EU Regional Trade Agreements
An Instrument of Promoting the Rule of Law to Third States
Routledge Studies in European Foreign Policy Series

This book unveils the potential of utilizing EU Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) as an instrument of promoting the rule of law to third states.

In doing so, the book combines development economics, foreign policy and legal perspectives at three levels of analysis of four sectors to introduce the concept of "EU value-promoting RTAs". The book demonstrates that the EU RTAs bear considerable potential to be strategized as instruments of promoting the rule of law in third states, requiring, however, overcoming strict divides between EU political and economic cooperation, and values and acquis conditionality in its relations with third countries.

This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of European Studies, European Union Law, EU external action/foreign policy, EU trade agreements and Development Studies, as well as to NGOs and think tanks that work on European affairs.

Introduction 1. The Concept of the Rule of Law in the EU External Action 2. EU External Economic Policy: History and the Legal Basis 3. The Interplay between Trade Liberalization and the Rule of law in the Development Context: Towards the Concept of EU Value-Promoting Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) 4. EU Rule of Law Promotion through RTAs in Third States: The "Regulation" Dimension 5. EU Rule of Law Promotion through RTAs in Third States: The "Action" Dimension 6. Coherence between the "Regulation" and "Action" Dimensions of the Rule of Law Promotion through RTAs 7. Coherence between the Rule of Law Promotion through RTAs and EU Broader Rule of Law Promotion Activities (External Coherence): The Case of the Justice Sector Reforms 8. The EU-Ukraine DCFTA as an Instrument of Promoting the Rule of Law: Conflict, Unique Approaches to Assistance and Unexpected Spillovers. Outlook and Recommendations

Maryna Rabinovych is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Public Policy and Governance at the Kyiv School of Economics, Ukraine.