@article{2024:hoffmeister:the_legal_,
title = {The Legal Significance of Trade and Sustainability Chapters in EU Free Trade Agreements},
year = {2024},
note = {The article recalls the evolution and content of Trade and Sustainable
Development (TSD) Chapters in EU Free Trade Agreements. They usually
contain commitments of both parties to exercise their domestic law
without undermining labour and environmental standards. Moreover,
parties commit to respect their international obligations in the field
and create joint bodies with participation of civil society. Comparing
the panel reports on South Korea (2021) and on Ukraine (2020), the
authors argue that their practical effect does not depend so much on
their legal status, but more on the political will to implement them.
The article also tackles the question of whether a breach of TSD
commitments by one party can justify trade sanctions by the other.
While TSD dispute settlement provisions create a special mechanism for
ordinary breaches, recourse to trade sanctions is possible under
Article 60 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties in case of
material breaches on core labour rights or important environmental
obligations. Finally, the authors sketch the policy change of the
European Commission of 2022, according to which the Paris Agreement on
Climate Change should become an essential element of EU FTAs, so that
also breaches of that instrument may be enforced by trade sanctions.},
journal = {ZEuS Zeitschrift für Europarechtliche Studien},
pages = {269--304},
author = {Hoffmeister, Frank and Siemer, Antonia},
volume = {27},
number = {3}
}