After the Lisbon Treaty, policy-making in the EU has become more complex on the one hand and more transparent on the other, involving more state and non-state actors. At the same time, certain policy areas are experiencing a political boom and are the occasion to discuss the meaning, purpose and outcome of integration. The seminar will therefore discuss how policy-making in the multi-level system of the EU takes place in the field of rule of law and how much influence non-state actors such as NGOs or social movements can exert. At the same time, the role of other actors that are less in the focus of the interested public, such as EU agencies or the ECJ in particular, and how much steering is still done by nation-state actors at the intergovernmental level, will be considered. On the basis of relevant literature, these questions are discussed in a theory-based manner and examined in case studies on various policy processes. close