The Legal Effect of Community Agreements: Maximalist Treaty Enforcement and Judicial Avoidance Techniques

It has been clear since a seminal ECJ ruling in the 1970s that the European Community is attached to a model of automatic treaty incorporation whereby the full panoply of Community law enforcement tools are available for the enforcement of Community Agreements. In the decades since, a rich body of case law has emerged concerning this growing body of treaty law to which the Community has become party. Much of this jurisprudence is testament to a maximalist approach to treaty enforcement which shares parallels with the approach to internal Community law. Most recently, however, the Intertanko ruling indicates that the ECJ is not averse to employing judicial avoidance techniques to preclude review where it is Community action that is challenged. The current trajectory of treaty enforcement is thus indicative of a twin-track approach whereby the ECJ is reluctant to transpose the maximalist approach to treaty enforcement which characterizes its contribution where action at the Member State level is challenged. Such a trajectory, built in accordance with the defensive submissions of the Community’s political institutions, raises significant questions about the EU’s much-vaunted commitment to international law.