ABSTRACT
Well over a decade after the September 2001 (9/11) terrorist attacks, there are many EU–US justice and home affairs (JHA) agreements in force and under development. Transatlantic JHA cooperation has had a vibrant agenda during this period, in particular in the area of law enforcement. It is arguably one of the most active fields of EU–US cooperation and, as a result, the focus of consideration here. They have variable degrees of success or failure and comprise public and private spheres, variable actors and activities. JHA lawmaking continues to evolve through widening and deepening, and indeed now autonomously sets a global agenda to some extent. While the relationship between the EU and USA is conventionally viewed as a ‘law-light’ and ‘institutionally light’ scientific entity and historically (Pollack 2005), JHA cooperation is in some senses quite law dependent albeit still sharing many of the characteristics of other areas of transatlantic cooperation.
