About the project
Norway has entered into a number of agreements with the EU outside the EEA Agreement, including on the surrender of offenders, association with the Schengen cooperation, and participation in the EU asylum system. The project examines the significance of the EEA Agreement for how these other agreements are interpreted.
The Court of Justice of the EU and the EFTA Court have in several judgments held that Norway has a 'special relationship' with the EU that sets it apart from other third states. The assessment rests on Norway’s participation, through the EEA Agreement, in the European area without internal borders and its adoption of the four freedoms. This has, for example, affected the threshold that applies when Norwegian authorities assess whether a person may be surrendered to or from an EU member state.
The project maps and systematises this case law, and examines what it means for the relationship between the EEA Agreement and Norway’s other agreements with the EU – and for the question of whether the EEA Agreement can still be understood as a distinct legal order.
Goals
The project aims to:
- map how the Court of Justice of the EU and the EFTA Court have reasoned and applied the “special relationship” assessment in cases concerning surrender, Schengen and other areas of cooperation
- clarify the status as a source of law of Norway’s other agreements with the EU, and how they relate to the EEA Agreement
- assess the consequences for the goal of uniform interpretation (homogeneity) between EEA law and EU law
- contribute to an updated understanding of the EEA Agreement’s character as a distinct legal order, and whether this description still holds
Methodologically, the project draws on the standard legal-dogmatic method, involving a systematic review and analysis of judgments from the Court of Justice of the EU, the EFTA Court and the Norwegian Supreme Court, read together with principles of treaty interpretation and legal literature.