Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'European Union countries – Foreign economic relations – Law and legislation'

Defence date: 21 December 2021
Examining Board: Professor Hans – W. Micklitz, European University Institute (Supervisor), Professor Martijn W. Hesselink, European University Institute, Professor Anna Beckers, Maastricht University, Professor Fernanda Nicola, Washington College of Law.
This doctoral dissertation examines the EU consumer perspective on externalities of production in global value chains (GVCs). Whether as part of the discourse on development or global economic governance, externalities of production are a long-standing issue that has been problematised not only by lawyers but also by economists, anthropologists, sociologists and social scientists at large. In the legal field, the analysis has struggled to contextualise consumer law and policy together with the peculiarities of GVCs as a distinct model of business organisation characterised by contractualisation of processes of production. The thesis argues that contractualisation of production establishes a relationship between consumers and processes of production, also in relation to externalities. Such a relation is not mirrored either by the voluntary self-regulation through which enterprises regulate externalities nor by EU consumer law. The present dissertation addresses this matter and argues that EU consumer law limits the involvement of consumers in the process of self-regulation that leading enterprises of GVCs undertake to prevent and/or remedy externalities of production and that results into a unilateral exercise of epistemic authority. The exercise of epistemic authority is favoured by a ‘communication paradigm’ framing EU consumer law, according to which consumer claims’ on sustainability and externalities of production depend on the content of the communication consumers receive prior or via the contract. This paradigm prevents consumers involvement, in all phases of the contractual relationship, in the definition of a legal episteme of sustainability in line with the core constitutional principles and values as enshrined in the EU Treaties and constitutional charters of member states. The final part of the thesis suggests that the limits deriving by the communication paradigm can be overcome by the CJEU that, by relying on the principle of effectiveness can integrate the communication paradigm with a consumer perspective on externalities of production in the post-contractual phase.

Tax competition between tax sovereignties is a fact. We focus here on the international tax competition. Taxation is one of the tools of governance that States use to direct their policies. Tax authorities try to diminish the burden of their taxpayers to improve the national economic and social welfare. To aim this objective, Governments intensify the competitiveness of the domestic trade and/or attract foreign investments. Because every States share the same goal, Governments compete with each other on the tax field. This tax competition is qualified as beneficial on the one hand, and one the other hand---ever more often---the adjective used to qualify this competition would be "harmful". At first, this thesis exposes the situation of tax competition, presenting the opposing views and the concurring ones. Then, we look at the position of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development and the position of the European Union on this issue of tax competition. Historic summaries explain the point of view of these two organizations that are the leaders in the fight against the "harmful" tax competition. Finally, we give subjective ideas to re-think tax competition in a fair way.

