Book excerpt: In The EU-Ukraine Association Agreement and Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area, Guillaume Van der Loo provides the first comprehensive legal analysis of this complex and controversial international agreement. While key political and legal hurdles towards the signing and conclusion of this agreement are analysed, its scope and contents are scrutinised and contrasted to other international agreements concluded by the EU. Specific attention is devoted to the ambitious “deep and comprehensive free trade area” and the unique provisions related to Ukraine’s approximation to the EU acquis. In particular, this book explores to what extent the agreement can be considered a new legal instrument for ‘EU integration without membership’.