International Law Aspects of the European Union

by Martti Koskenniemi (Editor)

The debate about the relationship between international and community law usually centres on the question of which of these two belongs' to the other, and how special' community legal order is in relation to international law. In this volume, a distinguished group of Finnish and British academics and practitioners break new ground by, instead of becoming mired in these questions, clearly examining the international law aspects of the activities of the Community and the Union. In doing so, they have elucidated points of connection and possible points of conflict. The result is a thought-provoking collection of essays which examines community law through the conceptual grid of international law, and thus enriches our understanding of the workings of both.

340 pages, Hardcover

First published November 19, 1997

About the author

Martti Koskenniemi was the Academy Professor and Director of the Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights at the University of Helsinki, a Professorial Fellow at Melbourne Law School, and Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He held visiting professorships at New York University, the University of Cambridge, the University of Utrecht, Columbia University, the University of São Paulo, the University of Toronto, and the universities of Paris I, II, X and XVI. He was a member of the Finnish diplomatic service from 1978 to 1994 and of the International Law Commission (UN) from 2002 to 2006. His main publications include From Apology to Utopia: The Structure of International Legal Argument (1989), The Gentle Civilizer of Nations: The Rise and Fall of International Law 1870-1960 (2001), The Politics of International Law (2011), The Cambridge Companion to International Law (2012, co-edited with Professor James Crawford), and To the Uttermost Parts of the Earth: Legal Imagination and International Power 1300–1870 (2021). He is a graduate of the universities of Turku and Oxford, and holds the degree of doctorate of laws honoris causa from the universities of Uppsala and Frankfurt.