Is there a transatlantic security strategy? Area of Freedom, Security and Justice law and its global dimension

Abstract

The European Union is currently facing a number of challenges ranging from the financial crisis, to the refugee crisis, which escalated in 2015, to the increased terror threat in Europe. Each of these challenges include prominent security elements and, given these globalised times, they also each relate to the external dimension of the EU as an Area of Freedom Security and Justice (AFSJ). The upshot of those challenges seem to involve the EU finding itself in a permanent crisis, one which involves continued interaction with the United States of America (US), with the latter tending to set the agenda. Specifically, the transatlantic dimension of the AFSJ cuts across several dimensions of the EU legal landscape such as aspects of Common Foreign and Security Policy law and financial markets regulation and is increasingly important for the external understanding of EU law. While much has been written on the EU-US relationship, considerably less has been written on the transatlantic dimension of AFSJ law, which is instructive because of what it tells us about the constitutional structure of the AFSJ project, that is its internal and external hybrid character, and how the external landscape shapes the internal agenda.