Thesis (LLM)--University of Stellenbosch, 1999.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis deals with the Trade, Development and Cooperation Agreement (TDCA) between the European Union and the Republic of South Africa, which was concluded in October 1999. In particular, the agreement is analysed in the light of the negotiating process between the parties, the contents of the agreement, the applicability of WTO law and the compatibility of the agreement with it and the Port and Sherry Agreement. Since the EU emphasised its aim to commence economic and development cooperation with other African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries on a reciprocal basis during the negotiations for a successor of the Lomé Convention, the TDCA between the EU and South Africa had to be seen as a "pilot project" for future cooperation agreements between countries at different levels of development. The TDCA between the EU and South Africa is therefore not only very important for the two concerned parties, but could serve as an example for further negotiations between the EU and other ACP countries. Thus the purpose of this thesis is to examine the TDCA between the EU and South Africa from a wider global perspective. The thesis is divided into six Chapters: The first Chapter provides an introduction to the circumstances under which the negotiations between the EU and South Africa commenced. It deals briefly with the economic situation in South Africa during the apartheid era and presents reasons why the parties wanted to enter into bilateral negotiations. The introductory part furthermore presents an overview of the contents of the thesis. The second chapter contains a detailed description of the negotiating process that took place between the parties and shows why it took 43 months and 21 rounds of negotiations to reach a deal. South Africa's partial accession to the Lomé Convention and the conclusion of separate agreements such as the Wine and Spirits Agreement, are also analysed. Chapter three presents the various components of the TOCA and illustrates what the negotiators achieved. This chapter on the TOCA concludes with an evaluation of the Agreement and shows the potential benefits to South Africa and the EU. Since the Agreement had to satisfy international rules, the provisions of the General Agreement on Tariffs and TradelWorld Trade Organisation (GATTIWTO) were of major importance. The EC Treaty, however, does not contain any provision that indicates whether, or how, an international agreement like the GATTIWTO penetrates the Community legal order. In Chapter four, accordingly, questions are raised regarding the extent to which the bilateral agreement between South Africa and the EU was influenced by the GATTIWTO provisions and how these rules were incorporated into the agreement. Furthermore, since the parties agreed on the establishment of a free trade area, this chapter deals with the question of in how far the TOCA is in line with Article XXIV GATT. In addition to the GATT provisions, the TOCA is also affected by the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs). Therefore Chapter five deals with TRIPs in connection with the TOCA. The use of the terms "Port" and "Sherry" as the major stumbling block to the conclusion of the TOCA is analysed more closely. The final part, namely Chapter six, provides a summary of the results of the investigation. Furthermore, a conclusion is provided with regard to the question of whether the TOeA can be seen as an example for further trade relations between the EU and other ACP countries.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis is gerig op die Handels-, Ontwikkelings- en Samewerkingsooreenkoms (TDGA) tussen die Europese Unie (EU) en die Republiek van Suid Afrika wat in Oktober 1999 gesluit is. Die ooreenkoms word veral in die lig van die onderhandelingsproses tussen die partye, die inhoud van die ooreenkoms, die toepaslikheid van Wêreldhandelsorganisasiereg en die versoenbaarheid daarvan met die ooreenkoms en die Port en Sjerrie-ooreenkoms ontleed. Aangesien die EU sy oogmerk van wederkerige ekonomiese en ontwikkelings-gerigte samewerking met ander lande in Afrika en die Karibiese en Stille Oseaan-Eilande gedurende die onderhandelings vir 'n opvolger van die Lomé Konvensie beklemtoon het, moes die ooreenkoms tussen die EU en Suid-Afrika as 'n "loodsprojek" vir toekomstige samewerkingsooreenkomste tussen lande wat op verskillende vlakke van onwikkeling is, gesien word. Die Handels-, Ontwikkelings- en Samewerkingsooreenkoms tussen die EU en Suid-Afrika is dus nie net baie belangrik vir die betrokke partye nie, maar dit kan ook as 'n voorbeeld vir verdere onderhandelings tussen die EU en lande van Afrika en die Karibiese- en Stille Oseaan-Eilande dien. Die doel van dié tesis is om die Handels-, Ontwikkelings- en Samewekingsooreenkoms tussen die EU en Suid-Afrika vanuit 'n meer globale perspektief te beskou. Die tesis is in ses Hoofstukke ingedeel: Die eerste hoofstuk bied 'n inleiding tot die omstandighede waaronder die onderhandelings tussen die EU en Suid-Afrika begin het. Dit behandel die Suid- Afrikaanse ekonomiese situasie onder apartheid kortliks en toon hoekom die partye tweesydige onderhandelings wou aanknoop. Verder bied die inleidende deel 'n oorsig oor die inhoud van die tesis. Die tweede hoofstuk bevat 'n gedetailleerde beskrywing van die onderhandelingsproses wat tussen die partye plaasgevind het en toon aan waarom dit drie-en-veertig maande geduur het en een-en-twintig onderhandelingsrondtes gekos het om die saak te beklink. Suid-Afrika se gedeeltelike toetrede tot die Lomé Konvensie en die sluit van aparte ooreenkomste soos die Port- en Sjerrieooreenkoms word ook ontleed. Die daaropvolgende hoofstuk bespreek die verskillende komponente van die Handels-, Ontwikkelings- en Samewerkingsooreenkoms en toon wat die onderhandelaars bereik het. Hierdie hoofstuk oor die Ooreenkoms sluit af met 'n evaluering daarvan en dui die potensiële voordele van die Ooreenkoms vir Suid- Afrika en die EU aan. Aangesien die Ooreenkoms internasionale reëls moes tevrede stel, was die voorskrifte van die Algemene Ooreenkoms oor Tariewe en Handel (GATT) van uiterste belang. Die EG-verdrag bevat egter geen voorskrif wat aandui óf, of hoé, 'n internasionale ooreenkoms soos GATTNVTO die regsorde van die Europese Gemeenskap binnedring nie. Die vraag oor in hoeverre die tweesydige ooreenkoms tussen Suid-Afrika en die EU deur die GATTIWTO voorskrifte beïnvloed is, en oor hoe hierdie reëls in die ooreenkoms opgeneem is, word dus in Hoofstuk vier aangeraak. Aangesien die partye ooreengekom het om 'n vrye handeisarea tot stand te bring, behandel hierdie hoofstuk ook die vraag oor in hoeverre die TOGA met Artikel XXIV GATT strook. Tesame met die GATT-voorskrifte word die TOGA ook deur die Ooreenkoms ten opsigte van Handelsverwante Aspekte van Intellektuele Eiendomsreg (TRIPs) geraak. Hoofstuk vyf behandel daarom hierdie aspek ten opsigte van die TOGA. Die gebruik van die terme "Port" en "Sjerrie" as die vernaamste struikelblok tot die sluiting van die TOG-ooreenkoms word ook deegliker ontleed. Die laaste gedeelte, naamlik Hoofstuk ses, bied 'n opsomming van die resultate van die ondersoek. Verder word 'n gevolgtrekking voorsien ten opsigte van vraag of die TOGA as 'n voorbeeld vir verdere handelsverwantskappe tussen die EU en ander lande in Afrika en die Karibiese en Stille Oseaan-eilande beskou kan word.

