Richard Frensch (Regensburg)
Recent EU Association Agreements, concluded with Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, are steps towards deeper liberalization to foster trade and encourage welfare gains from more trade. Of course, there is also much implicit hope that more trade will pave the way for better institutional arrangements to secure gains from trade, i.e., to positively impact the quality of those countries’ domestic, especially legal, institutions, as usually summarized by the Rule of Law.