Abstract
Amsterdam Law Forum (ALF) is the student-run 'International Law Journal' of VU University. Every year ALF publishes a winter, spring, and summer issue. The journal consists of three sections; scientific articles, opinion articles, and commentaries. As of this year, ALF also creates a section for inaugural speeches. In addition, ALF hosts a conference in spring with a relevant legal theme, where renowned speakers are invited to share their perspectives. Overall, ALF is a topical journal that provides a platform for established scholars and young academics to share knowledge, opinions and experiences and to make contributions to the international law discourse. Staff, PhD students and master students who have written a very good thesis are invited to submit an article to ALF. What is learned in the cradle is carried to the tomb: we are looking forward to sharing your articles on our website!
Highlights
For a long time, states were considered – especially by such proponents of classical realism as Morgenthau – as the ontological starting point of the international political order
The article deals with the phenomenon of EU actorness and, replicating the study and testing the EU actorness model proposed by Thomas Gehring, Sebastian Oberthür and Marc Mühleck, questions why the EU is recognised as an autonomous actor by some international organisations but not by others
The present paper replicates the findings of the study of Gehring et al and tests the model’s explanatory power by examining two cases that represent the relations of the EU with two international organisations: the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO)
Summary
States were considered – especially by such proponents of classical realism as Morgenthau – as the ontological starting point of the international political order. Actorness can here be defined as an international organisation’s quality of being an independent and self-reliant actor Answering these questions leads to a better understanding of the nature and idiosyncrasy of a particular international organisation, which is especially relevant with regard to the EU and its wideranging international performance. The present paper aims to find out to what extent action capability according to Gehring et al (2013) is the single explanatory factor for recognition of the EU as a relevant actor by other international organisations and for EU actorness. State of the Art, I propose my own categorisation of the relevant EU actorness concepts ordered into three groups of causal factors, namely structural, behavioural and external. I reframe the notion of action capability applied by Gehring et al as a source of the EU’s regulative (legislative) power by adding an ideational component to it and I explain how to conceptualise it by discussing three concepts: normative power, soft power and diffusion theory
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