European sovereignty and development of the international legal order: the EU’s economic security and Anti-Coercion Instrument

The European Union (EU) is well known for its normative preference for multilateralism but this preference has been challenged by geopolitical evolutions and its promotion of a ‘European sovereignty’ agenda. In the context of promoting economic security and through the adoption of unilateral trade-related instruments such as the Anti-Coercion Instrument (ACI), the EU has highlighted not only its current nature as a selectively multilateral actor but also the challenges that its unilateralism poses to existing international law regimes. While one view is that the EU’s unilateralism may be damaging to these legal regimes, especially to the international trade legal order, given the EU’s constructive stance in moving beyond a dichotomous approach to trade and security, this may not be true. Rather, the EU’s nuanced approach to the multifaceted, complex relationship between trade and security may, in fact, help to preserve the international legal order and institutions of international trade, namely the World Trade Organization (WTO). To illustrate this potential, this article first reviews the EU’s evolving understanding of and relationship to multilateralism. It then examines how the EU’s ACI interacts with international trade law, precisely WTO law, while highlighting its potential for developing the international legal order.