3 The EEA – a distinct legal order, but not of its own
I have tried do demonstrate that the EEA legal order, distinct as it may be, is not a legal order of its own in the sense that that it exists more or less independently of other legal orders. The raison d’etre of the EEA legal order is to reproduce and extend outcomes of another legal order – the EU legal order. Moreover, the effects of the EEA legal order are totally dependent on characteristics of the legal orders of the signatories to the agreement which constitutes it.
If the EEA legal order, distinct as it may be, is to be given any label, it should probably be that of a reflective community of law: reflective both because it reflects the substantial provisions of another legal order, the EU legal order, and because its effect within the legal orders of the signatories is a reflection of those legal orders.
Thus, the EEA may be a distinct legal order, but it is not a legal order of its own.