Defence Date: 25 June 2010
Examining Board: Professor Marise Cremona, European University Institute; Professor Ernst Ulrich Petersmann, European University Institute; Professor Eileen Denza, University College London; Professor Markus Krajewski, University of Potsdam
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses

Defence date: 13 December 2017
Examining Board: Professor Marise Cremona, European University Institute; Professor Petros Mavroidis, Columbia University; Professor Marco Bronckers, Leiden University; Professor Pieter-Jan Kuijper, University of Amsterdam
The Laeken Council Declaration of 2001 committed the European Community to a constitutional reform that aimed at enhancing the legitimacy of EU governance through “more democracy, transparency, and efficiency”. In the area of Common Commercial Policy (CCP), the coming into force of the Treaty of Lisbon on December 1, 2009, responded to the Laeken Declaration with the most extensive reform in history and substantially amended applicable provisions on decisionmaking, scope of EU exclusive competence, objectives, and principles. Against the benchmark set out by the Laeken Council objectives, this study examines the law, practice, and quality of institutional change in CCP governance after Lisbon. To this end, the study advances a twofold comparative institutional analysis that is based on a transaction-cost approach to the understanding of legal, political, and informal institutions that govern the CCP and EU external economic relations more broadly. The study finds that the reallocation of horizontal competences among EU institutions through the empowerment of the European Parliament has generally decreased the process efficiency of the CCP. At the same time, it has markedly decreased the cost of political participation for public and private stakeholders and introduced increasingly effective democratic control to the now bicameral system that governs the CCP in the Lisbon era. Parliamentary involvement, moreover, has radically enhanced process and substantive transparency and opened a space for public deliberation of external economic policy. Opinion 2/15 of the Court of Justice of the European Union has, secondly, confirmed the Treaty-induced tectonic shifts in the allocation of vertical competences. It is argued that the Court’s Opinion sets incentives for a fundamental change of the institutional practice that governs the conclusion of EU external economic agreements. Ending the tradition of ‘mixed’ agreements in favor of ‘EUonly’ treaty conclusion would further approximate the achievement of all three Laeken Council objectives and render EU external economic governance more efficient, effective, representative, and legitimate. In order to fully employ the democratic potential of ‘EU-only’ CCP governance, however, such practice will require the reinforcement of national parliamentary engagement in that process.
The following chapters of this PhD thesis draws upon an earlier published versions: -- Chapter III 'EU External Economic Integration : Core Concepts, Multi-Level Games, and the 'Global Europe' Strategy' as an e-book 'EU preferential trade agreements : commerce, foreign policy and development aspects', Florence : European University Institute, 2013 -- Chapter IV 'The Lisbon Treaty reform of EU common commercial policy : law, practice, and political institutions' as an article 'Taking stock : EU common commercial policy in the Lisbon era' (2011) in the journal 'Aussenwirtschaft' and as a CEPS Working Document, 2011/345 -- Chapter V 'Opinion 2/15 : litigating institutional change in post-Lisbon external economic governance' as an EUI RSCAS WP 2017/23 'Reading opinion 2/15 : standards of analysis, the Court's discretion, and the legal view of the Advocate General' -- Chapter VI 'The 'Wallonian saga' and Opinion 2/15 : the case for 'EU-only' external economic agreements' as an EUI RSCAS WP 2016/58 'The signing, provisional application, and conclusion of trade and investment agreements in the EU : the case of CETA and Opinion 2/15' -- The Epilogue 'After 'the end of history' : reforming EU trade defence in the shadow of WTO law' as an EUI RSCAS WP 2016/37 'The vulnerability of EU anti-dumping measures against China after December 11, 2016'

