Chapter 1. Introduction legal instruments give to administration, registration and identification in nationality matters is contemplated on throughout this book. 1.4.4. EUROPEAN LAWMAKING AND EUROPEAN LAW In this study, the term ‘European law’ is used to refer to legal instruments of the CoE and the EU. This may seem surprising, as the CoE and the EU engage in lawmaking in two different contexts and differ in legal character. The CoE is a European intergovernmental organization and forum of inter-state cooperation. The CoE’s main legal(ly binding) instruments consist of treaties, but also include other (more political and non-legally binding) forms of standard setting, as is considered also below. The CoE treaties, however, should be ratified by the CoE member states before they have legal effect for the state concerned. As such, the power of this organization to create binding laws is limited. The EU is also an international organization that allows for state cooperation, but has grown into a supranational entity. Not only the EU treaties are relevant legal instruments of this organization, but also its regulations and directives are, for instance, important legislative acts that are generally immediately legally binding on the member states: states do not need to accede to such instruments. The EU has produced a legal order in the treaties and further case law, which is an extension of national legal orders of its member states. As such the influence of the EU on national law is very direct, whereas the (legal) impact of the CoE is more indirect. In view of this, the two frameworks of the CoE and the EU may therefore not be easily compared. Both organizations engage in European lawmaking though – they create and adopt legal instruments (of a legally binding and non-binding nature) that have an effect beyond the individual state, at a European regional level. Furthermore, the CoE and the EU provide an important source of law in Europe, both drawing on a range of European legal traditions and thereby having a unifying effect on law in the region.94 Moreover, they both legislate on fundamental rights, which is the key analytical perspective taken in this research, which can help to overcome these differences and is explained further in paragraph 1.5.3. European law is often used to refer to EU law only. However, European law has on different occasions been defined more broadly. The CoE itself, for instance, has defined European law as follows: “The law governing the structure, organs and functioning of the Council of Europe and other European organizations or institutions; further the law contained in the conventions and agreements of the Council of Europe and instruments of other European organizations or institutions”.95 94 95 Paolo Carozza, ‘European Law’ in Encyclopedia Britannica <https://www.britannica.com/topic/ European-law#ref992078> accessed 22 August 2021. Quoted in Frits Hondius, ‘The New Architecture of Europe and Ius Commune Europeum’ in Bruno de Witte & Caroline Forder (eds), The Common Law of Europe and the Future of Legal Education (Metro/ Intersentia 25