This thesis is an attempt to analyse, in legal terms, the theory and implementation in practice of an "ethical foreign policy" by the European Union. It focuses on relations between the Union and certain developing States. The thesis is primarily composed of two distinct substantive parts. The first substantive part is composed of two chapters. This part firstly investigates which international legal rules authorise or oblige the Union, the European Community or the Member States to promote certain values in third States or in certain circumstances take action. It further examines the legal limits which under international law constrain such policies. It then goes on to examine policy and practice from a Union/Community law perspective. Here the thesis analyses: the relationship between the Union and Community pillars; the instruments available to the Union and Community in the pursuance of foreign policy objectives; and the scope of the Community and Union's competence in implementing an ethical foreign policy. The second substantive part of thesis examines practice. It analyses the importance attached to ethical values and their relationship with other priorities and objectives. Chapter Four examines relations with Myanmar, Nigeria and Pakistan. Chapter Five looks at relations with the Palestinian Authority and Israel in the overall context of the Middle East Peace Process. Chapter Six examines the Union's policy of humanitarian and emergency aid. The thesis finally attempts to draw some conclusions, as to the efficacy of the policies and instruments utilised and the approaches adopted in practice. It is argued that the Union should concentrate its efforts on certain specific rights and territories and abandon the all-encompassing policy it is currently attempting to implement.

The ethical foreign policy of the European Union: A legal appraisal.

The conclusion of the Treaty of Amsterdam and its progress through the ratification procedures of the 15 member States of the European Union provides an occasion to re-examine a familiar question. What is meant by the claim by the European Court of Justice that the European Com-munity Treaties have created “a new legal order of international law” 1 or, more radically, “a new legal order”? 2 Is EC law to be regarded as a particularly effective system of regional international law, or has it been created as, or mutated into, an entirely new species of law? If there are indeed two legal orders, to what extent are they still capable of cross-fertilisation? What about “European Union law”? Have the Treaty on European Union and now the Treaty of Amsterdam eroded the dichotomy between the two legal orders of public international law and EU law? Is public international law itself taking on some of the characteristics which have made EC law an attractive as well as an effective system for regulating relations between sovereign States? Are the two streams converging?

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/77B0F5698957F9F47C37D24F9FA17B79/S0020589300063193a.pdf/div-class-title-two-legal-orders-divergent-or-convergent-div.pdf

Two Legal Orders: Divergent or Convergent?

Both the European Community (EC) and its Member States agree that it is in their best interest to coordinate their action vis-a-vis the rest of the world in international agreements. This dissertation examines the law and practice of the EC external trade relations. The major point of analysis is to find ways to ensure the unitary character of the EC external trade relations in areas of mixed competence between EC Member States and EC Institutions as well as understand the management of the EC external trade relations. It begins with an analysis of the evolution of the EC common commercial policy, through which the author examines the checks and balances at the micro, meso and macro levels. The major EC Institutions are examined: the Commission as the negotiator of international agreements, the EU Council as the consultator and concluder of agreements, the European Parliament in its role of consultator and the role of the European Court of Justice in relation to shared competence between the EC and its Member States in the framework of international trade. The decision making process of the EU and its relation with national institutions are analyzed as an important part of this dissertation. The legal complexity of mixity is then analyzed. This unique legal phenomenon (mixed agreements) is tackled from an intra-EC perspective as well as from its external dimension, where its various implications for third parties are taken into account. This dissertation concludes that although the European Union is composed of 15 sovereign Member States with unique needs and circumstances, in most cases it is in their national interest to give up their national sovereignty to the European level to have a stronger negotiating position in international negotiations. This would only be legally possible by amending the Treaties.

Ways to ensure the unitary character in the external trade relations of the European Community on issues of mixed competence between the European Community and its member states.

G. L. Close

Papers

Subordination Clauses in Mixed Agreements