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Fundamental Rights
in International
and European Law
Public and Private Law Perspectives
13
Editors
Christophe Paulussen Vesna Lazić
T.M.C. Asser Instituut T.M.C. Asser Instituut
The Hague The Hague
The Netherlands The Netherlands
On the occasion of its 50th Anniversary, the T.M.C. Asser Instituut proudly
presents this collection of scholarly articles written by its staff members and some
of its external research partners and friends. Celebrating a jubilee should also be a
forward-looking event. This book represents the Institute’s fields of expertise at a
moment of reflection on its work so far and on its plans for the next decade.
Emily Rosenberg characterized the era of 1870–1945 as “A World
Connecting”, which produced great achievements but also horrifying crimes
against humanity. Tobias Asser was one of the great Dutch scholars of private
and public international law, who—with remarkable foresight—grasped the need
to embed relations of power in an evolving legal order, with processes of nego-
tiation, arbitration and adjudication. Tobias Asser, himself a child of the Jewish
emancipation, was always aware of the importance that the law should do justice
to every citizen across imagined or real borders. The Hague Conference on Private
International Law, the establishment of international arbitration and jurisdic-
tion, and the Hague Peace Conference are interrelated results of Asser’s mission.
Together they embody a vision of international relations based upon the rule of
law. The horrors of war and genocide in the twentieth century appear to have shat-
tered Asser’s achievements, but in the end they survived the horrors of that time
and developed into the present mosaic of international legal institutions based in
The Hague.
The Asser Institute’s fields of research reflect this mosaic. When the law
schools of the Dutch universities decided to jointly create an inter-university insti-
tute for public and private international law, as well as European law, in 1965,
they wanted to build upon Asser’s heritage and recognized that there was no name
which was better suited than that of Tobias Asser to express their views on the task
of the Institute. Fifty years later, this appears to be even more appropriate. In the
second decade of the twenty-first century, the world is highly connected, in many
senses. More than ever we need to anchor the relations of these networks of con-
nections in the reliability of treaties, courts and non-partisan scholarship.
v
vi Foreword
As an inter-university institute, based in The Hague, the seat of the most impor-
tant international legal institutions as well as Eurojust and Europol, the Asser
Institute aims to continue being the connector of academic and high-level practi-
cal legal work, in treaty-making, legal diplomacy, trade and competition. Not only
the Netherlands, but also the European Union—as an actor in international rela-
tions and a co-guarantor of the international rule of law—demands attention in our
research.
This book is only a sample of the research being carried out by our staff and
partners, but numerous other volumes and journals jointly published by T.M.C.
Asser Press and our renowned international publishing partner Springer reflect
our experience in international and European law. We—the staff and board of the
Asser Institute—are fully committed to accept our predecessors’ fifty years of
commitment as a task for the years ahead.
1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Christophe Paulussen, Tamara Takács, Vesna Lazić
and Ben Van Rompuy
vii
viii Contents
ix
x Editors and Contributors
Contributors
Hague. Originally from the United States, she received her J.D. in 2008 while con-
centrating on international and comparative law (with distinction), before complet-
ing her LL.M. (cum laude) in public international law in 2010. After her studies, she
worked on various legal research projects as well as on a human rights initiative for
the Municipality of Utrecht. In 2011, she was a junior lecturer at the Utrecht Uni-
versity School of Law, where she taught general international law and comparative
human rights. Jessica also teaches international humanitarian law and international
criminal law during a summer field studies program with Duke University in the
US. She is also the Editorial Assistant for the Yearbook of International Humani-
tarian Law, an Assistant Editor for the international law weblog Opinio Juris and
she collaborated on a project for the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human
Rights and Counter Terrorism investigating the civilian impact of the use of drones.
She has also made a name for herself in the use of social media in legal research.
Wybe Th. Douma is Senior Research Fellow European law and international trade
law at the T.M.C. Asser Instituut in The Hague. He has lectured on European law,
European and international environmental law and issues of sustainable develop-
ment, Dutch administrative and economic law and international trade law at the
University of Groningen and the T.M.C. Asser Instituut, at numerous universities
in the EU and its neighbouring countries, South America and Asia. He was team
leader and Senior Legal Expert in a wide range of legal projects, seconded to the
legal departments of several Dutch ministries for extensive periods and worked on
numerous other projects dealing mainly with the relationship between national and
European law. He publishes frequently on a variety of Dutch, European and interna-
tional law issues. He is an editor for two Dutch law journals, a board member of the
Centre for the EU Law on External Relations (CLEER), a member of the editorial
board of the Proceedings of the Estonian Academy of Security Sciences and on the
board of referees of the Lisbon Law Review.
