ABSTRACT
This chapter describes evasion in the context of German environmental policy of the 1980s and 1990s. Evasion as defines both an empirical phenomenon and an analytical lens. The term negative integration means the abolition of all barriers to trade within the Community and is based on Articles 34 and 36 of the European Union (EU) Treaty and its interpretation by the European Court of Justice. The specific German type of voluntary agreements takes the form of unilateral voluntary self-obligations by business – albeit they are the result of bilateral negotiations. Once the analytical lens of evasion becomes more common, more cases of evasion will be revealed. We can expect evasion to occur only in those fields in which negative integration plays a major role while containing little positive integration. Evasion is a phenomenon that can occur only in multi-level systems when free-trade norms at higher levels severely restrict the ability to act at lower levels.
