Call for Papers: Trade and Security in the EU’s Unilateral Trade and Investment Policy

In the framework of Utrecht University Law School’s RENFORCE research programme, we are organizing a workshop on 2 December 2022 on the nexus between trade and security, with a focus on the EU’s unilateral trade and investment policy toolbox. Our aim is to make sense of and critically examine the above developments, and to foster discussions between EU lawyers, international lawyers and social scientists working on these topics. Abstracts of maximum 500 words may be submitted until 11 August 2022.

Security considerations increasingly drive trade and investment policy in the European Union. In 2019, the EU legislature set up a screening framework to protect the EU and its Member States against investments that may threaten the security of the EU and its Member States. In 2021, it updated the EU’s export control regulations regarding dual-use items. The EU is currently considering an ‘anti-coercion instrument’, which would allow the EU to retaliate against coercive practices targeted at EU institutions or Member States. Furthermore, the EU frequently imposes sectoral economic as opposed to targeted individual sanctions in the framework of its common foreign and security policy (CFSP). Other recent legislative initiatives also indirectly contribute to the Treaty objective of bolstering the security of the EU and its Member States. For example, by insulating EU economies against distortive subsidies and by making access to procurement markets dependent on reciprocity, the EU endows itself with instruments to unilaterally respond to efforts by third countries to deploy trade instruments in pursuit of security-related objectives.

Possible topics

In the framework of Utrecht University Law School’s RENFORCE research programme, we are organizing a workshop on the nexus between trade and security, with a focus on the EU’s unilateral trade and investment policy toolbox. Our aim is to make sense of and critically examine the above developments, and to foster discussions between EU lawyers, international lawyers and social scientists working on these topics. We are inviting contributions that engage with the various legal aspects of the trade-security nexus in the EU’s unilateral trade and investment policy. Possible topics include the compatibility of recent legislative initiatives with EU (primary) law (division of competences, choice of legal basis, fundamental rights, questions of dispute resolution and effective judicial protection…) or international law (WTO law, international responsibility, countermeasures, jurisdiction, principle of nonintervention...), comparative legal analyses, as well as interdisciplinary contributions that connect legal and social science literatures on the ‘geopoliticization’ or the ‘securitization’ of trade and investment policy in the EU.

Practical information

The one-day workshop will consist of three panels. Three papers will be discussed during each panel, which makes for a total of nine papers. Abstracts of maximum 500 words may be submitted by email to t.e.verellen@uu.nl until 11 August 2022 and should be accompanied by a brief CV. Applicants will be informed of the outcome by the end of August. Draft papers are due by 15 November 2022.

To enable a fruitful discussion and to ensure that each participant receives constructive feedback to revise and finalize their paper with the view of publication, participants are expected to read all other contributions. We can offer limited financial support to participants on a needs basis to cover travel and accommodation costs. We encourage submissions by young and established scholars alike