Living in Sin: Legal Integration Under the EC-Turkey Customs Union

The EC and Turkey entered into a formal customs union agreement on December 31, 1995, in the form of Decision 1/95 of the ECTurkey Association Council. The Decision represents the culmination of thirty-two years of association between the EC and Turkey the Community's longest ongoing association. It is also the EC's first substantial functioning customs union with a third state, and is the EC's third attempt to 'share' some of its legal system with other states, following the European Economic Area (EEA) and plans for integration with Eastern Europe. Inevitably, such legal intimacy without formal EC membership entails a complex decision-making and disputesettlement structure that is bound to fall short of that available to members. One is tempted to suggest that the parties to such agreements are 'living in sin'.