The EU in international relations
| The E.U. in International Relations |
|---|
| - The Law of External Relations of the E.U. (Prof. G. De Baere) |
| - International Law from a European Perspective (Prof. G. De Baere)* |
|
- The Law of International Organizations (Prof. J. Wouters), OR - The Law of the World Trade Organization (Prof. G. Van Caslter; Prof. J. Wouters) |
| - The E.U. in International Relations clinic (ccord. Prof. G. De Baere) |
‘Faced with [the] realities of hope and worry in the world, the European Union takes up its responsibility. We act. Supporting the forces of hope. Fighting the causes of worry. And very concretely so. With means and money. The European Union is the world’s largest donor of development aid and a major donor of climate finance for the poorest nations. With manpower. We have not only tens of thousands of development workers, but also thousands of soldiers, policemen and judges in missions around the world: peacekeeping in Africa’s Great Lake region, training police in Afghanistan and Iraq, patrolling off the coast of Somalia. With a sense of the global common good. In the issues of global governance, Europe looks for solutions. We are constructive in world trade negotiations, ambitious in climate talks, and forthcoming in the reform of the international financial institutions, recognizing the shift in global economic power. We simply cannot accept a stalemate, be it in Durban, Doha, Rio, or Cannes. With expertise in mediation. We mediate in conflicts in our neighbourhood and beyond, drawing from our experience of overcoming age-old rivalries.’
Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, Address to the UN General Assembly, 22 September 2011.
As the first ever address of a permanent president of the European Council to the UN General Assembly highlights, these are exciting times for EU foreign policy. Situated at a stone’s throw from the very heart of the EU’s centre of decision-making, the KU Leuven Law Faculty forms the ideal platform to explore the ever-expanding role played by the European Union on the international scene. Within the framework of the option ‘The EU in International Relations’, the Leuven LL.M programme is tailored to providing a comprehensive insight into both the constitutional framework that allows the Union to develop a foreign policy (The Law of External Relations of the EU) and the international environment in which it operates (International Law from a European Perspective, The Law of International Organizations or The Law of the World Trade Organization, and The EU in International Relations Clinics).
The Law of External Relations of the EU explores the legal intricacies of having a composite legal order entering into relations with third countries and international organizations. Among the subjects to be covered are the international legal personality of the Union, the division of competences between the Member States and the Union and between the different institutions of the Union in the field of external relations, and the coherence and efficiency of EU external action. The international side of that constitutional story is analysed in International Law from a European Perspective, which examines the place of the European Union within the international legal order. Topics to be examined include the sources of the EU law doctrines of primacy and direct effect and of the principle of conferral in international law, the place of international law within the EU legal order and of the EU legal order within international law, the relationship between the EU and the UN legal orders, the relationship between the EU and the WTO and the relationship between EU law and human rights law. Students have the choice between deepening their knowledge of the international environment in which the EU operates in either The Law of International Organizations which studies the most important legal and institutional issues of the law of international organizations or The Law of the WTO, which focuses on the rapidly expanding legal system of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and aims to provide a basic insight into the institutional and substantive law of the WTO.
The EU in International Relations Clinics offer a unique opportunity for students to learn first-hand from some of the most experienced legal practitioners from EU institutions. The four three hour-sessions will cover a number of practical legal issues regarding the European Union in international relations. The sessions will explore both issues of public international law, the law of international organizations and EU law in the EU’s multilateral and bilateral external relations, including the negotiation of international agreements after the Lisbon Treaty, and the relationship between the EU and other international organizations, in particularly the UN and the WTO.
Together, the courses and clinics of the LL.M option ‘The EU in International Relations’ provide a wide-ranging and in-depth exploration of the position and role of the EU within the international legal order. It will appeal to anyone interested in that crucial and ever-expanding aspect of EU policy, but is especially valuable for those planning on or already engaged in a career in the EU institutions or in their home state’s ministries of European or foreign affairs or diplomatic services.
