The Autonomy Paradox

Abstract

This short article responds to Daniel Halberstam’s “constitutional defense” of Opinion 2/13 of the European Court Justice on the accession of the EU to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). While Daniel believes that the Court was right to declare the accession agreement incompatible with the EU Treaties, I contend that the Court’s interpretation of the EU’s constitutional order is misguided: it ignores the fact that accession is a constitutional requirement and engages in cherry-picking when it comes to the relationship between EU law and international law. To move accession forward, we need to unpack what I call the “autonomy paradox.”

Keywords: EU, ECHR, Accession, ECJ, Monism, Dualism