By way of introduction: the rule of law as a strategic priority for EU external action-conceptualization and implementation of EU law and policies

Abstract

The rule of law is a principle of governance which signifies that decisions by the government should be taken according to the law and that the government itself should be subject to the law. Therefore, historically, the rule of law has acted as the ultimate barrier against the arbitrary power of the ruler and served to oppose the ‘unbridled, unaccountable royal power of the Monarchs’ (Bingham 2011, p. 12). While the concept finds its origins in Ancient Greece, where it contributed to the ‘self-definition of the political community of the City’ (Harris in May 2012, p. 240), Europe has since acted as the centre of the construction of the rule of law. This may be seen particularly through the development of the traditions of the French etat de droit, the German Rechtsstaatlichkeit and the English rule of law. It is therefore unsurprising that the European Union (EU) was later qualified as a ‘Community based on the rule of law’. It is in these words that the European Court of Justice made its first ever reference to the rule of law back in 1986. In addition, the rule of law has been part of the EU Treaties ever since the 1992Maastricht Treaty on European Union. The preamble of the Maastricht Treaty reaffirmed the EU’s ‘attachment to the principles of liberty, democracy and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and of the rule of law’. The rule of law has, in this respect, progressively been recognized as one of the EU’s constitutional pillars (Pech 2010). With the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon on 1 December 2009, one can surmise that the rule of law has reached the status of a foundational value of the EU. As Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) reads, ‘[t]he Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights Asia Eur J (2016) 14:1–6 DOI 10.1007/s10308-015-0431-0