Legal mechanisms for the European Union to participate in the decision-making of multilateral fora in the field of maritime affairs
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Date
02/07/2014Item status
Restricted AccessEmbargo end date
31/12/2100Author
Hong, Wei-Sheng
Metadata
Abstract
The European Union (EU) increasingly participates in various
arrangements at the international level in order to further the objectives of
the Union. Yet, such participation poses challenges in terms of ensuring that
the EU has an effective voice, whilst also ensuring certainty and clarity for
other participants. This thesis focuses on the EU’s participation in the
decision-making processes of multilateral fora in the field of maritime affairs
in order to examine how these challenges can be met. The thesis explores the
legal mechanisms in both EU law and international law that accommodate
the ability of the EU to participate in international arrangements. It will
consider whether these mechanisms ensure clarity and certainty to the key
actors involved and whether consistency exists between the internal and
external mechanisms. Through collecting, examining, and analysing
historical and contemporary materials relating to the shaping and operating
of the internal and external legal mechanisms, this thesis aims to explain and
analyse how the legal mechanisms are established and how they can be
adapted to meet the challenges facing the EU, its Member States, third States,
and international institutions in a clearer and more consistent manner.
The research diagnoses several key factors that have contributed to the
possible ambiguity, uncertainty, and inconsistency of these mechanisms,
including the evolving nature of shared competence and a heavy reliance on
the Court of Justice in ascertaining and safeguarding the contours of the EU
legal order and its interface with the international legal order. It then
examines how the internal legal mechanisms have been projected externally,
by using selected case studies of the participation of the EU in the
International Maritime Organisation, the United Nations Convention on the
Law of the Sea, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations,
and Regional Fisheries Management Organisations. This thesis illustrates
that although various mechanisms have been adopted internally and
externally to tackle the challenges facing the EU’s participation, several sets
of asymmetries can be found across different legal mechanisms. The thesis
evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of these mechanisms and it further
suggests that adopting the mixed-participation mode for the EU and its
Member States to participate in the multilateral fora may be preferable, or
indeed necessary, even in areas where the EU enjoys an exclusive competence.