Defence date: 3 June 2013
Examining Board: Professor Loïc Azoulai, European University Institute; Professor Marise Cremona, European University Institute (Supervisor); Professor Christophe Hillion, Leiden University; Professor Daniel Thym, University of Konstanz
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
Constitutions of today do not merely address the salus populi anymore, the welfare of the people, but increasingly exhibit international ambitions. This is true in particular for the EU Treaties. To make sense of these developments, this thesis presents a comprehensive account of foreign policy objectives as a growing part of European constitutional law. It grasps these provisions as legal norms, discerns their legal force and functions, and situates them into the overall legal order of the state, the Union, and the composite 'European Constitutional Space’. It argues that for comparative constitutional law in general, the codification of foreign policy objectives suggests a step forward in the evolution of the role of the constitution: From limiting public authority to guiding it towards certain goals, both at home and in the world. For the EU in particular, this research advances a comparative constitutional perspective for the study of EU external relations, and adds a constitutional dimension to the 'normative power’ debate in the study of EU foreign policy. Drawing on established national doctrines on constitutional objectives from Germany, France and India, the thesis elaborates a common vocabulary for understanding foreign policy objectives across different jurisdictions. It adapts these findings to the pluralist context of the Union and its Member States, which closely intertwines both legal orders and foreign policies. It reveals that constitutional foreign policy objectives represent norms of constitutional rank which commit a polity to an active and 'normative’ foreign policy, serving principally as an interpretive lens through which public powers can be enlarged. As a feature peculiar to the EU context, such objectives help to channel the individual ambitions of the Member States through the Union framework towards a more coherent, albeit polyphonic, external action. Furthermore, the project feeds its legal findings into the debate on the EU as an actor in International Relations, drawing on the main IR theories to sharpen the analysis of these norms in inter-institutional struggles as well in long-term processes of identity-shaping, legitimation and socialization.

Defence date: 31 May 2010
Examining Board: Marise Cremona (Supervisor, EUI), Panos Koutrakos (University of Bristol); Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann (EUI); Ramses Wessel (University of Twente)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
Coherence is a powerful rhetorical device that is prevalent throughout decades of EU external relations discourse and practice. There is intuitiveness to coherence, an implied sense of ‘good fit’ between the different elements of an all-encompassing system. Yet, any attempt to concretize coherence will open up a plethora of context-specific legal and political questions. The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) is a recent example of an external policy drawn up explicitly with the objective of achieving coherence across different EU and Member State external policies. Positioning the ENP in the legalhistorical context of political Union, this thesis first argues why coherence is an issue at all in EU external relations, and why law is integral to attaining the ever-enigmatic single voice of the European Union. Subsequently, the text examines the role of EU external relations law in attaining a coherent neighbourhood policy. It is argued that the innovative nature of the ENP for coherence lies beyond the narrowly defined legal sphere, but stems mostly from its hybrid composition of hard legal, soft legal and nonlegal policy instruments. It is concluded that from a purely EU-internal and institutional perspective, this approach was reasonably successful in involving different actors towards common objectives in the neighbourhood. However, coherence should be more than rhetorical gloss, and agreeing that a wide range of initiatives should be included in soft legal instruments is no guarantee for coherence in actual policy substance. To examine the latter issue this thesis then moves beyond the realm of legal inquiry, and employs content analysis to investigate the extent to which the ENP is substantively coherent between the different norms, actors and instruments this policy encompasses.

