Europe at war

For the first time in its history, the EU supported a belligerent State, Ukraine. This event raises the issue of the legal qualification of the acts of the EU as for international law

Discourses on Methods

Il volume tratta dei mediti di analisi di diritto internazionale. In particolare prende in esame la formazione e la determinazione della consuetudine; i principi generali del diritto, il legale reasoning delle corti internazionali

La sovranità oltre lo stato

Il dibattito sul concetto di «sovranità» è cresciuto esponenzialmente negli ultimi anni, anche alla luce dell’affermazione di movimenti culturali e politici «sovranisti». Dopo aver definito questo paradigma del pensiero politico occidentale e analizzato l’impatto dei processi di internazionalizzazione sullo Stato sovrano, il volume delinea diversi modelli di organizzazione politica «oltre lo Stato» e ne esplora i rapporti con il principio di democrazia

Nine Theses on Autonomy: Making Sense of a Controversial Doctrine

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2023 8(3), 1317-1331 | Article | (Table of Contents) I. Introduction. – II. Autonomy in the early theories of sovereignty. – III. A historical hypothesis: autonomy as an institutional tool. – IV. The triumph of autonomy. – V. A change of paradigm: absolute autonomy v offene Staatlichkeit. – VI. Reverse autonomy. – VII. Autonomy of the EU vis-à-vis its Member States. –VIII. Autonomy vis-à-vis international law. – IX. Autonomy v Völkerrechtsfreundlichkeit. – X. The political dimension of autonomy. | (Abstract) The notion of autonomy sinks its roots in the dynamics between political sovereignty and legal sovereignty. Although autonomy, namely normative sovereignty, was perceived by the early theorists as an inseparable prerogative of the sovereign, its conceptual development took far more time than the notion of political sovereignty. Autonomy emerged at a later time in-keeping with the conception of a legal order, conceived of as a close system of rules proceeding from a fundamental rule conferring normativity to the whole system. In the process of the European integration, the notion of autonomy followed an inverse trajectory. Whereas the EU does not possess the prerogatives of political sovereignty, it developed into a normative entity independent vis-à-vis the legal orders of its Member States. But the transplant of this notion of absolute autonomy in the realm of international law could deeply affect the capacity of the EU to implement its international values enshrined in its Constitutional setting

Interconnecting International Jurisdictions

In the Genocide Convention case the ICJ seemed to adopt a twofold attitude towards the findings of the ICTY. Whereas it tended to show a certain deference to these findings, in matters of common concern, it radically denied the relevance of findings allegedly adopted by that judicial body outside the scope of its jurisdiction. Although both kind of references can be traced back to a principle of judicial propriety, the conclusions of the ICJ might lend some element of support to the idea that findings of the ICTY in proceedings before the ICJ might be relevant not qua judicial decisions but rather as international law rules binding for the parties of these proceedings. This unusual approach seems to shape a normative methodology, which can be of some avail in the study of overlapping international jurisdiction. The article engages in a technical analysis of this methodology and tries to shed some light on some of its far-reaching implications. The paper closes with some cursory remarks on the role of this methodology in the debate on the unity of international law, and, in particular, on the possible use of substantive law as a remedy to the incoherence which ensues from the proliferation of international jurisdictions

Trattati internazionali e giudizio di costituzionalità

Published version of EUI PhD thesis, 198

Convulsive Direct Effect?

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2022 7(1), 409-411 | Editorial | (Abstract) In spite of overflowing case law and an incessant scholarly debate, the doctrine of direct effect still delivers fresh surprises. The last in time is a mysterious tripartite statement included in Thelen Technopark, which, despite its unassuming tone, has the potential to subvert the constitutional dimension of the doctrine of direct effect. We do not know whether the dictum in Thelen Technopark was aimed to start a process of revision or whether we can dismiss it as an incidental passage which escaped from the pen of the Grand Chamber. But the Constitutional relevance of direct effect for the present state of the European legal order and for its possible future development should dissuade the Court from facile and dangerous experimentalism

Questioni di legittimità costituzionale di trattati internazionali

Defence date: 15 June 1989Examining board: Prof. Mauro Cappelletti (University of Stanford-Law School) ; Prof. Antonio Cassese (Istituto Universitario Europeo) ; Prof. Giorgio Gaja (Università di Firenze) ; Prof. Bruno Simma (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität - München) ; Prof. Joseph Weiler (University of Michigan - Law School)PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 201

The Value of the EU International Values

This chapter focuses on the nature and effect of the values and principles enshrined in Articles 3(5) and 21 TEU, which set out the objectives and limits of the EU’s external action. It begins with some introductory remarks highlighting the constitutional significance of international values aimed at giving guidance to the conduct of the EU foreign relations power. The second part explores the tendency of the CJEU to use these values and principles as a means of enlarging the functional scope of the EU competences. The problematic issues flowing from this approach, in particular the relation between general objectives of the EU’s external action and particular objectives assigned to single areas, are discussed in the third part. The chapter concludes with a brief enquiry on the impact of general values and objectives on the principle of conferral