EU Values and the Shaping of the International Legal Context
Chapter to be published as finalized version in F. Amtenbrink & D. Kochenov (eds) European Union's Shaping of the International Legal Order, (Cambridge University Press 2013)
23 Pages Posted: 13 May 2013 Last revised: 13 Mar 2019
Date Written: December 2012
Abstract
The international arena is increasingly important in EU legal discourse. The EU seeks to promote its values abroad by shaping the world stage. The EU was born from the ashes of a less than ideal world and its normative core starts from what Europeans wanted to escape. Several EU law scholars recognize the genesis of the EU as a peace project: European history forms the initial foundation stone of the EU’s integration enterprise where values have always played an important role and has had a clear effect on the external sphere. There is thus an inherent dynamic in the use of values on the EU scale, which is closely connected to the constitutional question of what kind of Europe the EU and its Member States are seeking to achieve. The chapter discusses, inter alia, how both EU values and principles express and represent a certain normative value or claim which at the EU level means that they serve a function of identification, in terms of ’Member State bonding’, through the recognition of shared European norms. And, the EU promotes these values and aspirations, not only internally, but also externally.
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