Enhancing access to EU law : why bother?

Abstract

This contribution 'Enhancing access to EU law: Why bother?' was published in the book 'ESCB Legal Conference 2020 and is written by Dimiter Toshkov, Associate Professor at the Institute of Public Administration. It argues that by charting and analysing the evolution of the body of EU law over time, we can understand better the nature and development of the EU as a political system. The text examines the legislative productivity of the EU over the past 15 years as an illustration. Further, it showcases recent examples of the use of novel data-analytic techniques to analyse the body of EU law for the purposes of understanding the EU legal system, the institutions, and the polity that produced the legal acts. The contribution concludes by arguing that it is important to transmit basic facts and insights about the evolution of EU law and law-making to the general public as well, in order to counter the threat of Euroscepticism and perceptions of democratic deficit in the EU.