Legislative Approximation and Application of EU Law in Belarus : ‘Backdoor’ Approximation

Unlike other Eastern Partnership countries, Belarus has never committed itself to legislative approximation with EU law. It is also hard to expect this process to take place given the weak legal framework and complicated history of EU-Belarus relations. Surprisingly, approximation is taking places to some degree, primarily indirectly via the means of other legal systems — ‘backdoor' approximation. This paper argues that there are at least two ways of such approximation: via participation in the process of Eurasian integration and via legislative alignment with trade partners, e.g. Russia