"Foreword" [2017] ELECD 921; in Bardutzky, Samo; Fahey, Elaine (eds), "Framing the Subjects and Objects of Contemporary EU Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) ix

Book Title: Framing the Subjects and Objects of Contemporary EU Law

Editor(s): Bardutzky, Samo; Fahey, Elaine

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781786435736

Section Title: Foreword

Number of pages: 3

Extract:

Foreword
The title `subjects and objects of EU law' reminds me of my first steps in
international law, when there was much discussion of that topic in
international law. The traditional mantra was that `only states were
subjects of international law' ­ and perhaps later, progressively, inter-
national organisations. But international law today takes many different
forms. The EU itself has been active as a subject of international law; and
individuals can appear before some international courts and tribunals.
(By way of a random example: an introductory textbook: International
Law of Peace by NA Maryan Green, even in second edition, 1982, about
240 pages in all, seemed to be representative, in having a disproportion-
ate treatment: after two extremely brief chapters, Chapter 3 `Subjects of
International Law', over 50 pages, divided into three sections: states,
international organisations, and other subjects of international law (the
Holy See, etc.). Chapter 4, 30 pages: The position of the individual
(including corporations) in international law; Chapter 5, organs of the
state. That was most of the book: not much space left (one hundred rather
short pages for the rest of international law) ...)
Twenty years earlier, in Van Gend en Loos (1963), the Court of Justice
proclaimed that the EEC Treaty constituted a new legal order of
international law `for the benefit of which the states have limited their
sovereign rights, albeit within limited fields, and the subjects of which
comprise not only Member States but also their nationals'.
And direct effect has had a remarkable ...