Abstract: External relations is currently among the most dynamic areas of EU law, its institutional structures profoundly affected by the Lisbon Treaty. This volume gathers leading analysts to assess core recent developments in the field, taking stock of the current law and potential developments in major policy areas. The opening chapters analyse the legal principles that ensure coherence between different strands of the EU's external activity, as well as the legal basis for the EU's activity in shaping international law and the EU's contribution to ‘state practice’. These chapters develop a picture of the EU's active international participation as well as the characteristic structural complexity of its external relations. Against this background, the remainder of the book examines key policy areas of EU external action: analysis of the relationship between trade policy and development; discussion of trade in services and the link between external and internal policy issues; and assessment of the EU's contribution to conflict resolution, an important focus of the Common Foreign and Security Policy. The complex policy picture that emerges from the different goals, values, and instruments across these areas is examined in the book's final chapter, which focuses on the European Neighbourhood Policy, frequently proclaimed as a strategic priority for the EU. Together, the essays present a clear picture of the complex development of EU external relations, of the struggle for coherence in the increasingly active, visible, and self-conscious role played by the EU as a participant in the international legal order.

Keywords: EU Law, external relations, Lisbon Treaty, international law, trade policy, trade in services, conflict resolution, Common Foreign and Security Policy, European Neighbourhood Policy