Antoine Duval is a Senior Researcher International and European Sports law at
the T.M.C. Asser Instituut in The Hague. He holds a Ph.D. in law from the Euro-
pean University Institute in Florence and studied political science and law in Paris,
Toronto and Cologne. His main research interest lies in the study of the emergence
of transnational law in the field of sport. He has recently published on the notion of
lex sportiva, on the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the application of EU law in
a sporting context.
Lisette Frohn is Senior Legal Counsel at the Internationaal Juridisch Instituut in
The Hague, a research institute and consultancy specialized in matters of Dutch
and foreign private international law and foreign private and procedural law. She
studied law at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. Her working experience (con-
sultancy and lectures) is focused on family law, including the law of succession,
procedural law and contracts. She is Secretary of the Dutch Standing Commission
on Private International Law. In that capacity she was involved in the codification
of Dutch private international law in Book 10 Civil Code. She is a member of the
Advisory Commission on matters of civil status and nationality. She is a member
xii Editors and Contributors
Sacha Prechal has been a Judge at the Court of Justice of the European Union
since 2010. She studied law at the University of Groningen (1977–83) and she
holds a Ph.D. in law from the University of Amsterdam (1995). She started her
professional career as Lecturer in the law faculty of the University of Maastricht
(1983–87). Between 1987 and 1991 she was Legal Secretary at the Court of Justice
of the European Communities and then again Lecturer at the Europa Institute of
the law faculty of the University of Amsterdam (1991–95). In 1995 Sacha was ap-
pointed Professor of European law in the law faculty of the University of Tilburg
and in 2003 Professor of European law in the law faculty of the University of Utre-
cht. Since 1 January 2012 she holds this position as Honorary Professor. She is a
member of the editorial or advisory board of several national and international legal
journals and a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Sacha is the author of numerous publications on EU law, in particular on judicial
protection in the EU, on various aspects of the relationship between EU law and
national law, on general principles/fundamental rights, on EU anti-discrimination
law and on problems related to EU directives.
Olivier Ribbelink is a Senior Researcher at the T.M.C. Asser Instituut in The
Hague, where he served as Head of the Research Department from 2000 until 2010,
and Associate Professor at Utrecht University’s School of Law (2010–present). He
studied international relations and international law at the University of Amsterdam,
where he obtained his Ph.D. with a thesis on succession of international organisa-
tions. From 1987 until 1997, he was a lecturer in international law at the University
of Amsterdam. Inter alia, he was the project-coordinator of the 2007 Handbook
International Law, and Head of the Research Team of the AGIS project on the Eu-
ropean Arrest Warrant for the European Commission. He is a Board Member of the
Netherlands School of Human Rights Research, and of the International Justice
Foundation. From 1992–2008 Olivier served as Secretary-General of the Alumni
Association of the Hague Academy of International Law. He is a member of sev-
eral editorial and advisory boards of international publications. His areas of interest
include inter alia general international law, international institutional law, state suc-
cession, and the law of outer space.
Steven Stuij is Researcher in private international law at the T.M.C. Asser Institu-
ut. He completed his law studies at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. After
working a short period as a research assistant for the latter institution, he joined the
T.M.C. Asser Instituut in October 2010. Steven is currently writing a Ph.D. thesis
on the procedural status of foreign law in the context of European private interna-
tional law. In the course of his Ph.D. research, Steven has been a Van Calker visiting
scholar at the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law in Lausanne, Switzerland, during
February and March 2012. He is also involved with consultancy work in private in-
ternational law issues and with training and research projects. Finally, Steven docu-
ments case law and legal literature for the Dutch private international law review
Nederlands Internationaal Privaatrecht.
xiv Editors and Contributors
Kinga Tibori-Szabó currently works as a Legal Adviser for the Legal Representa-
tive of Victims at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and as an independent legal
consultant in public international law and international criminal law. Kinga is also a
qualified attorney in the State of New York, USA. Her monograph, Anticipatory Ac-
tion in Self-Defence (T.M.C. Asser Press, 2011) won the 2012 Francis Lieber Prize
of the American Society of International Law.
