The Role of the EU in the Promotion of Human Rights and International Labour Standards in Its External Trade Relations

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xviii

   PDF

2. The Promotion of Human Rights and International Labour Standards After Lisbon: An Introduction

   • Samantha Velluti

   Pages 1-10

3. The EU as a Global Actor in an “Inter-Polar” World

   • Samantha Velluti

   Pages 11-38

4. The Legal Framework of the Common Commercial Policy After the Entry into Force of the Treaty of Lisbon

   • Samantha Velluti

   Pages 39-95

5. EU Political Conditionality as a Tool for the Promotion and Protection of Non-trade Values in Non-EU Countries

   • Francesca Martines

   Pages 97-180

6. The Promotion of Social Rights and Labour Standards in EU External Trade Relations

   • Samantha Velluti

   Pages 181-291

7. The Nature of the European Union’s Human Rights Obligations in Its External Trade Relations After Lisbon

   • Samantha Velluti

   Pages 293-346

8. Conclusion—The Merits of EU Conditionality in a World of Contrasts

   • Francesca Martines, Samantha Velluti

   Pages 347-359

This book represents a significant and timely contribution to the copious literature of the EU as a global actor providing new insights and fresh perspectives into the promotion of human rights and international labour standards in the EU’s external trade relations, building on and stimulating further – the already well-engaged – scientific dialogue on this area of research. In particular, it provides the basis for developing a new analytical structure for better understanding the role of the EU in promoting human rights and international labour standards in global trade and, in particular, for assessing the extent to which and how normative considerations have influenced the adoption of EU legal instruments and policy decisions.

This book will appeal to research scholars, post-graduate students, practitioners and human rights activists. 

• Common Commercial Policy
• European Union
• European Union (EU)
• International Labour Organization
• International labour standards
• International trade agreements
• Treaty of Lisbon (TL)

This book is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding how the EU uses its economic muscle to encourage other countries to improve their human rights records. As one might expect, it covers the EU’s trade, human rights and labour standards policies in its free trade agreements, unilateral tariff preference scheme and other development tools in impressive detail. But it also situates these policies in a conceptual framework, legally anchored in the EU treaties themselves, and suggests concrete ways to bring greater coherence to the EU’s trade and human rights policies. Velluti [and Martines] have excelled with this comprehensive, sophisticated and forward-looking account of one of the EU’s key external policy areas. (Dr Bartels is Reader in International Law, Fellow and Director of Studies Trinity Hall, at the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom) 

The book is an outstanding and reflective example of critical reflections of EU international trade and the place of human rights, focussing upon labour. The book considers the key choices made in the promotion of norms and how they frame the EU’s promotion of values. Velluti provides a rich and diverse account of trade labour linkages in EU trade agreements. Using a range of superb case studies, the book provides a critical account of the challenges of conditionality, particularly social and political, and the many obstacles faced by the EU in its international relations. Velluti (and Martines) astutely considers the actions of the EU promoting its values in an era of Brexit and anti-globalism. It is an invaluable read for those researching and reading about the EU as a global actor and the EU as a trade actor and their connectivity in law, politics and other related spheres. (Professor Elaine Fahey is Jean Monnet Chair of Law & Transatlantic Relations and Professor of Law at the Institute for the Study of European Law (ISEL), the City Law School, City, University of London)

• Sussex Law School, School of Law, Politics and Sociology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK

  Samantha Velluti

Policies and ethics