Hi,

The Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice delivered its judgment on the cases of KS and KD, and Neves 77 Solutions on September 10th, 2024. Both cases addressed the scope of the CJEU’s jurisdiction within the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). In this blog post, I offer some initial impressions and reflections. My main point: the judgment seems paradoxical. The Court stresses its adherence to the principle of conferral, yet by narrowing the jurisdictional carve-out to vague "political or strategic" decisions, it grants itself the authority to determine jurisdiction limits case by case.

Investment screening has traditionally focused on protecting national interests by scrutinizing foreign investments coming into a country. However, the focus is now expanding to include outbound investments, as major economies like the US and the EU rethink their global economic strategies in light of national security concerns. This change represents a further move from the post-war focus on economic integration and unrestricted capital movements, towards a paradigm that prioritizes security.

Last week, I presented a paper at an event organized at City, University of London. The theme was the role of soft law instruments in the EU’s trade policy. In my paper, I explored the role of soft law in the EU’s trade relationship with one particular partner: Canada. Canada is an interesting case because the EU-Canada trade relationship is governed by an ambitious ‘new generation’ trade agreement: the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).