Constitutional Principles of EU External Relations

* External relations law occupies an important position in the overall development of the EU, and in the process of its treaty-building activities * Provides a theoretical backdrop to underpin this complex and rapidly changing area of European law * Cross-disciplinary interest: EU politics and International Relations in addition to EU law The volume explores the marked differences between the complex and rapidly changing legal organization of EU external relations and the EU's 'internal' constitutional order. The European Union is unique as a polity organized along federal lines but with fully fledged States as its component political entities. The tension between the self-conscious Member States and their constitutional relationship within the EU is especially pronounced in the foreign policy field, where they remain determined to assert their status as full subjects of the international order. This book explores how foreign policy fits within the constitutional structure of the EU, characterized by the division of external relations competences between the EU and the Member States ('the vertical axis'), and between the 'pillars' of which the Union is composed, in particular the division between the Community competences of the first pillar and the common foreign and security competences of the second pillar ('the horizontal axis'). This is a study of the extent to which foreign policy is legally sui generis within the sui generis constitutional order of the EU, and of how the common foreign and security policy is in turn sui generis within the foreign policy structure of the Union. It provides both an exploration of the constitutional reality of EU foreign policy and theoretical analysis which suggests possibilities for reform.

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Readership:

Scholars and advanced students in EU external relations law, EU constitutional law, international institutional law, and interested scholars of international relations.

Part I: EC External Relations 1: Conferral 2: Vertical Conflict Resolution in EC External Relations: Exclusivity and Non-exclusivity 3: The Community Method Part II: The Common Foreign and Security Policy 4: CFSP v. EC External Relations 5: Democracy and the Rule of Law in EU Foreign Policy 6: The Dichotomy Between EC External Relations and the CFSP Part III: Managing The Vertical and Horizontal Axes 7: Managing the Vertical Axis 8: Managing The Horizontal Axis: Horizontal Consistency Part IV: Conclusions 9: The Constitutional Particularities of EU Foreign Policy 10: EU Foreign Policy, Identity, and Law