Diverse assessments of the EU's role in global governance suggest a great need for dependable and justifiable benchmarks. This chapter argues that constitutional foreign policy objectives are an... Show moreDiverse assessments of the EU's role in global governance suggest a great need for dependable and justifiable benchmarks. This chapter argues that constitutional foreign policy objectives are an important source for such benchmarks — for conceptual, empirical, and normative reasons. Conceptually speaking, global governance is an inherently rule-oriented as well as goal-oriented concept. Empirically, such substantive global governance goals can be found today in many constitutions, including those of the rising powers of the emerging multipolar world. EU primary law post-Lisbon is part of this trend, but also goes further. Next to an extensive collection of substantive objectives, it also puts a distinctive emphasis on law as an essential ingredient of its foreign policy and consequently of its vision for global governance. From a normative point of view, the peculiar features pertaining to constitutional law as a source for global governance guidance, as opposed to policy documents or other law, appear at first sight as problematic. In particular for the EU, facing the challenge of ‘relative decline’ in a multi-polar world, entrenching such an ambitious agenda in its highest laws may appear as audacious wishful thinking. On closer inspection, however, these particular features reveal the true value of the constitutional codification of a global governance agenda. Show less
This chapter discusses the European Union’s Trade Policy as one of the main connectors of the Union with the outside world, with the ensuing legal and policy ramifications going well beyond trade... Show moreThis chapter discusses the European Union’s Trade Policy as one of the main connectors of the Union with the outside world, with the ensuing legal and policy ramifications going well beyond trade stricto sensu. Now that the dust of the EU’s reform process has begun to settle after entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, it is time to take stock of the different ways in which trade serves as such a link. The chapter addresses three main aspects, reflecting the ascending level of ambition the EU shows to influence the outside world. First, the EU’s trade policy as a corollary of its internal market; second, the role of trade policy as a vehicle for various other external policies; third, the role of the EU’s trade policy in ‘constitutionalizing’ the system of global economic governance. In sum, three basic tenets emerge: First, where there is a common market, there needs to be a common trade policy. Second, where there is a common trade policy, foreign policy is right around the corner. Third, the more intertwined international trade and the foreign policy questions become, the greater the need for a (value-based, constitutional) framework balancing the different goals pursued and lending legitimacy to the decision-making process. However, this does not require any lofty ‘constitutional moment’, neither for the EU nor for the WTO, but the maintenance and further development of an effective legal system for international trade. Show less
