What Determines National Convergence of EU Law? Measuring the Implementation of Consumer Sales Law,

Goanta, Catalina; Siems, Mathias

Abstract

Harmonisation and legal convergence are core tasks of the European Union. This article explores the question about the determinants for national convergence of EU law, specifically applied to the ever-growing body of European consumer sales law. The measurement of national convergence is based on a unique coding of five directives in seven Member States. Using the fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) method, the article finds that differences in national convergence can partly be explained by favourable features of the corresponding directives; however, mainly, they are the result of a combination of domestic political factors and, to a lesser extent, the country characteristics. This has important policy implications, for instance, on the need to ‘bring in politics’ in the debate about convergence, harmonisation and consumer sales law.

Citation

Goanta, C., & Siems, M. (2019). What Determines National Convergence of EU Law? Measuring the Implementation of Consumer Sales Law,. Legal Studies, 39(4), 714-734. https://doi.org/10.1017/lst.2019.8

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Sep 6, 2019
• Publication Date: Dec 31, 2019
• Deposit Date: Aug 1, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 1, 2019
• Journal: Legal Studies
• Print ISSN: 0261-3875
• Electronic ISSN: 1748-121X
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 39
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 714-734
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/lst.2019.8
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1296917