Europe has largely been absent from the US-dominated debate surrounding the introduction of nudge-type interventions in policy-making. Yet the European Union and some of its Member States are exploring the possibility of informing their policy action with behavioural insights. While a great deal...

This article examines what difference – if any – the renewed EU Better Regulation Agenda has made for the EU Commission in terms of its own accountability and policy outcomes. Emboldened by the Spitzenkandidaten process – which established for the first time a link between the outcome of...

This chapter provides a detailed analysis of the economic, legal and public policy rationales for the application of taxes and other fiscal measures on health-related commodities. The motivation for such taxes has been more often linked to the fiscal revenues generated than to their potential...

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) presents an historic opportunity for the European Union and the United States to remove regulatory divergence – today's most prominent obstacle to trade exchanges –, thereby increasing economic growth for the citizens of both...

In line with the principle of separation of powers, policy makers and courts have very different jobs. Yet, their respective inputs to the fabrics of government are not totally exclusive but complementary to one another: the output of the former's work, i.e. regulation, is subject to the...

This article aims at exploring the interactions that may arise from the European institutions' increasing reliance on ex ante evaluation mechanisms of proposed legislation, such as Impact Assessment (IA), and ex post judicial review of adopted legislation. IA, the privileged ex ante evaluation...