IG Conference on the EU’s Response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

On 22-23 June the European Society of International Law Interest Group EU as a Global Actor will organize a conference on the theme The EU’s Response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: International and European Perspectives at the University of Leiden, Netherlands.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the European Union (EU) and its Member States have adopted wide-ranging legal and political measures to support Ukraine in its struggle. This has included political support, financial, military and humanitarian assistance in solidarity with Ukraine and its people. Beyond their impact on the war, these measures also raise important questions for the EU’s role in international relations and under EU law, human rights law, and various branches of public international law.

The aim of this conference is to discuss the legal and political issues associated with these EU measures. Rather than discussing the illegality of Russia’s invasion, panels will focus on current and future developments, mostly from an international law perspective, but also from International Relations and EU studies perspectives. Bringing together legal and political experts from academia and practice, the conference will explore and discuss these multifaceted questions.

The interdisciplinary event is supported by the University of Leiden (Europa Institute, Europe Hub and Ukraine Hub), KU Leuven (Institute for European Law and Reshuffle project) and The City Law School, City, University of London.

The event will also include a Pre-Conference PhD Workshop on 22 June.

For registration and programme, visit this webpage.

Best wishes,

IG Conveners

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CLEER and ESIL IG EU as a Global Actor Conference: EU Trade Agreements and the Duty to Respect Human Rights Abroad (11 December 2019)

The ESIL Interest Group on the EU as a Global Actor, the T.M.C. Asser Institute, and the Centre for the Law of EU External Relations (CLEER) are arranging a workshop on ‘EU Trade Agreements and the Duty to Respect Human Rights Abroad’. The workshop will take place at the Asser Institute in The Hague, on 11 December 2019.

Following a successful call for papers back in May, the final programme of the workshop is now available:

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EU External Relations Law: Recent Developments

The Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies and the University of Salamanca, in co-operation with the ESIL Interest Group on the EU as a Global Actor, are organizing on 15 July 2019 the fourth edition of the Seminar on EU External Relations Law in order to explore the most salient issues in the case law of the Court of Justice and the General Court on EU external relations over the last year.

Click here to read the full seminar program.

Call for papers: Sharing Sovereignty: The EU, its Member States and International Law

The European Society of International Law’s Interest Group The EU as a Global Actor organises a pre-conference event on Thursday 12 September 2019 in the framework of the 15th ESIL Annual Conference to be held 12-14 September 2019 in Athens, Greece.

As part of their EU membership, states have transferred an unprecedented amount of powers to an international organisation. Some of these powers touch upon core aspects of sovereignty, such as access of third country nationals to EU territory, budgetary decision-making, as well as external representation. The pre-conference event focuses on the consequences this transfer of competences has on our understanding of sovereignty and on the relationship of the EU and its Member States with third parties.

The overall aim of the panel is to explore the potential of developing a concept of European or shared sovereignty and to identify particular challenges associated with the complex division of competences among the EU and its Member States for international law. In this light, the Coordinating Committee of the Interest Group The EU as a Global Actor invites submissions of abstracts on any of the questions mentioned in the full call for papers of no more than 500 words. Applications should be submitted to ramses.wessel@utwente.nl by 1 June 2019, with a short curriculum vitae containing the author’s name, institutional affiliation, and contact details. Selected speakers will be notified by 1 July 2019.

Click here to read the full call for papers, in PDF format.

 

CLEER event bundle: EU Free trade agreements, the Bulgarian presidency in the EU, and CLEER’s 10th anniversary

The Centre for the Law of EU External Relations (CLEER) is hosting three events in the near future that should be of interest to the members of the interest group:

• Lecture: Improving the sustainability of EU Free Trade Agreements
  (26 September 2018 @ 16:00, T.M.C. Asser Instituut, The Hague).
• CLEER Presidency Lecture: The Bulgarian presidency’s experience of the EU Council in the external relations field
  (11 October 2018 @ 15:30, T.M.C. Asser Instituut, The Hague).
• 10th Anniversary CLEER Conference – EU external relations: Tackling global challenges?
  (6-7 December 2018, T.M.C. Asser Instituut, The Hague).

 

Conference: “The EU as a Global Actor in Maritime Security: Competences – Obligations – Accountability”

We are pleased to announce that our IG cooperates with three other IGs (Migration and Refugee Law, International Human Rights Law, and Law of the Sea) as well as Leiden Law School to organise a conference on ‘The EU as a Global Actor in Maritime Security: Competences – Obligations – Accountability‘.