Examining Board: Professeur Marise Cremona, European University Institute (Directeur de thèse) Professeur Evelyne Lagrange, Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne (Co-directeur de thèse) Professeur Loïc Azoulai, European University Institute Professeur Yann Kerbrat, Aix-Marseille Université.
Defence date: 4 December 2012
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
Les mesures restrictives sont des instruments privilégiés de l’Union européenne en matière de coercition pacifique des tiers à l’Union. Fruit de la pratique des Etats membres réunis au sein de la Coopération politique européenne, elles ne sont consacrées en droit primaire que depuis l’entrée en vigueur du traité de Lisbonne. Adoptées en réaction à certaines situations de crise internationale et dans le but de contribuer à leur résolution, les mesures restrictives peuvent avoir pour cible formelle des Etats tiers et/ou pour cible réelle des personnes physiques ou morales, et couvrent des domaines aussi variés que l’imposition d’embargos sur les armes, le gel des fonds et des avoirs financiers de certaines personnes, ou encore la rupture des relations diplomatiques avec l’Etat visé. L’étude des mesures restrictives de l’Union européenne comme instruments de participation aux mécanismes de réaction à l’illicite implique également de les replacer dans les cadres du droit international, selon qu’elles mettent en oeuvre des décisions du Conseil de sécurité de l’Organisation des Nations Unies ou qu’elles sont adoptées par l’Union européenne proprio motu. Aborder la question du fondement des mesures restrictives permet de montrer la déconnexion du droit interne de l’Union et du droit international public ; le premier régissant la compétence de l’Union, le second déterminant les conditions de sa participation aux relations internationales. Le régime des mesures restrictives de l’Union européenne s’accomode quant à lui difficilement de l’indifférence mutuelle de ces deux branches du droit et doit être pensé de manière dynamique, selon que l’on considère le régime général des mesures à portée étatique ou le régime spécial applicable aux mesures à portée individuelle. La présente analyse illustre la spécificité de l’apport de l’Union au développement progressif du droit international contemporain : organisation internationale participant à des mécanismes jusqu’alors réservés aux sujets primaires du droit international, l’Union européenne affirme son identité constitutionnelle au travers de ses mesures restrictives et participe de manière significative à l’évolution structurelle et matérielle des cadres classiques du droit des gens.

Defence date: 16 June 2006
Examining board: Prof. Bruno de Witte (Supervisor, European University Institute) ; Prof. Marise Cremona (European University Institute) ; Prof. Giacomo Luciani, part time professor, EUI ; Prof. Thomas Wälde, University of Dundee
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017
This dissertation offers the first comprehensive assessment of the various internal and external measures undertaken by the European Union to guarantee security of oil and gas supply. It sets out and analyzes in a coherent and thorough manner those aspects of EU external policy that are relevant in establishing a framework for guaranteeing energy security for the Union. What makes the book unique is that it is the first of its kind to bridge the gap between EU energy and EU external policy. The dissertation discusses EU policy towards the major oil and gas producing countries of Russia, the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf at the bilateral as well as regional and multilateral level. It brings together not only the dimensions of trade and investment but also other important aspects of external policy, namely development and foreign policy. The author argues that the EU's energy security cannot be achieved through adopting a purely internal approach to energy issues, but that it is necessary to adopt a holistic approach to external policy, covering efficient economic relations as well as development co-operation and foreign policies towards energy producing countries. The dissertation will be a valuable resource for students of EU law, WTO law or international energy law, as well as scholars and practitioners dealing with energy issues.

