Suchergebnisse

Presenting the first comprehensive account of foreign policy objectives as a growing part of European constitutional law, this book examines the nature, functions, and potential of these objectives by approaching EU external relations law through both comparative constitutional analysis and international relations theory.

Abstract
This article analyses the United Kingdom's (UK) 'trade continuity programme'. The promise that, once outside the European Union (EU), the UK would strike new, lucrative trade deals continues to be an important part of the Brexiteers' narrative. What the UK was compelled to do first, however, was to conclude 'roll-over' agreements to replace the trade agreements already made by the EU. This article posits that, contrary to expectations, the UK's continuity programme should be regarded as a success – for both the UK and the EU. In most cases, the UK managed to replicate to a very large extent the terms originally granted to the EU, despite being a smaller market and despite challenging circumstances. From the EU's perspective, the UK's continuity programme can be regarded as a case of successful norm internalization and export. This first chapter of post-Brexit UK trade policy shows that even a country that has left the EU still legally commits itself and its partners to the EU's norms and values. Hence, the EU should welcome the UK's imitation as a shared normative basis to expand cooperation with its former member state in a challenging geopolitical environment.

The United Kingdom's relationship with the European Union was supposed to be definitively settled several times during the past decade – yet it was not. The 2016 referendum brought about a surge in interest in legal questions, especially of EU law and international economic law. This presented scholars with a questionable gift: on the one hand, countless new opportunities for research, publications, and public visibility; on the other, the curse of chasing a rapidly and at times erratically moving target. Therefore, this essay reflects on the continued relevance of Brexit scholarship and different strategies for extending its shelf-life. It argues that the relevance of this scholarship may indeed extend into the future when foresighted and innovative approaches are being put forward. Looking ahead, the essay observes that the Windsor Framework to overhaul the Northern Ireland Protocol likely marks the end point of the frenzied and fraught EU-UK relationship between 2016 and 2023. The essay concludes that, while disagreements will continue, the EU-UK relationship as a topic is entering a period of normalization. Rigorous legal and innovative interdisciplinary scholarship will remain necessary both to develop EU-UK relations as a sub-topic of its own and to embed it into wider discourses of EU and international law.
Brexit, EU–UK Relations, Legal Scholarship, Northern Ireland, Trade and Cooperation Agreement, Withdrawal Agreement

AbstractThe withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union has prompted a global recalibration of treaty relations. Due to the Withdrawal Agreement and its transition period, the UK is expanding its international treaty-making powers as it is gradually released from the constraints of EU law. Practice to date shows the creation of many new international legal instruments through which governments have sought to address the novel questions that Brexit raises for the international law of treaties.

In less unusual times, the European Union's Global Strategy for Foreign and Security Policy would have been received as merely the latest iteration of the main tenets and ambitions of EU external action – this time with an enhanced dose of pragmatism to respond to a more challenging international environment. However, with 'Brexit' looming large and one and a half years into the Trump Presidency in the United States, the Global Strategy has acquired a new level of significance. This article argues that while meant to express a largely uncontroversial 'Western' consensus, it now needs to be re-contextualized as a distinctive vision in the face of trends of antiglobalism and Euroscepticism. This concerns in particular the Strategy's emphasis on rules-based global governance. Challenged by both President Trump's 'America First' policy and the British government's course for a 'hard Brexit', the Global Strategy now represents a contested blueprint and rallying point for a continued pursuit of a liberal world order based on the rule of law.

Considering the implications of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) for the architecture of global (economic) governance, including the international rule of law, the article addresses some of the most pertinent systemic consequences TTIP is likely to produce, based on the shape the agreement is currently taking. The article's main arguments are that despite representing innovation and added value in some areas, TTIP may produce negative consequences in at least three respects. Firstly, it will cater to an imbalance in terms of access to justice in the area of investment protection; secondly, by providing a way out for the World Trade Organization's (WTO) two most active litigants, it can contribute to the de-judicialization of international trade law; and thirdly, it creates potential for a fierce backlash from the rest of the world as regards the global promotion of an overtly transatlantic regulatory and normative agenda.