International Treaties in European Law: Dualism versus Monism
pages 145 - 157
ABSTRACT:

This article deals with the negotiation of international treaties by the European Union before and after the Lisbon Treaty reforming the European Union entered into force. The Lisbon Treaty explicitly codifies the theory of implicit powers developed by the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice. A key issue for the future is whether EU institutions will make extensive use of this new situation and try to eliminate Member States from decision-making processes, i.e., whether they will seek to dismantle the ratification process in Member States in respect to the mixed international treaties negotiated by the European Union and Member States on the one hand, and a third-party country on the other. The European Union does not wield enough powers to be able to negotiate mixed international treaties in its exclusive competence, which in practice means without the participation of Member States. In the future, the choice of legal basis for the negotiation of international treaties by the European Union should be more closely monitored by the Member States, as this is in their own interest.

keywords
Treaty of Lisbon
Ratification
Negotiation of international treaties
Mixed international treaties
Theory of implied powers
European Union
European Court of Justice
State sovereignty
Constitutional courts
about the authors

JUDr. PhDr. Petr Mlsna, Ph.D. – Education: Faculty of Law at Charles University in Prague – Doctor of Laws; Ph.D. in Constitutional, European and International Laws; Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University in Prague - Doctor of Philosophy. He works as Director of the Department of Legislation of the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic. Petr Mlsna teaches at the Faculty of Law at Charles University in Prague (constitutional law) and at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University in Prague (economic history of Germanspeaking countries). He has published more than 50 articles and essays and co-authored the monograph, International Treaties in Czech Law.