations of rules. Also, it suggests that, under these conditions, actors can use legal uncertainty as an opportunity to advance their own interests. We illustrate this argument by investigating the legal uncertainty concerning EU citizens’ access to social benefits in Germany. Through the analysis of social legislation and courts’ rulings, the article shows that different interpretations of EU law by domestic actors hindered the possibilities of settling uncertainty: national courts of different levels used litigation processes and referrals to the Court of Justice of the European Union to advance their legal interpretations and the German government profited from the uncertainty to exclude EU citizens from social benefits.

中文翻译：

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欧盟公民在德国获得社会福利的法律不确定性持续存在

法律的不确定性可能会阻碍公共政策的有效实施。尽管如此，支撑其持续存在的政治和法律动力仍未得到充分探索。本文提出，法律不确定性更有可能持续存在于多层次的政治和法律体系中，在这些体系中，在同一问题上具有权威的行为者对规则持有不同的解释。此外，它表明，在这些条件下，参与者可以利用法律不确定性作为提升自身利益的机会。我们通过调查有关欧盟公民在德国获得社会福利的法律不确定性来说明这一论点。通过对社会立法和法院裁决的分析，文章表明国内行为者对欧盟法律的不同解释阻碍了解决不确定性的可能性：