This introductory chapter provides an overview of the role of jurisdiction in international law. Jurisdiction becomes an issue in international law once a state adopts laws that govern matters which are not purely of domestic concern. In this case, the extension of jurisdiction to regulate the activities of a state’s nationals abroad under the so-called active personality principle draws on the conception of a state as more than just territory, namely as a group of persons, wherever located, who are subject to a common authority that accompanies nationality. This type of jurisdiction is exercised to protect a state’s reputation from being tarnished by the conduct of its nationals abroad. Meanwhile, the question of nationality is determined by domestic law, although international law ascertains whether such a claim of nationality by one state must be accepted by another on the basis of the ‘genuine link’ test.
Seeing that a bilateral agreement between the EU and Russia on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project is highly unlikely to be concluded due to political considerations, this paper enquires which existing legal regime is applicable to the governing of this pipeline, especially in order to guarantee solidarity and security within the EU energy market through third-party access and unbundling requirements. The question is whether EU law in general (which the Council denies) or international law applies, and if the latter, which specific regime(s): the Energy Charter Treaty, wto law, the law of the sea, or a combination of regimes? Lastly, this paper also investigates whether and to what extent these international law regimes might guarantee the same solidarity and energy security standards as EU law.
After the EU's accession to the ECHR has been discussed for more than thirty years, an Accession Agreement has been finalized in 2013. By subjecting EU law to the supervision of the ECtHR and by enabling individuals to submit complaints against the EU institutions to Strasbourg, one of the last gaps in European human rights protection will be overcome. But accession may not take place as swiftly as some may hope for, as many legal problems remain unsolved. This article examines the most urgent legal issues in the context of accession, such as its scope and legal effects; its procedural aspects (the co-respondent mechanism, inter-Party cases, and the prior involvement procedure) and their relation to the Union's legal autonomy; and the institutional interlacing of the EU and the Council of Europe and the former's future involvement in the Parliamentary Assembly and in the Committee of Ministers.
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