The EU as a ‘good’ global actor

The book, Understanding the EU as a Good Global Actor: Ambitions, Values and Metrics (published by Edward Elgar in Winter 2022) was launched at The City Law School on January 30^th 2023.

The event was organised by its editors, Jean Monnet Chair in EU Law, City’s Professor Elaine Fahey, and Dr Isabella Mancini of Brunel Law School, an alumna (PhD) of The City Law School.

The launch was co-sponsored by Brunel Law School.

The book is a major output for the EU Trade and Investment (EUTIP) Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Innovative Training Network (ITN), of which Professor Fahey was Co-Project Investigator from 2016-2022, after a range of events, seminars and case studies, all of which were predominantly conducted online, during COVID-19.

This book investigates the EU’s multi-faceted development as a global actor, unpacking its legal mission to be a ‘good’ actor as well as exploring the complexities of fulfilling this objective. It elicits critical reflections on the question of ‘goodness’ in EU external relations from descriptive, analytical and normative perspectives, and examines which metrics of actorness are useful in tackling this subject. Featuring contributions from more than 20 leading EU scholars and emerging voices, the book develops four themes through which it advances a research agenda for the study of the EU as a good global actor.

EU governance, trade and external relations

Understanding the EU as a Good Global Actor: Ambitions, Values and Metrics, begins by unpacking the complexities of the EU as a global trade actor, before discussing ‘good’ trade governance and a deeper trade agenda, the issue of data governance in digital trade and in other regulatory frameworks, and finally the institutional dimension of EU actorness. Understanding the EU as a Good Global Actor will be a crucial read for scholars and students in EU law and politics, particularly those with an interest in EU governance, trade and external relations. It will also prove useful for policy makers both within and outside the EU.

A keynote address was given by Frank Hoffmeister, Director-General and head of Legal Affairs of the European Union External Action Service (EEAS), the EU’s diplomatic organ.

An overview of the book themes was provided by the editors, followed by a roundtable with contributions from: Ignacio Garcia Bercero, European Commission (in person) and Kalypso Nicolaïdis, European University Institute (EUI) Florence (online), Billy Melo Araujo, Queen's University Belfast (in person), Martin Trybus, University of Birmingham (in person), Eva Pander Maat, City Law School (in person), Jörg Polakiewicz, Council of Europe (online), Svetlana Yakovleva, University of Amsterdam (online), Xuechen Chen, New College of the Humanities, and Xinchuchu Gao, LSE (in person), Gesa Kübek, University of Groningen (in person).

All authors were asked to reflect upon what they would change or consider what had altered the context of their contribution in the interim