Marco van der Harst is a Researcher and Ph.D. Candidate in international and
European sports law at the T.M.C. Asser Instituut in The Hague. His research fo-
cuses primarily on the private law enforcement of EU (competition) law (i.e. the
effective protection of EU (competition) law as an EU public policy exception) with
regard to the unchartered territory of national courts’ enforcement proceedings of
foreign arbitral awards rendered by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Marco is a
member of the editorial board of the ASSER International Sports Law Series.
Steffen van der Velde studied international and European law at the University of
Groningen. Before graduating in 2009, he spent a summer at the University of Oslo,
Norway, where he took courses in human rights law and European competition law.
In February 2011, Steffen joined the T.M.C. Asser Instituut as Researcher EU law,
in which capacity he is writing his Ph.D. dealing with the integration of the concept
of sustainable development into future EU FDI policy, with a focus on investment in
the mining sector of developing countries. Steffen combines the academic activities
with consultancy activities, working on numerous ‘EU environmental law’ projects
for the Dutch ministries and EU institutions.
Chapter 1
Introduction
Christophe Paulussen, Tamara Takács, Vesna Lazić and Ben Van Rompuy
Abstract This book, published on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the
T.M.C. Asser Instituut in The Hague, is a compilation of contributions addressing
various public and private law perspectives on fundamental rights in international
and European law. In this introductory chapter, the editors present the different
contributions and their authors. The editors argue that by covering a variety of sub-
stantive topics that will not be readily found in other books, and thus by looking
over the fence, into areas that one may not be so comfortable with, inspiration and
potential solutions for fundamental rights problems may be found.
This book, published on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the T.M.C. Asser
Instituut in The Hague, is a compilation of contributions addressing various public
and private law perspectives on fundamental rights in international and European
law. The book aims to shed more light on topical issues that can be related to a
theme which runs through the four areas of research of the T.M.C. Asser Instituut
(Public International Law, EU Law, Private International Law and International
and European Sports Law); namely fundamental rights. The chapters have been
written by staff members from the T.M.C. Asser Instituut itself, as well as by
distinguished external invited authors, who have a connection with the institute,
namely Dr. Kinga Tibori-Szabó, Legal Adviser at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon
and winner of the 2012 Francis Lieber Prize, Judge Prof. Dr. Sacha Prechal of
the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), Dr. Richard Blauwhoff and
Lisette Frohn LL.M. of the ‘Internationaal Juridisch Instituut’ in The Hague and
finally Prof. James A.R. Nafziger, Thomas B. Stoel Professor of Law and Director
of International Programs, Willamette University College of Law and Honorary
President of the International Association of Sports Law.
The book consists of four parts, representing the four main areas of research:
Public International Law (Part I), EU Law (Part II), Private International Law (Part
III) and International and European Sports Law (Part IV).
In the first part of this book, the authors of Chaps. 2–4 delve into various
aspects of fundamental rights in the public international law context.
Chapter 2, entitled ‘Towards an EU Position on Armed Drones and Targeted
Killing?’ and written by Dr. Christophe Paulussen and Jessica Dorsey LL.M. J.D.,
gauges the extent to which European Union (EU) governments share the United
States (US)’ position on armed drones and targeted killing. In doing so, it aims to
assist in distilling an EU Common Position on the use of armed drones and a legal
framework for counterterrorism-related uses of force. The authors argue that an
EU Common Position should be first and foremost based in the rule of law, which
entails full respect for international law, including international humanitarian law
and international human rights law. In addition, an EU Common Position should
stress the importance of transparency, oversight and accountability: unlawful
drone strikes should be followed by proper and independent investigations, with
victims of such strikes having access to effective remedies.
Chapter 3, entitled ‘The Protection of Nationals Abroad: A Return to Old
Practice?’, is written by Onur Güven LL.M. and Dr. Olivier Ribbelink. The use of
armed force by the Russian Federation in actions claimed as protection of Russian
nationals outside Russian Federation territory, most recently in 2014 in Crimea
and East Ukraine, and earlier in 2008 in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, once again
brought the doctrinal discussion around the protection of nationals abroad (PNA)
to the foreground. This chapter discusses different elements that play an impor-
tant role in the debate, such as the relation of PNA with diplomatic protection,
whether the right to exercise diplomatic protection includes the right to use force,
and whether the protection of nationals in danger can be justified as self-defence.
