On the Benefits of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) Negotiations for the EU Legal Order: A Legal Perspective

Abstract:

This article argues that Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations have a positive legal story worth recounting as to the effects of the negotiations upon the European Union (EU) legal order. The article explores the negotiation of EU international agreements as a specific field of law and considers how the TTIP negotiations overall contribute to the politicization of the EU through shifts in legal practice on the part of all major institutional actors to EU international relations in changes to approach, procedure and actions. It uses the metric of responsiveness to measure or chart the former, considering the responses as actually practiced by institutional actors in law to normative concerns arising. It considers these practices across a range of actors, specifically the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Ombudsman, the Committee of the Regions and the TTIP Advisory Group.