Defence date: 21 January 2013
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
Examining Board: Professor Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann, European University Institute (Supervisor); Professor Marise Cremona, European University Institute; Professor Alan Rosas, Judge at the Court of Justice of the European Union; Professor Christophe Hillion, University of Leiden and Stockholm University.
Human rights are among the chief values on which the EU is ‘founded’ (Art. 6 TEU) and which it seeks to promote through its external relations (Art. 21 TEU). Coherence with values is a significant rhetorical tool which is used, on the one hand, to justify the development of new policies and instruments, and, on the other hand, to challenge EU actions by civil society, the European Parliament, commentators, but also third countries. This thesis examines whether human rights are indeed a ‘silver thread’ running through everything that EU does as argued by the EU High Representative. To that end, I first analyze why coherence as such, and coherence with values in particular, hold an important place in the EU’s foreign policy integration. As a second step, I discuss the nature of human rights as an international and EU framework for coherent action. I then investigate one particular area of EU external action, namely counter-terrorism policy, with a view to assessing coherence with values in practice, and more specifically to analyzing how successful the EU actually was in integrating human rights in its counter-terrorism instruments such as sanctions, provisions of its international agreements, and external assistance. On this basis, I outline in the third part the legal and policy aspects of human rights coherence, before concluding with the steps which still need to be taken in order to ‘weave a silver thread’ of human rights into EU external policy.

Defence Date: 14 March 2011
Examining Board: Per CRAMER (University of Gothenburg), ; Marise CREMONA (EUI), ; Bruno DE WITTE (Supervisor, former EUI and Maastricht University), ; Christophe HILLION (Universities of Leiden and Stockholm)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
Ce travail étudie la tension, telle qu’elle ressort de la jurisprudence de la Cour de justice de l’Union, (la Cour) entre d’un côté la sauvegarde des principes pacta sunt servanda, de la sécurité juridique et de la protection de la confiance légitime entre des parties contractantes au niveau international et de l’autre côté la sauvegarde des principes de légalité et de l’autonomie de l’ordre juridique de l’Union. D’un point de vue théorique, le chapitre préliminaire présente les intérêts fondamentaux qui doivent être respectés dans la procédure de contrôle constitutionnel des accords internationaux pour ensuite examiner si tel est le cas par le contrôle tel qu’il est actuellement assumé. Ledit contrôle, objet de l’étude est celui assuré, à titre principal, par la Cour, mais aussi par les autres institutions de l’Union européenne. Il a pour objet les accords conclus par la Communauté et l’Union et aussi, dans une mesure limitée, les accords conclus par les États membres de l’Union. Il est mis en œuvre aussi bien ex ante qu’ex post. La thèse se base ensuite sur les notions exposées dans le chapitre préliminaire afin d’analyser dans la première partie et la deuxième partie les avis rendus par la Cour aussi bien que les jugements qui ont des conséquence pour les accords internationaux en vigueur. Le respect des principes pacta sunt servanda, de la sécurité juridique et de la protection de la confiance légitime entre parties contractants par l’Union européenne ne serait, en réalité, pas nécessairement incompatible avec le respect de l’autonomie de l’ordre juridique de l’Union, comme le prouve l’ambivalence de la procédure de contrôle préventif. Si on met l’accent sur la norme de référence du contrôle, on serait tenté de conclure qu’elle vise à garantir le respect de la règle qui découle d’un des traités sur l’Union, c’est-à-dire, le respect du projet d’intégration européenne. Si on insiste sur le caractère préventif du contrôle, c’est-à-dire sur le fait qu’il ne porte pas sur un accord déjà conclu, on dira que la procédure de l’article 218, paragraphe 11, TFUE, tend à respecter le droit international. La thèse expose comment le système de contrôle de constitutionnalité, surtout ex ante mais aussi ex post, est souvent instrumentalisé, aussi bien par les États membres de l’Union que par les institutions de l’Union pour défendre leurs intérêts et prérogatives. Afin de renforcer le mécanisme de contrôle ex ante, nous proposons qu’un contrôle politique systématique des négociations des accords internationaux soit exercé par les institutions et les États membres. La conséquence sera que tous les acteurs au niveau de l’Union seront impliqués et informés et tous auront l’occasion de soumettre à la Cour une demande d’avis s’ils l’estiment nécessaire. La procédure d’information pourra, s’inspirant du système des Nations Unies, prévoir que aucune entité de l’Union ne peut se prévaloir au niveau international d’un accord qui n’a pas fait l’objet de la consultation des autres acteurs au niveau de l’Union.