The right to self-defence is addressed in further detail in Chap. 4, the last
chapter of this first part: ‘The “Unwilling or Unable” Test and the Law of Self-
Defence’, written by Dr. Kinga Tibori-Szabó. Recent events related to the rise
of ISIS have catapulted the ‘unwilling or unable’ test to the forefront of the legal
debate concerning the fight against terrorism. The still controversial test offers a
justification for unilateral use of force in self-defence on behalf of a victim state
on the territory of a host state that is unwilling or unable to prevent a non-state
actor located on its soil from carrying out attacks against the victim state. This
chapter analyzes the history, current status and content of the ‘unwilling or unable’
test with a view to highlighting the main concerns that come with it. This chap-
ter argues that if the ‘unwilling or unable’ test is here to stay, governments and
1 Introduction 3
authors alike must make considerable effort to clarify its content, delineate its lim-
its and set out its requirements in the context of the law of self-defence.
In the second part of this book, the authors of Chaps. 5–7 address fundamental
rights in the context of European Union law.
Chapter 5 is written by Dr. Wybe Douma and Steffen van der Velde LL.M.
and is entitled ‘Protection of Fundamental Rights in Third Countries Through EU
External Trade Policy: The Cases of Conflict Minerals and Timber’. The chap-
ter assesses the framework within which the EU, since the entry into force of the
Treaty of Lisbon, is assigned to promote a broad range of principles and objectives
in its external relations. The chapter’s focus lies with the advancement of human
rights and environment protection in commercial relations (trade). Through two
case studies, they examine the way the EU integrates human rights and environ-
ment protection objectives in its external actions and explore the coherence and
sustainability of such actions. Through the discussion concerning the legal frame-
work governing the imports of timber and the proposed framework of conflict
minerals, the authors highlight the weaknesses that rest in the regimes’ soft word-
ing and requirements, and the voluntary nature of the instruments regarding miner-
als. Finally, they would wish to see the EU assert its commercial leverage for the
promotion of non-commercial values and objectives set by the Treaty of Lisbon,
such as human rights, in its trade relations.
Chapter 6, entitled ‘Fundamental Rights and Rule of Law Promotion in EU
Enlargement Policy in the Western Balkans’, is written by Dr. Tamara Takács
and Dr. Davor Jancic. This chapter analyses the promotion of the rule of law and
fundamental rights within the accession negotiations of countries of the Western
Balkans. While the EU’s transformative power has been impactful in the previous
accession rounds in Eastern Europe, the conditionality policy that the EU employs
vis-à-vis the aspiring countries has not been without criticism. Restructuring of the
negotiation chapters has brought forward the centrality of the rule of law and cor-
responding policy areas and has led to the modernising of legal systems by these
countries, so as to align them with international standards and EU benchmarks.
This has been the case, the authors note, with respect to access to justice, which is
not only a fundamental right in and of itself but also has significant organisational
and policy implications for the administration of justice. In order to expose the
advantages and disadvantages of the EU’s conditionality policy, the example of the
interplay between the EU and Serbia are presented in the latter’s accession nego-
tiation process by assessing the EU’s Stabilisation and Association Process and the
key legal reforms implemented or planned by Serbia in the sphere of the rule of
law and fundamental rights protection.
Chapter 7, the last chapter of this second part, is written by Prof. Dr. Sacha
Prechal and is entitled ‘The Court of Justice and Effective Judicial Protection:
What Has the Charter Changed?’ This chapter looks at the implications of Article
47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights (CFR) of the European Union and the
status of ‘effective judicial protection’ in the EU legal order after the entry into
force of the Charter. While effective judicial protection emerged as general prin-
ciple of law in the case law of the CJEU, the changes brought by the Charter’s
4 C. Paulussen et al.
express provision are multifold. The principles related to effective judicial protec-
tion appear independently in the Charter, at times with overlapping, other times
leading to gaps. There are also implications with the introduction of Article 52(1)
of the Charter, which for Article 47 CFR means interpretation in harmony with
Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), and that the
implicit limitations of Article 6 ECHR may constitute a potential trap of ‘double
limitation’. She finally notes that insofar as Article 47 would not reach the same
scope and level of protection as the general principle of effective judicial protec-
tion, this principle should continue to apply.
The contributions in Part III address fundamental rights from the perspective of
private international law.
