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Maresceau, Marc --- "The Brita Ruling of the European Court of Justice: A Few Comments" [2011] ELECD 785; 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 17

Section Title: The Brita Ruling of the European Court of Justice: A Few Comments

Author(s): Maresceau, Marc

Number of pages: 14

Extract:

17. The Brita ruling of the European
Court of Justice: a few comments
Marc Maresceau

17.1 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

In his introduction to a volume on the phenomenon of rules of origin in
international trade law published in 1994,1 Jacques, after recalling the
purpose of rules of origin and the different methods to establish origin,
moved on to more existential questions such as the legitimacy of preferen-
tial rules of origin and the relationship between rules of origin and the
international division of labour. While at first sight rules of origin appeared
`as an exclusively technical, albeit practically important, subject matter', it
was evident for him that they rapidly also took on both a legal and, often,
perhaps a political dimension. The recent Brita ruling of the European
Court of Justice is perhaps the most perfect illustration of this point and
explains the choice of this contribution for Jacques' liber amicorum.
On 25 February 2010 the Court of Justice of the European Union for the
first time provided an interpretation of the Association Agreement between
the EC and its Member States and Israel signed in 1995 (hereafter the
`EC­Israel Association Agreement') in the aftermath of the Oslo Peace
Process and ratified in 2000 when, unfortunately, the momentum of that
process had already largely vanished.2 The case had been brought before
the Court of Justice following a reference for a preliminary ruling by a

1
Bourgeois, J., `Rules of Origin: An introduction', in E. Vermulst, P. Waer, ...