Is Schengen scalable? : disconnection, decontextualisation and the pragmatics of EU law
| dc.contributor.author | DOYLE, Thomas Finn | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-02-05T15:21:04Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-02-05T15:21:04Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2024 | |
| dc.description | Award date: 27 November 2024 | en |
| dc.description | Supervisor: Prof. Loïc Azoulai (European University Institute) | en |
| dc.description.abstract | Against a background of growing awareness of the strains and inconsistencies associated with application of the Schengen framework, this dissertation sets out to examine whether Schengen law is ‘scalable’. Drawing on Tsing’s conception of scalability as a property which allows entities to remain the same as they enlarge, it examines the role played by processes of harmonisation and by strategies of decontextualization in facilitating and enabling scalability of the Schengen regime. It also investigates the CJEU’s ‘way of seeing.’ Findings indicate that such aspects of Schengen law as the rigid, technical and decontextualised way that the rules are expressed appear designed for scalability. But designing for scalability is not the same as achieving it in practice and, based on examples including especially a case study of the Franco-Italian border area, this study finds that, in practice, intervening factors (geography, timing and actors) influence the application of law at ground level. Building on earlier work by scholars including Thym and Moreno-Lax, I argue that key to how Schengen sidesteps potentially de-stabilising frictions is through its reliance on vague wording which creates strategic ambiguity. While this has helped ensure the durability of Schengen, the ensuing problem which enmires the Schengen area is inconsistency in how the rules are applied. In arguing that Schengen’s in-built spatial blindness is consequential in relation to both the integrity of the law and its effects, this study underlines the positive value of adopting spatial perspectives when it comes to legal analysis. I argue that in order for a legal system to be scalable it appears it needs to be composed of both stable and flexible elements. Schengen conforms with this and has expanded progressively but, on account of the diverging spatial and temporal circumstances of the part of member states, greater scale has accentuated the strains, tensions and, as critics would argue, injustices that have necessitated ongoing reforms. This builds on scholarship in other disciplines, such as in political science Dahl’s ‘scale-community dilemma’, which suggests that deficiencies and tensions are an inherent feature of large-scale regimes. | en |
| dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | en |
| dc.identifier.citation | Florence : European University Institute, 2024 | en |
| dc.identifier.doi | 10.2870/1862759 | en |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1814/77960 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en |
| dc.orcid.upload | false | * |
| dc.publisher | European University Institute | en |
| dc.relation.ispartofseries | EUI | en |
| dc.relation.ispartofseries | LAW | en |
| dc.relation.ispartofseries | LLM Thesis | en |
| dc.rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess | en |
| dc.title | Is Schengen scalable? : disconnection, decontextualisation and the pragmatics of EU law | en |
| dc.type | Thesis | en |
| dspace.entity.type | Publication | |
| eui.subscribe.skip | true | |
| person.identifier.other | 53093 | |
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