The European Union as a subject of public international law

Abstract

The topic discussed by this thesis is in essence that of Supra-nationalism. This because, whilst the European Union is being described as a subject of Public International Law (PIL), in that since it is the only example of its sort, discussing the EU would as a consequence imply that the only Supra-national Organisation in existence is being discussed. The thesis begins by defining what is meant by subjects of PIL, listing the different subjects as well as those characteristics which distinguish them from one another. To place the EU in the picture, a description of Supra-national Organisations and supra-nationalism is given in Chapter 1. The next Chapter then seeks to discuss the legal personality of International Organisations. It has been hinted along in this Thesis that the EU is much akin to International Organisations so that the latter is to serve as a starting point for our understanding of the subject in question. This legal personality is understood with reference to the characteristics of International Organisations which show us how this is exercised. The EU is then distinguished by its being a supra national entity and this we see from the perspective of International Law. The remaining Chapters go in more detail in specifically discussing the EU's legal personality and a number of cases are quoted so as to understand the development of this legal personality. A distinction is created between Community and Union so that it is understood that the EU has many faces which give rise to different legal consequences. The last Chapter is devoted to the future of Europe which should give us a picture of how the Union is to evolve. Whilst the Heads of State have just agreed on a Constitution which will now have to be ratified by each Member State, the document discussed in this Thesis has been the final Draft of the approved Constitution. The last Inter-Governmental Conference (IGC) took place just as this Thesis was being concluded so that it was not possible for me to quote from the new text. However, the reference to the Draft Constitution should simply be taken as a means of assessing the trend which the EU is taking in its development. Finally, one is to note that the classification of this thesis falls both under Public International Law as well as European Union Law. In this regard, it has been attempted to keep the subject as balanced as possible so that both branches were given their due consideration. Similarly, whilst clearly, the legal discussion prevails it being an LL.D. thesis, issues of a political nature have also been referred to because they could be of help to better understand the issues focused upon.