Defence date: 07 February 2018
Examining Board: Professor Marise Cremona, European University Institute (Supervisor); Professor Joanne Scott, European University Institute; Professor Olivier De Schutter, University of Louvain; Professor Markus Krajewski, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg
This thesis uses the case of the international investment regime to demonstrate how the human rights framework that governs EU external relations can be operationalized in the realm of international economic law making. The first part of the thesis outlines the legal foundations for the EU to become a shaper of the international investment regime. These legal foundations are firstly found in the unique human rights framework consisting of human rights as a general principle and objective, the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and international human rights law and secondly in the international investment competence of the EU. The second part of the thesis demonstrates the inaccessibility of the current international investment regime for human rights interests and shows that recent EU reforms fail to address the major inequalities of rights protection inherent in the investment regime. This regulatory tilt is however difficult to uphold in light of the normative framework established by the first part. The third part analyses two mechanisms, which were developed in the trade context: Ex-ante human rights impact assessments for EU trade and investment agreements and civil society monitoring bodies of EU trade and sustainable development chapters. In examining these mechanisms, this part explores the question of whether they could work towards mitigating the inequalities of rights protection. The potential of these mechanisms lies in their capacities to ensure a comprehensive assessment of policy impacts as well as to empower traditionally marginalized rights-holders to participate in the making, implementation and contestation of the international investment regime. These two methods – comprehensive assessment of policy impacts and empowerment of rights-holders – are embedded in other EU structural principles and the international human rights discourse and would, so this part argues, enable the EU to discharge its human rights obligations. To seize this potential, substantial reforms and a shift of conceptions are however still necessary. This part also analyses what parameters need to be changed in order to utilize these mechanisms for building sustainable institutions that enable marginalized local communities to inject their interests into the design and implementation of international investment regulations. Next to providing concrete proposals, this thesis therefore also demonstrates in a generalizable manner how the broad constitutional human rights mandate can gain precise shape and be broken down into clear benchmarks to which EU international economic law making can be held accountable to.
Chapter 1 'Human rights as a framework for foreign policies' draws upon an earlier version published as an article 'Human rights law in international investment arbitration' (2016) in the journal 'Asian Journal of WTO and International Health Law and Policy'
Chapter 3 'The European Union's external human rights commitment : what is the legal value of Article 21 TEU?' draws upon an earlier version published as EUI LAW WP 2016/10

Defence date: 22 June 2015
Examining Board: Professor Marise Cremona, European University Institute (Supervisor); Professor Patrizia Vigni, University of Siena; Professor Craig Barker, London South Bank University; Professor Rainer Bauböck, European University Institute.
This thesis explores the development of European Union’s model of protecting its citizens in the world, demonstrating it to be a unique and complex mixture of EU internal and external policies and instruments that is unlike any other international, regional, or domestic model of protecting individuals abroad. The thesis will critically assess the three main stages of development of the EU model until the present day. The first stage started in 1993, when the Maastricht Treaty introduced an EU citizenship right to equal protection abroad and this continued for the following decade. It will be shown that during this period the EU model of protecting the Union citizens abroad consisted of a purely horizontal form of cooperation among the Member States that materialised in a sui generis type of international agreement that has restricted the efficiency of the EU citizenship right, due to the Member States’ reluctance to lose their State prerogatives in favour of the EU. The second stage of development started in 2004 when a number of international disasters affecting EU citizens in third countries led the Member States to accept cooperation with EU institutions and external policy instruments for the purpose of complementing their capacity to secure the effective protection of unrepresented Union citizens abroad. The third stage started with the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, which conferred an unprecedented power to an international organisation (the EU) to exercise State-like consular protection functions directly with respect to the Union citizens in the world. The thesis will offer a critical assessment of two decades of application of the least-researched EU citizenship right (to consular and diplomatic protection), its nexus with other EU external relations policies and its implementation by the Member States. It will show the added value of the EU model of protecting citizens abroad for the EU citizens, the Member States and the Union, while also making policy recommendations addressing the shortcomings in its current implementation. The thesis will demonstrate that, in spite of the scholarly critiques of the incompatibility of the Union model with public international law, the international community has widely accepted.

