Geert De Baere

EU Law and the EEAS: Of Complex Competences and Constitutional Consequences

In her foreword to the 2013 EEAS Review, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (High Representative or HR) Baroness Ashton likened the early days of the European External Action Service (EEAS) and its setting-up phase to ‘trying to fly a plane while still bolting the wings on’ (EEAS, 2013, p. 1). This chapter explores the legal nuts and bolts of the construction of the EEAS. An astonishing amount of law is involved. While foreign policy and law have forever been strange bedfellows (De Baere, 2012, pp. 359–360; Wessel, 2015), European integration is essentially a legalisation project (Cappelletti, Seccombe and Weiler, 1986), for the EU is a system constructed on the basis of law. It has created its own distinctive legal system, and legal niceties and practical legal implications dominate its everyday functions (Allott, 1999, p. 37, 46; De Baere, 2012, p. 364). Law also played a determining role in the fraught negotiation process setting up the EEAS (Erkelens and Blockmans, 2012; Van Vooren, 2011), and it continues to have a crucial impact on its daily functioning. At the same time, the EEAS is a groundbreaking legal construction, and as such it has had an impact on EU constitutional law, 1 which it has influenced and even transformed.

T.M.C. Asser and public and private international law: The life and legacy of ‘a practical legal statesman’

This contribution commemorates the award of the tenth ever Nobel Peace Prize to Tobias Michael Carel Asser on 10 December 1911, and examines his life and his lasting contribution to scholarship and practice in private and public international law. After a biographical sketch, it considers the scholarship of TMC Asser, including his part in the foundation of the Revue de droit international et de legislation comparee, and his international institution-building, particularly his role in the foundation of the Institut de droit international, the International Law Association, the ‘Hague Conferences on International Private Law’ (which ultimately became the international institution of the Hague Conference on Private International Law), the Permanent Court of Arbitration, and the Hague Academy of International Law. It also explores his legal and diplomatic practice, for example his important role as a Dutch delegate at the 1899 and 1907 Hague Peace Conferences. The article concludes with a reflection on Asser’s contribution to public and private international law, and concludes that while he was no doubt a very talented scholar, it was the combination of this with his skills and initiative as a negotiator, diplomat and international institution builder which secured his reputation and his legacy.

The contribution of international and supranational courts to the rule of law

Contents:PART I THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK1. Prologue: An Overview of the Contribution of International Tribunals to the Rule of Law Antonio Augusto Cancado Trindade2. The Contribution of International and Supranational Courts to the Rule of Law: A Framework for AnalysisGeert De Baere, Anna-Luise Chane and Jan WoutersPART II GLOBAL COURTS AND TRIBUNALS3. The International Court of JusticePhilippe Couvreur4. Constructing the International Criminal Courts Rule of Law IdentityKenneth Chan and Jan Wouters5. The Appellate Body of the World Trade OrganizationPeter Van den Bossche6. The Contribution of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea to the Rule of LawPhilippe GautierPART III REGIONAL COURTS7. THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS TO THE RULE OF LAWPaul Lemmens8. The Court of Justice as the Guarantor of the Rule of Law Within the European UnionKoen LenaertsPART IV TRIBUNALS PERTAINING TO PARTICULAR SITUATIONS9. International Criminal Justice and the Rule of Law: The Experience of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)Serge Brammertz10. The Iran-United States Claims Tribunal and its Contribution to International LawHans Van Houtte and Barbara Concolino11. The Special Tribunal for Lebanon and the Rule of LawDaniel FransenPART V EPILOGUE12. Epilogue: Reflections on International Courts and TribunalsAndreas FollesdalIndex