Suchergebnisse

Introduction -- Part I The Context -- The geopolitical context -- The legal context -- Part II Common Foreign and Security Policy after Lisbon -- Restrictive measures: constitutional issues, classification, judicial review -- Common Security and Defence Policy in Action -- The silence of foreign policy -- Part III The key themes -- Between law and geopolitics -- Conclusion.

This strongly interdisciplinary book provides a first tentative evaluation of the role that geopolitics plays in shaping the genesis and functioning of the law of EU Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). It introduces the reader to the geopolitical context of the EU and of its main neighbours, as well as to the legal architecture of CFSP. The book then presents selected cases of the Unions action (or inaction) in CFSP since 2009. These show the key argument of the book: the law of CFSP is not entirely fit for purposes as it does not reflect the geopolitical reality of the continent. The book reflects on such geopolitical reality as it results, in particular, from the 2004 EU enlargement, and comments upon three key issues of the CFSP legal framework: issues of coherence, accountability, and effectiveness. With its fusion of law and geopolitics, the book will be invaluable for students of EU foreign policy and EU external relations law.

Chapter 1: Introduction -- Chapter 2: The context: The EU and Ukraine between Slavophiles and NATO -- Chapter 3: EU Diplomacy: foreign policy response to the war and future EU-Russia relations -- Chapter 4: Law: the use of force, EU sanctions, and assistance to Ukraine.

Abstract
This Article deals with selected issues of judicial protection that arise in the context of the sanctions adopted by the EU against Russia and Belarus after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. As most cases challenging the sanctions are pending, this Article draws lessons from the previous case law on EU restrictive measures. It explores what aspects of the sanctions escape judicial review, then profiles of external (or formal) legality of the sanctions, of internal (or substantive) legality, and concludes by assessing the overall role of the Court in EU foreign affairs. The discussion shows that the case law in this area of EU administrative law converges to a great extent with other areas of EU competence, but tensions remain in how the Court may impose substantial constraints to executive discretion in the field of Common Foreign and Security Policy.

The principle that 'in all actions relating to children (…) the child's best interests must be a primary consideration' (Article 24(2) EU Charter of Fundamental Rights) is widely applied by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). This article considers preliminary rulings in which the CJEU had recourse to the best interests of the child as the criterion for settling the dispute in the main proceeding. For analytical purposes, these cases may be grouped in two clusters: cases resembling child custody disputes, and other cases. It is argued that, in the light of the varied factual circumstances of the judicial disputes, the application of the criterion of best interests of the child as primary consideration warrants further scrutiny. To this end, this article identifies and assesses a practical and a conceptual challenge to the widespread application of the criterion. The former posits that the criterion is indeterminate, and this article considers whether drawing from Article 3 of the Convention on the Right of the Child may help in solving the uncertainty; the latter maintains that the test is unjust and self-defying, a critique that this article finds only partially founded, for cases resembling child custody disputes.

This article presents some theoretical reflections, and one empirical case study, on the contribution of geopolitics to the study of EU foreign policy. The article asks in particular how geopolitics can contribute to causal explanation in foreign policy. First, the article identifies and discusses two problems with a crude, early version of geopolitics: arbitrariness in the measurement of dependent and independent variables, and spurious causation. Second, drawing from concepts developed by rational choice theorists, the article argues that geopolitics can prove insightful in at least two ways. The first way in which geopolitics can establish causal explanations is when it studies how geography provides opportunity to act, that is, options for a political actor. The second way in which geopolitics is useful is that it can establish causality through negation (an event was prevented, or made more difficult, by geographical features). Both ways are illustrated through the example of empires and colonialism and their influence over EU foreign policy.
EU foreign policy, Geopolitics, Methodology, Political geography, Empire

Mutual trust in European Union law traditionally refers to a horizontal relationship between Member States, requiring them to consider 'all the other Member States to be complying with EU law', as the European Court of Justice has repeatedly stated. This Article considers a new perspective: is it possible to detect the existence of trust between Member States on one hand and the European Union's institutions on the other hand? If so, what are its legal manifestations? And what light does trust shed on the cooperation between the peoples of Europe? To answer these questions, the Article seeks to offer a synthetic vision of the case law, selecting legal issues of European integration as examples of ascending (from Member States to the EU) and descending (from EU to Member States) trust. It then discusses reasons why the Court of Justice of the European Union may want to create a relationship of trust with Member States, drawing from the fruitful insights of political psychology.
EU law, mutual trust, political psychology, vertical trust, supremacy, internal market