Defence date: 18 June 2009
Examining Board: Gráinne de Búrca (former EUI, now Fordham University - supervisor), Marise Cremona (EUI), Pieter-Jan Kuijper (University of Amsterdam), Marc Maresceau (University of Ghent)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
This thesis assesses the legal effect of Community Agreements, explored through the case-law of the Community courts. It places this issue within the broader setting of the legal effect of treaties in domestic legal orders and how we think about the role of domestic courts in treaty enforcement. It proposes a basic dichotomy between automatic and non-automatic treaty incorporation in preference to the commonly employed, but analytically unhelpful, language of monism and dualism. And it emphasises the need for greater empirical work as to how courts in automatic treaty incorporation states actually deal with treaties when they are invoked; rather than relying on the untested assumption that the particular phrasing of a constitutional provision providing the port of entry for treaties into the domestic legal arena and/or seminal judicial assertions on their legal effect is matched by existing judicial practice. To this end, a data-set of the existing Community Agreements jurisprudence of the Community Courts was created. It is an assessment of this data-set that provides the core empirical work of this study. This study illustrates how the foundational Community Agreements jurisprudence signalled an attachment to an automatic treaty incorporation model and thus erected a central plank of the Community's external relations constitution with profound constitutional ramifications for the Member States. This constitutes a neglected dimension of the constitutionalisation debate, namely, the constitutionalising effect of Community law upon Community Agreements. The data however indicates that there is evidence of a twin-track judicial approach to Community Agreements emerging. The first, where domestic action of the Member States is being challenged, appears to manifest the unleashing of a full treaty enforcement model. In contrast, there are indications of a judicial willingness to shield Community action from review vis-àvis Community Agreements which has significant implications for the EU's commitment to international law.

Defence date: 21 January 2013
Examining Board: Professor Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann, European University Institute (Supervisor); Professor M. Elvira Mendez-Pinedo, University of Iceland (external co-supervisor); Professor Miguel Poiares Maduro, European University Institute; Judge Páll Hreinsson, EFTA Court.
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
Doctrines developed by the EFTA Court have placed considerable demands on the various national courts in the EFTA States. The Court now considers the EEA Agreement to form an "international treaty sui generis which contains a distinct legal order of its own." This thesis will study the interaction between the EFTA Court and Icelandic courts. The basis of this research rests on two levels. At the EEA level, it is the ECJ and the EFTA Court that form the basis of the study. At the national level, the thesis studies Icelandic Supreme Court and district court decisions. I will approach the question of the impact of EEA law on Icelandic domestic law from two dimensions: substantive and procedural. In substantive terms, the study examines fundamental European judgemade principles, as well as the impact these doctrines have had on Icelandic law. This will indicate how Icelandic courts deal with potential conflicts of law between EEA and Icelandic law, and how they respond to EFTA Court decisions and EEA principles. This part examines many fundamental concepts of EEA law, but the subject mainly raises questions concerning four specific concepts and the reaction of the Icelandic system to them. These are: first, the question of direct effect in EEA law second, the obligation of national courts to interpret national law in the light of EEA law third, the primacy of implemented EEA law and fourth, the principle of State liability. These legal concepts have all been seen as posing specific challenges to Icelandic courts. In its second stage, the thesis will, in procedural terms, study the relationship between the EFTA Court and the Icelandic courts, by investigating how the reference procedure under Article 34 SCA has been applied by the national courts in Iceland. It is only by looking at the discretion exercised by the courts as to whether or not to make a reference that one can form an opinion of Icelandic courts' openness to the EEA legal order.