From ‘Don’t Mention theTitanium DioxideJudgment’ to ‘I Mentioned it Once, But I Think I Got Away with it All Right’: Reflections on the Choice of Legal Basis in EU External Relations after theLegal Basis for Restrictive MeasuresJudgment

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter examines the choice of legal basis in EU external relations post-Lisbon in the light of the judgment of the Court of Justice in theLegal Basis for Restrictive Measurescase. Before reaching the conclusion that the regulation at issue there was rightly based on Article 215(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and rejecting the European Parliament’s argument that the measure ought to have been taken on the basis of Article 75 TFEU, the Court made a number of important observations on the principles to be followed when choosing a legal basis and recalled some of its earlier case law, in particularTitanium Dioxideand its progeny. This chapter reflects upon the application of those principles in a post-Lisbon framework.