How is the international responsibility of the European Union determined? In the context of the multilayered and ever evolving Union legal order, the Lisbon Treaty has introduced considerable changes to the Union's participation in international affairs. These have rendered this thorny question an even more pressing concern not only for the European Union and its Member States but also for third countries and international organisations. Based on papers delivered at the bi-annual EU/International Law Forum organised by the University of Bristol in May 2011, this volume brings together EU and international law experts to address the various questions raised by the Union's international responsibility. It discusses horizontal issues, such as the concept of responsibility of international organisations in the evolving international legal order and the different techniques available for determining responsibility. It also focuses on specific policy areas (trade, investment, environment, security and defence, human rights) by approaching them from both an EU and international law perspective.

This book explores the extent to which the EU, and its Member States, are responsible for violations of international law.

This work focuses on the EU’s participation in the Dispute Settlement Proceedings (DSP) of the WTO for matters of non-conferred competences. The underlying thesis is that the joint membership of the EU and its Member States is fallacious, in that it could cause the EU to become responsible for violations of the WTO regulations on the part of the Member States. Such fallacies are rooted in the blurred nature of the distribution of powers in the EU polity.In order to tackle the issue of international responsibility, the analysis is based on the facts of a real-world case. Based on the tenets of public international law, the law of mixed agreements and the EU constitutional principles, the book puts forward a model for the EU’s participation in the DSP, and for the reallocation of burdens to the respective responsible entity. This proposition deconstructs the joint responsibility regime and endorses a solution that could address the issue of responsibility in mixed agreements without a declaration of powers.

"Provides an analysis of the constitutional principles governing the European Union. It covers the history of the EU, the constitutional foundations, the institutional framework, legislative and executive governance, judicial protection, and external relations"--Publisher's website

Juxtaposing perspectives, this insightful book brings together the various dimensions of the relationship between EU law and international law. As the multifaceted interplay between these two legal orders has become increasingly complex with expanding EU policy areas and the development of the EU as a global (normative) actor, this book offers a timely contribution to this important field of study.

Over the years, the European Union has developed relationships with other international institutions, mainly as a result of its increasingly active role as a global actor and the transfer of competences from the Member States to the EU. This book presents a comprehensive and critical assessment of the EU’s engagement with other international institutions, examining both the EU’s representation and cooperation as well as the influence of these bodies on the development of EU law and policy.

Despite their many obvious interconnections, EU and international law are all too often studied and practised in different spheres. While it is natural for each to insist on its own unique characteristics, and in particular for the EU to emphasise its sui generis nature, important insights might be lost because of this exclusionary approach. This book aims to break through some of those barriers and to show how more interaction between the two spheres might be encouraged. In so doing, it offers a constitutional dimension but also a substantive one, identifying policy areas where EU and international law and their respective actors work alongside each other. Offering a 360-degree view on both EU and international institutional and substantive law, this collection presents a refreshing perspective on a longstanding issue.

For years the European Union has been looked on as a potential model for cosmopolitan governance, and enjoyed considerable influence on the global stage. The EU has a uniquely strong and legally binding mission statement to pursue international relations on a multilateral basis, founded on the progressive development of international law. The political vision was for the EU to export its values of the rule of law and sophisticated governance mechanisms to the international sphere. Globalization and the financial crisis have starkly illustrated the limits of this vision, and the EU's dependence on global forces partially beyond the control of traditional provinces of law. This book takes stock of the EU's role in global governance. It asks: to what extent can and does the EU shape and influence the on-going re-ordering of legal processes, principles, and institutions of global governance, in line with its optimistic mission statement? With this ambitious remit it covers the legal-institutional and substantive aspects of global security, trade, environmental, financial, and social governance. Across these topics 23 contributors have taken the central question of the extent of the EU's influence on global governance, providing a broad view across the key areas as well as a detailed analysis of each. Through comparison and direct engagement with each other, the different chapters provide a distinctive contribution to legal scholarship on global governance, from a European perspective.