EU external relations and the law

Abstract

This contribution examines the role of law in EU external relations from two perspectives. First, the EU as a rule-based (international) actor. Law – and here we will focus mainly on EU law – governs both the extent of the EU’s external powers and their exercise: what are the constitutional foundations of EU external relations and how have the legal principles which govern external action been developed? Second, we turn to the EU's characteristic use of law as an instrument and objective of its foreign policy, the EU as a promoter of a rule-based international order. It is not simply that law shapes the institutional framework within which EU external policies are formed; the EU characteristically shapes its external relationships through legal instruments and the promotion of a rule-based approach to international relations is threaded through its Treaty-based external objectives.