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One of the essential characteristics of framework directives, a growing phenomenon in the EU, is that what the law actually says can only be known after it has been fleshed out in implementation. Little attention has been paid to the consequences that this entails for the courts and legal theories of interpretation. Focusing on the EU Water Framework Directive and early rulings, this article first argues that adjudicating on framework directives is complicated and attempts by the European Court of Justice to apply the Inter-Environnement Wallonie doctrine to framework directives fail. The article then proceeds to suggest a new approach to legal interpretation: when adjudicating on framework legislation, the courts should acknowledge administrative reasoning. This is a form of reasoning that embodies the development of framework directives by multiple actors in the form of soft law guidance. Its use by the courts requires clarification of the unclear legal authority of guidance, and the article concludes by discussing early judicial steps in this direction.
