The Extraterritoriality of EU Law and Human Rights in Times of Change

The paper looks at the extraterritorial human rights effects produced by the laws and conduct of the EU in the area of trade. Extraterritoriality has become a complex and multidimensional legal problem. This complexity is due to the lack of clarity and legal certainty concerning the criteria as to when states and increasingly international organisations have a duty to protect beyond their borders and, if so, the nature and delimitation of such obligation. In the EU context new questions about extraterritoriality and human rights arise due to a series of further complex questions about the EU, the relationship between the EU and International (human rights) law and the position and justiciability of human rights within the EU legal framework. The paper aims at identifying and examining the human rights obligations that the EU is bound by and whether it is possible to define them as positive obligations and, more specifically, as extraterritorial due diligence duties.