Regulating migration: authority delegation in justice and home affairs

Abstract The aim of this article is to develop a new theoretical model which explains the regulation of migration policies in the European Union (EU). While spillover effects from market integration have traditionally been seen as the primary reason for this process, this article will show that this model has serious shortcomings. It fails to explain the reason why specific institutions and procedures were established to deal with migration policies at the EU level during different periods of European integration. This article will use a neo-institutionalist perspective on the study of EU migration policies and argue that regulation and principal-agent theories provide a framework able to explain the institutionalization in this policy area. Insights from these two theories will then be applied in order to account for the ways and means in which migration policies have been dealt with at the EU level from the Treaty of Rome to the Amsterdam Treaty. Keywords: Amsterdam TreatyEuropean UnionInternational Prisoners' DilemmaMigration PoliciesPrincipal-agent TheoryRegulation