Slippery as an Eel. An analysis of the European Union's Eel Regulation Framework

Sammanfattning: This thesis uses an evaluative approach to analyse the European Union’s Eel Regulation Framework (ERF). By using theories on both legitimacy and posthumanism, the aim of the study is to answer the question of in which ways the ERF can be considered legitimate with both human and non-human stakeholders in mind. As environmental issues and biodiversity loss become increasingly severe, there is an urgent need for legislation that is both legitimate, effective, and able to meet the interests and needs of humans and other species alike. Through Qualitative Content Analysis a coding frame, based on dimensions of input and output legitimacy as well as posthumanism, is used to analyse several documents connected to the creation and evaluation of the ERF. The results show that the ERF cannot be considered legitimate with any stakeholders in mind, as there is a deficiency of all theoretical dimensions in the analysed documents. However, the use of concepts from both legitimacy theory and posthumanism is able to offer a new perspective that is a step forward in the field of biodiversity governance.