Chapter 8 is written by Prof. Dr. Vesna Lazić and is entitled ‘Family Private
International Law Issues before the European Court of Human Rights—Lessons
to Be Learned from Povse v. Austria in Revising the Brussels IIa Regulation and
Its Relevance for Future Abolition of Exequatur in the European Union’. It analy-
ses judgments rendered by the CJEU and the European Court of Human Rights in
the Povse case relating to cross-border child abduction. Both decisions triggered
heated debate amongst family lawyers and private international law specialists
on the issues of fundamental rights and the appropriateness of certain provisions
of the regulation Brussels IIa. Especially in cases involving return orders allega-
tions of violating procedural standards under Article 6, as well as substantive law
issues under Article 8 of the ECHR are likely to arise. This contribution points to
deficiencies in the procedural legal framework of the Regulation Brussels IIa and
offers some suggestions for improving its existing procedural regulatory scheme
relating to child abduction.
In Chap. 9, entitled ‘Some Aspects of the Application and Ascertainment of
Foreign Law in the light of Article 6 of the ECHR’, Steven Stuij LL.M. focuses on
the procedural status of foreign law and how this law should be treated in cross-
border civil matters. Since the court does not have knowledge of foreign law, it
must obtain information on its content, either by using various means of ascertain-
ment or by requiring the interested party to submit a proof of content of foreign
law. When foreign law is to be applied, a number of issues arise in civil procedure
that needs to be taken into account. Thus, the question can arise about an impact
that the requirements of the ECHR, especially those contained in Article 6(1), may
have on the manner in which foreign law is treated. In particular, since the appli-
cability of a foreign law may give rise to a violation of Article 6(1) this provi-
sion affects legal proceedings before national courts, as well. In this contribution,
these potential violations of Article 6(1) and the implications for civil procedure
are addressed. The emphasis lies on a number of issues that may be affected by the
application and ascertainment of foreign law, whereby the relevant case law of the
European Court of Human Rights is also addressed.
Chapter 10, entitled ‘International Commercial Surrogacy Arrangements: The
Interests of the Child as a Concern of Both Human Rights and Private International
Law’, is written by Dr. Richard Blauwhoff and Lisette Frohn LL.M. Currently
there are no legal standards on the international level for cross-border surrogacy.
1 Introduction 5
Abstract This chapter gauges the extent to which European Union (EU)
governments share the United States’ position on armed drones and targeted kill-
ing. In doing so, it aims to assist in distilling an EU Common Position on the
use of armed drones and a legal framework for counterterrorism-related uses of
force. The chapter includes the results of a questionnaire sent to the Ministries of
Foreign Affairs, Defense, Justice and intelligence services of all 28 EU Member
States. The authors also parsed other relevant sources that could evince govern-
ments’ official positions (e.g., public statements, policy documents, etc.). In
addition to this, the chapter explores more normative pronouncements from enti-
ties other than states, including international organizations, advisory committees
and commentators, who have articulated how the issue of armed drones and tar-
geted killing should be approached within the European context. In the chapter’s
The authors are researchers in international humanitarian, criminal and human rights law at the
T.M.C. Asser Instituut in The Hague and research fellows at the International Centre for Counter-
Terrorism—The Hague (ICCT). This chapter is based on a more extensive research paper for
ICCT, see Dorsey and Paulussen 2015. The authors would like to thank their intern Alina Balta
for her outstanding assistance in the preparation of the initial paper, as well as the researchers
and analysts from the Open Society European Policy Institute, who provided the authors with
relevant background information. Moreover, they would also like to thank their intern Anna
Benedetti for providing feedback as regards Sects. 2.2.3 and 2.4. Translations are unofficial trans-
lations by the authors themselves unless otherwise explicitly noted. Of course, any mistakes are
the authors’ own.
conclusion, the authors summarize the findings and provide concrete recommen-
dations toward a cohesive European position on targeted killings and drone use in
counterterrorism.