The conference takes place on 25 and 26 October 2018 in Leiden. The aim is to explore what competences the EU has to act in the maritime domain, what obligations it is bound by when doing so, and how judicial oversight can be ensured. Studying the EU’s competences, obligations, and accountability will inform the broader discussion on the current and future role of the EU as a global actor in the maritime domain.

More information and a Draft Programme are available at the University of Leiden’s webpage for the event.

IG Seminar: EU External Relations Law – Recent Developments

On 10 July 2018, at 13:30-19:00, the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies and the University of Salamanca and in co-operation with the ESIL Interest Group on the EU as a Global Actor, are organizing the third Edition of the Seminar on EU External Relations Law to explore the most salient issues in the European Court of Justice’s case law on EU external relations in the last year. The past months have seen a number of key judgments and opinions being handed down in this field.

Click here to download the full programme.

The seminar takes place in the Council Room, Faculty of Law, Tiensestraat 41 (Leuven). Participation is free, but prior registration is necessary by 6 July on a first come, first serve basis (limited seating): mail to conference@ggs.kuleuven.be.

Workshop on Exiting Institutions – Napoli, 6 September 2017

Interest Group on International Organizations and Interest Group on the EU as a Global Actor

Joint Workshop

6 September 2017, University of Naples,
Via Nuova Marina, ROOM A 7, 15h00 – 18h00

Recent years have seen an extraordinary crisis of confidence in international institutions. From the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union to the mooted exodus of African States from the International Criminal Court, states are reconsidering their membership in international institutions in ways that were unthinkable a short time ago.

This gives rise to multiple challenges in international law, in terms of both the immediate legal issues which arise from the process of state withdrawal and the deeper questions about what international cooperation will look like in the coming years.

In order to explore these themes the ESIL Interest Groups on the European Union as a Global Actor and on International Organizations are jointly hosting a workshop prior to the ESIL Conference in Naples (September 2017). The connections between the two focal areas of the Interest Groups are visible for instance, in relation to how the exit of states from international organizations may impact the cooperation between the EU and these organizations. At the same time, exits from the EU will have an influence on the relation between the EU and other international organizations and between the ex-EU members and these organizations.

Discussions in the workshop are structured along the lines of three general themes: the rights and duties of exiting members, the legal position of individuals and the future of multilateralism.

IG Seminar: “Scoping the Field of EU External Relations Law at Sixty”

The ESIL Interest Group on EU as a Global Actor, the Leuven Center for Global Governance Studies, and the Salamanca University are holding a seminar entitled “Scoping the Field of EU External Relations Law at Sixty“. It takes place on 17 July 2017, 13:30-19:00 CET, at the Council Room, Faculty of Law, Tiensestraat 41, Leuven, Belgium. Participation is free, but prior registration is necessary by 14 July on a first come, first serve basis (limited seating), via e-mail: conference@ggs.kuleuven.be.

The idea and full programme is available via this link. Here is an excerpt:

This seminar seeks to explore the most salient issues in the European Court of Justice’s case law on EU external relations in the year that marks the 60th Anniversary of the Treaties of Rome. The past 10 months have seen a number of key judgments and opinions being handed down in this field. Developments of particular significance have taken place on two main strands. On the one hand, Opinions 2/15 and 3/15 (as well as pending Opinion 1/15) raise questions for reflection on the future of the EU’s common commercial policy and on the nature of EU external competences in general. On the other hand, a series of judgments in the area of the common foreign and security policy seem to provide guidance as regards the Court’s interpretation of its limited jurisdiction in this policy domain. H v Council, Rosneft and Elitaliana, but also earlier cases such as Tanzania Agreement and Mauritius Agreement, slowly build a significant body of case-law in this regard. This is linked to other judgments, such as the orders in which the General Court declined to rule on the EU-Turkey Statement. In order to assess these developments, the seminar, which takes place on the basis of Chatham House Rules, is structured around two main sessions. Following short presentations of maximum 10 minutes on the main issues touched upon in the case law, academics as well as practitioners coming from the legal services of the institutions and from the European Courts will be invited to comment.

LAwTTIP Joint Conference: ”TTIP and Beyond…”

The Institut de l’Ouest: Droit et Europe (IODE) of the University of Rennes 1, in cooperation with the University of Bologna and King’s College London, hosts the I Joint Conference of the Jean Monnet Network LAwTTIP: “TTIP and Beyond… Negotiating and implementing the EU’s Free Trade Agreements in an uncertain environment“.

The Conference will take place on 15 and 16 June 2017 at the University of Rennes 1. It will address the major institutional features related to the negotiation and implementation of the EU trade agreements.

See the conference web pages for further information.