This article provides a framework for analysing resistance to norms in the European Union. It argues on the one hand that the development of EU governance makes it necessary to systematically study resistances to EU norms beyond the current concentration on non-compliance with legal norms. On the other hand it develops a typology of the instruments of resistance used by domestic actors to object to the implementation of EU norms. Based on a systematic analysis of case studies stemming from both legal and political science literature, the paper will show that resistances to EU norms have a long history in the EU. We will first analyse the forms of resistance to hard law based on the widespread secondary literature available. This will then be compared to areas in which soft law reigns, with a view to demonstrate that soft law triggers as much resistance as hard law. Based on this empirical data and using a policy instruments approach, the paper develops a typology of instruments used by domestic actors to circumvent or to resist European norms. This allows for establishing possible causalities between the political context, norms and types of resistances.
