The European Union’s ‘Cosmopolitan Foreign Policy Constitution’ and Its Disregard in Transatlantic Free Trade Agreements

Abstract

The universal recognition of human rights promotes international ‘cosmopolitan law’ protecting rights and judicial remedies of citizens in ever more fields of international regulation. Yet, even though free trade agreements (FTAs) protecting rights and remedies of citizens have been uniquely successful in European integration, the European Union (EU)’s ‘cosmopolitan foreign policy mandate’ is increasingly disregarded in FTA negotiations with non-European countries. The EU’s transatlantic FTAs risk undermining fundamental rights and judicial remedies inside the EU. Citizens rightly challenge the interest group politics in designing transatlantic FTAs and the EU’s neglect for participatory and deliberative democracy in EU trade policies on regulating international markets.