Title

Is EC Trade Policy up to Par?: A Legal Analysis over Time - Rome, Marrakesh, Amsterdam, Nice, and the Constitutional Treaty

Abstract

This article is an attempt to a thorough chronological analysis of the European Community’s (EC) existing law and policy in the field of international trade law since the beginning of the European Economic Community. It deals with the evolution of the EC’s common commercial policy competence through the years, starting with the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), moving on to the necessary changes brought by the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement, signed in Marrakesh in 1994, until the days of the European Union (EU) Constitutional Treaty, with a view to enabling the EC with a coherent trade policy in the WTO framework. Thus, a legal analysis of EC trade policy in the pre-Amsterdam Treaty period, at the Treaty of Amsterdam, at the Treaty of Nice, and during the European Convention period, is provided, taking into account the most recent constitutional developments of division of competences between the EC and its Member States.

Disciplines

Commercial Law | Comparative and Foreign Law | Constitutional Law | International Law | International Trade Law

Date of this Version

August 2006