Contents
2.1 Introduction........................................................................................................................ 10
2.1.1 US Policy on the Use of Armed Drones and Targeted Killing............................... 10
2.1.2 Initial Reactions to US Policy................................................................................ 12
2.1.3 Possible Consequences of Public Silence from EU Member States...................... 12
2.1.4 Purpose and Outline of This Chapter..................................................................... 14
2.2 The Position of EU Member States on the Use of Armed Drones and Targeted Killing.... 15
2.2.1 Methodology and Content of the Questionnaire.................................................... 15
2.2.2 Statistical Results of the Questionnaire................................................................. 16
2.2.3 Substantive Results of the Questionnaire
and the Position of EU Member States31............................................................... 17
2.3 Normative Pronouncements from Other Entities Than States........................................... 21
2.3.1 Introduction............................................................................................................ 21
2.3.2 International and Regional Organizations and Institutions.................................... 22
2.3.3 Dutch Advisory Committee on Issues of Public International Law Report........... 30
2.3.4 European Council on Foreign Relations Paper...................................................... 34
2.4 Conclusion......................................................................................................................... 35
2.4.1 Authors’ Response.................................................................................................. 35
2.4.2 Looking Ahead....................................................................................................... 39
2.4.3 Concrete Recommendations.................................................................................. 42
References................................................................................................................................... 44
2.1 Introduction
On 23 May 2013, United States (US) President Obama, for the very first time,
comprehensively addressed drones1 in a speech, which The New York Times’
Editorial called ‘the most important statement on counterterrorism policy since the
1With the term ‘drones’, the authors mean remotely piloted air systems (RPAS) or unmanned
In short, the US sees itself in a just armed conflict against al-Qaida, the Taliban,
and their associated forces, which legally justifies the strikes, and these strikes,
outside of a ‘hot battlefield’ (but still within the US armed conflict paradigm), will
be targeted, as a matter of policy, against al-Qaida and its associated forces when
capture is not feasible, whenever they ‘pose a continuing and imminent threat to
the American people and when there are no other governments capable of effec-
tively addressing the threat’, and when there is ‘near certainty that no civilians will
be killed or injured’.
2‘The End of the Perpetual War’, The New York Times, 23 May 2013. www.nytimes.
com/2013/05/24/opinion/obama-vows-to-end-of-the-perpetual-war.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0.
Accessed 13 July 2015.
3The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, ‘Remarks by the President at the National
Defense University’, National Defense University, Fort McNair, Washington, DC, 23 May 2013.
www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/05/23/remarks-president-national-defense-university.
Accessed 13 July 2015.
4Ibid.
5Ibid.
6Ibid.
7Ibid.
12 C. Paulussen and J. Dorsey
And while all of this is happening, it remains rather silent on the other side of the
pond.12 Anthony Dworkin, whose seminal paper will be examined in more detail
later in this chapter, remarked in this context:
Although some European officials have made their disagreement with the legal claims
underlying US policies clear in closed-door dialogues and bilateral meetings, EU member
8G. Greenwald, ‘Obama’s terrorism speech: seeing what you want to see’, The Guardian, 27
(see Paulussen and Tibori-Szabó 2014) and concerns the US’ imminence standard. The current
authors agree with Hernández when he notes: ‘[T]he elasticity of these terms raises serious ques-
tions, not least about the self-judging aspect of “imminence”, but also raises the curious question
as to how something can be simultaneously imminent and continuing. Prior statements (and the
leaked DOJ White Paper of 4 February 2013) suggest that the United States has embraced an
“elongated” concept of imminence that has attracted criticism for its inconsistency with the inter-
national law on anticipatory self-defence.’ (Hernández 2013.)
12See L. Tayler, ‘EU should press Obama on drone secrecy’, Human Rights Watch, 27 March
state representatives have said almost nothing in public about US drone strikes. The EU
has so far failed to set out any vision of its own about when the use of lethal force against
designated individuals is legitimate. Nor is there any indication that European states have
made a serious effort to influence the development of US policy or to begin discussions on
formulating common standards for the kinds of military operations that UAVs facilitate.
Torn between an evident reluctance to accuse Obama of breaking international law and an
unwillingness to endorse his policies, divided in part among themselves and in some cases
bound by close intelligence relationships to the US, European countries have remained
essentially disengaged as the era of drone warfare has dawned. Yet, as drones proliferate,
such a stance seems increasingly untenable [original footnotes omitted].13
Indeed, the relative silence from the European Union (EU), one of strongest
allies of the US, could be more problematic than one might initially think. It might
give the impression that European states may be implicitly consenting to the (criti-
cized) US’ use of armed drones and targeted killings, hence giving it more legiti-
macy.14 In theory, it could thus even lead to the formation of customary
international law, ‘as evidence of a general practice accepted as law’.15 This con-
cept of international custom entails two elements, namely 1) state practice, that is:
how states behave in practice, and 2) opinio juris, namely ‘the belief by a state that
behaved in a certain way that it was under a legal obligation to act that way
[emphasis added]’.16 Abstention of protest could also assist in the process of law-
making. In the words of Shaw:
Generally, where states are seen to acquiesce in the behaviour of other states without pro-
testing against them, the assumption must be that such behaviour is accepted as legiti-
mate. Some writers have maintained that acquiescence can amount to consent to a
customary rule and that the absence of protest implies agreement. In other words where a
state or states take action which they declare to be legal, the silence of other states can be
used as an expression of opinio juris or concurrence in the new legal rule. This means that
actual protests are called for to break the legitimising process [original footnotes
omitted].17
While not necessarily agreeing with this—as silence can have other origins as
well—it is important for EU Member States to understand that silence from their
side might have a contributing effect to legitimizing a certain practice and thus that
it is important to speak up, if they believe a certain practice or a specific incident is
problematic.
