Two different dynamics govern the autonomy of the European Union (EU) legal order. On the one hand, autonomy seeks to define what EU law is not, i.e. it is not ordinary international law. Positively, on the other, autonomy seeks to define what EU law is, i.e. a legal order that has the capacity to operate as a self-referential system of norms that is both coherent and complete. Yet the concept of autonomy of the EU legal order in no...

The Court of Justice of the European Union decided in the Opinion 1/17 that the Investor-State Dispute Settlement Mechanism (ISDS) in Chapter 8 of the CETA is compatible with EU primary law. That landmark Opinion clarifies the concept of ‘autonomous legal order’, which is essential in the law of EU external relations, and contains important guidance on how other fundamental principles of EU law apply in new-generation trade and inve...