Klabbers, Jan --- "Too much, too little, too late? Reflections on law and ethics in the EU’s foreign policy" [2018] ELECD 1281; in Blockmans, Steven; Koutrakos, Panos (eds), "Research Handbook on the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018) 445

Book Title: Research Handbook on the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy

Editor(s): Blockmans, Steven; Koutrakos, Panos

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN: 9781785364075

Section: Chapter 20

Section Title: Too much, too little, too late? Reflections on law and ethics in the EU’s foreign policy

Author(s): Klabbers, Jan

Number of pages: 14

Abstract/Description:

This chapter aims to discuss the ever-fraught relationship between law and ethics in foreign policy. Its argument boils down to the suggestion that however much legal rules are needed, no foreign policy can succeed without practical wisdom on the part of the decision-makers. Following brief case studies of a minor judicial saga involving EUPM and the annexation of Crimea by Russia, the chapter explores in what ways virtue ethics, and in particular the Aristotelian virtue of practical wisdom (phronesis), can offer a helpful perspective when it comes to both making and discussing foreign policy decisions.