Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 March 2019
The EU legal system, with its many hands and complex architecture, in which national and European powers are closely interwoven, requires a particular form of cooperation. This delicately developed cooperation may be influenced by the EU's ambition to take a statelike role in international relations. Indeed, the basic assumption underlying this Article is that it is not only the EU's complexity that influences the EU's external actions—usually seen as limiting the EU's capacity to speak with one voice—but also that the EU's external actions influence its internal set-up and cooperation practices. As a result of the EU's participation in international legal regimes, established organizational principles might come under pressure. Furthermore, within the complexity of the European legal order, the potential consequences could be more disturbing for stability than within the—monolithic, in comparison—structure of states.
1 This paper forms part of a broader inquiry about the implications of internationalisation for the power division within the EU legal order and the position of individuals: Outside-In: Tracing The Imprint of the European Union's External Actions on Its Constitutional Landscape, funded by the Dutch Science Foundation, NWO. For a short description, see http://centers.law.nyu.edu/jeanmonnet/fellows/12-13/ChristinaEckes.html.Google Scholar
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3 Prominent examples include Kyoto Protocol, supra note 2; Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, June 25, 1998, 2161 U.N.T.S. 447 [hereinafter Aarhus Convention]; Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, May 22, 2001, 2256 U.N.T.S. 119 [hereinafter Stockholm Convention]; Convention on Biological Diversity, June 5, 1992, 1760 U.N.T.S. 79; Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity, Jan. 29, 2000 2226 U.N.T.S. 208; and Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity, Oct. 29, 2010, UNEP/CBD/COP/DEC/X/1. For an overview, see http://treaties.un.org.Google Scholar
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