This monograph explores the connections between the European Union and international dispute settlement. It highlights the legal challenges faced by the principal players in the field: namely the EU as a political actor and the Court of Justice of the EU as an international and domestic judiciary. In addition, it places the subject in its broader context of international dispute settlement, and the participation of the EU and its Member States in international disputes. It focuses on horizontal and cross-cutting themes, bringing together insights from the different sectors of trade, investment and human rights, and offering a variety of perspectives from academics, policymakers and practitioners.

This edited collection appraises the role, self-perception, reasoning and impact of the European Court of Justice on the development of European Union (EU) external relations law. Against the background of the recent recasting of the EU Treaties by the Treaty of Lisbon and at a time when questions arise over the character of the Court's judicial reasoning and the effect of international legal obligations in its case law, it discusses the contribution of the Court to the formation of the EU as an international actor and the development of EU external relations law, and the constitutional challenges the Court faces in this context. To what extent does the position of the Court contribute to a specific conception of the EU? How does the EU's constitutional order, as interpreted by the Court, shape its external relations? The Court still has only limited jurisdiction over the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy: why has this decision been taken, and what are its implications? And what is the Court's own view of the relationship between court(s) and foreign policy, and of its own relationship with other international courts? The contributions to this volume show that the Court's influence over EU external relations derives first from its ability to shape and define the external competence of the EU and resulting constraints on the Member States, and second from its insistence on the autonomy of the EU legal order and its role as 'gatekeeper' to the entry and effect of international law into the EU system. It has not - in the external domain - overtly exerted influence through shaping substantive policy, as it has, for example, in relation to the internal market. Nevertheless the rather 'legalised' nature of EU external relations and the significance of the EU's international legal commitments mean that the role of the Court of Justice is more central than that of a national court with respect to the foreign policy of a nation state. And of course its decisions can nonetheless be highly political.

This edited collection appraises the role, self-perception, reasoning and impact of the European Court of Justice on the development of European Union (EU) external relations law. Against the background of the recent recasting of the EU Treaties by the Treaty of Lisbon and at a time when questions arise over the character of the Court's judicial reasoning and the effect of international legal obligations in its case law, it discusses the contribution of the Court to the formation of the EU as an international actor and the development of EU external relations law, and the constitutional challenges the Court faces in this context. To what extent does the position of the Court contribute to a specific conception of the EU? How does the EU's constitutional order, as interpreted by the Court, shape its external relations? The Court still has only limited jurisdiction over the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy: why has this decision been taken, and what are its implications? And what is the Court's own view of the relationship between court(s) and foreign policy, and of its own relationship with other international courts? The contributions to this volume show that the Court's influence over EU external relations derives first from its ability to shape and define the external competence of the EU and resulting constraints on the Member States, and second from its insistence on the autonomy of the EU legal order and its role as 'gatekeeper' to the entry and effect of international law into the EU system. It has not - in the external domain - overtly exerted influence through shaping substantive policy, as it has, for example, in relation to the internal market. Nevertheless the rather 'legalised' nature of EU external relations and the significance of the EU's international legal commitments mean that the role of the Court of Justice is more central than that of a national court with respect to the foreign policy of a nation state. And of course its decisions can nonetheless be highly political.

This monograph explores the connections between the European Union and international dispute settlement. It highlights the legal challenges faced by the principal players in the field: namely the EU as a political actor and the Court of Justice of the EU as an international and domestic judiciary. In addition, it places the subject in its broader context of international dispute settlement, and the participation of the EU and its Member States in international disputes. It focuses on horizontal and cross-cutting themes, bringing together insights from the different sectors of trade, investment and human rights, and offering a variety of perspectives from academics, policymakers and practitioners.

The European Union has become the respondent of several international trade disputes. This book examines the right to compensation for damage resulting from retaliatory measures imposed under the system of the World Trade Organization in disputes triggered by the EU. Anne Thies evaluates the implications of the EU's membership in the WTO for its domestic system of rights and judicial protection. Emphasising the necessity of maintaining EU standards of protection independently of the external dimension of EU action, the book offers suggestions on how the current gap of protection could be filled while upholding the scope for manoeuvre of the EU institutions on the international plane. In addition, it places the issue in its broader context of the relationship between international law and EU law on the one hand, and the discretion of the EU as a global actor and standards of individual rights protection under EU law on the other.

The European Union has become the respondent of several international trade disputes. This book examines the right to compensation for damage resulting from retaliatory measures imposed under the system of the World Trade Organization in disputes triggered by the EU. Anne Thies evaluates the implications of the EU's membership in the WTO for its domestic system of rights and judicial protection. Emphasising the necessity to maintain EU standards of protection independently of the external dimension of EU action, the book offers suggestions on how the current gap of protection could be filled while upholding the scope of manoeuvre of the EU institutions on the international plane. Moreover, it places the issue in its broader context of the relationship between international and EU law on the one hand, and the discretion of the EU as a global actor and standards of individual rights protection under EU law on the other.