13Dworkin 2013, p. 2.
14See also ibid., p. 4: ‘As one former Obama administration official put it, the US government
is subject to few domestic checks on its interpretation of international law in this area, so the
reaction of allies is “the main test and constraint for the administration […] if other states don’t
object, the conclusion is that they are not concerned”’ [original footnote omitted].
15See Article 38, para 1(b) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice.
16Shaw 2014, p. 53.
17Ibid., pp. 63–64. Cf. also Aronsson 2014.
14 C. Paulussen and J. Dorsey
Dworkin assumed in the statement quoted above that European states are
unwilling to endorse Obama’s policies. The current authors disagree on this point.
We simply do not know this, given the lack of information on the European stance.
However, what we do know is that there is a risk that European states may indeed
be unwilling to endorse the policies, but, by being silent, give the impression of
acquiescing to the policies nonetheless.
Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is to find (indications for) a certain position
from the side of EU Member States. In the end, this could assist in distilling an EU
Common Position on the use of armed drones, which the European Parliament
called for in February 2014, when it ‘[e]xpresse[d] its grave concern over the use
of armed drones outside the international legal framework’18 and when it ‘urge[d]
the EU to develop an appropriate policy response at both European and global
level which upholds human rights and international humanitarian law’.19
Section 2.2 of this chapter will summarize the results of a questionnaire the
authors sent to the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Defense, Justice and intelligence
services of all 28 EU Member States.20 In addition, it will incorporate the findings
of an examination by the authors of other relevant sources that could evince gov-
ernments’ official positions (e.g., public statements, policy documents, etc.).
The next section—Sect. 2.3—explores more normative pronouncements from
other entities than states, including international organizations, advisory commit-
tees and commentators, which have articulated how the issue of armed drones and
targeted killing should be approached within the European context.
Finally, in Sect. 2.4, the authors will conclude this chapter by providing their
own view and concrete recommendations toward a cohesive European position on
targeted killings and drone use in counterterrorism.
18The joint motion for a resolution on the use of armed drones (2014/2567 (RSP)), dated
25 February 2014, www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//NONSGML+
MOTION+P7-RC-2014-0201+0+DOC+PDF+V0//EN. Accessed 13 July 2015, was adopted
2 days later by 534 votes to 49 with 10 abstentions, www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/sum-
mary.do?id=1340215&t=e&l=en. Accessed 13 July 2015.
19Ibid.
20See Dorsey and Paulussen 2015, Annex 1: The Questionnaire.
2 Towards an EU Position on Armed Drones and Targeted Killing? 15
21This e-mail was sent to 200 e-mail addresses, with eight failed deliveries. All e-mail addresses
are on file with the authors. A response was received the day after, indicating that another state
organ was competent to deal with this question. That particular state organ was contacted on
the same day (on 13 November). On 18 November, another response followed, indicating that
another contact person was to be contacted. This happened later. On 21 November, the authors
received a response from another state organ, indicating they had not received a readable version
of the questionnaire, after which a new version was sent on 25 November.
22See Dorsey and Paulussen 2013.
23The interim report can be found on the UNGA website: ‘Report of the Special Rapporteur on
the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering ter-
rorism’, A/68/389, 18 September 2013. www.un.org/Docs/journal/asp/ws.asp?m=A/68/389.
Accessed 13 July 2015. The Special Rapporteur’s final report can be found on the Human
Rights Council’s website: ‘Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protec-
tion of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, Ben Emmerson’,
A/HRC/25/59, 11 March 2014. www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session25/
Pages/ListReports.aspx. Accessed 13 July 2015.
24UNGA, ‘Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions’,