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Petersmann, Ernst-Ulrich --- "Can the EU’s Disregard for ‘Strict Observance of International Law’ (Article 3 TEU) be Constitutionally Justified?" [2011] ELECD 781; in Govaere, Inge; Quick, Reinhard; Bronckers, Marco (eds), "Trade and Competition Law in the EU and Beyond" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Trade and Competition Law in the EU and Beyond

Editor(s): Govaere, Inge; Quick, Reinhard; Bronckers, Marco

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9780857935663

Section: Chapter 13

Section Title: Can the EU’s Disregard for ‘Strict Observance of International Law’ (Article 3 TEU) be Constitutionally Justified?

Author(s): Petersmann, Ernst-Ulrich

Number of pages: 12

Extract:

13. Can the EU's disregard for `strict
observance of international law'
(Article 3 TEU) be
constitutionally
justified?
Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann

During his many years as legal advisor in the EU Commission, Jacques
Bourgeois contributed to the revolutionary transformation of EU law from
an international treaty among states into `a Community based on the rule
of law, inasmuch as neither its member states nor its institutions can avoid a
review of the question whether the measures adopted by them are in
conformity with the basic constitutional charter, the Treaty'.1 Yet, like
other advocates of the EU and EU diplomats representing the EU in the
GATT and World Trade Organization (WTO), Jacques welcomed the now
established jurisprudence of the ECJ exempting the EU institutions from
legal and judicial accountability vis-à-vis EU citizens for the frequent
violations of the EU's GATT/WTO obligations, as formally established in
more than 40 GATT and WTO dispute settlement rulings. From my
perspective as a former legal advisor in GATT and the WTO and repre-
sentative of Germany in European and international institutions, I have
argued long since2 that the unnecessary, frequent disregard in EU trade
policy-making for the EU's constitutional obligation of `strict observance
of international law' (Article 3 TEU) lacks a constitutional justification

1
ECJ, Case 294/83, Les Verts [1986] ECR 1339, para. 23.
2
Cf. Petersmann, E.U., `Application of GATT by the Court of Justice of the
European Communities', in Common Market Law Review, Vol. 20, ...