The Frontiers of Governance: Understanding the External Dimension of EU Justice and Home Affairs

Abstract

In this chapter, I offer conceptual resources for understanding the content and rationales of the external dimension of EU Justice and Home Affairs (ED-JHA).¹ This is not an easy fix, however. From the outset, indeed, my task is complicated by the fact that there is an extraordinary variety of approaches which are assumed, or pretend to bear on the ED -JHA (compare Kelley, 2006; Wolff, 2008; Schimmelfennig and Sedelmeier, 2004; Lavenex, 2004; Del Sarto and Schumacher, 2005; Friis and Murphy, 1999). Theoretically, moreover, confusion arises because ED -JHA is not always carefully distinguished from EU foreign policy (but exceptions include Smith and Webber, 2008; Emerson, 2004). In fact, although the ED-JHA is often treated as an instrument of EU external policy, it is best thought of as a distinctive policy, with its own raison d’être and mechanisms (cf. Christiansen et al., 2000; Balzacq, 2007; Kaunert, 2005; Smith, 2006; Guild and Van Selm, 2005; Gil-Bazo, 2006; Cremona, 2004; Monar, 2000; Mounier et al., 2007). Finally, the literature in this field is growing so fast that the first challenge that confronts students is to sort out, within limits, the central features of the ED-JHA. In this light, I submit, a framework which specifies the substance and the logic of the ED-JHA is very much required. This is what I do here.