Good Raw Materials Governance: Towards a European Approach Contributing to a Constitutionalised International Economic Law

Abstract

The European Union is currently in the process of adopting a regulation on so-called “conflict minerals”. Against this background, the contribution provides some thoughts on this evolving European approach towards the promotion of good raw materials governance. For that purpose, it first assesses the concept of good global governance stipulated as one of the foreign policy objectives in Article 21 TEU with particular emphasis on its regulatory content and the respective scope of application. Subsequently, the contribution specifically addresses the normative steering relevance of this principle for the regulatory design of international trade in raw materials. In the third part an attempt will be made to outline and evaluate the respective EU governance processes aimed at translating the abstract concept of good governance into specific legal instruments and practices, thereby primarily taking recourse to the ongoing deliberations among EU institutions on the said conflict minerals regulation. Finally, the concluding section of the contribution provides a kind of bird’s-eye view on some of the expected implications of the European good raw materials governance for the future development of what is here referred to as a constitutionalised international economic law.