The EU's Human Rights Obligations in Relation to Policies with Extraterritorial Effects: A Reply to Lorand Bartels

The scope of human rights is undergoing a paradigm shift, from a territory-based conception to a functional conception, which tends to protect human rights against the extraterritorial exercise of public authority. In the EU domestic system, this is upheld by Articles 3(5) and 21 TUE, which establish the promotion and protection of human rights as a foreign policy directive. However, the normative effect of these provisions is limited. Due to restraints deriving from the EU Treaties, these two provisions do not seem capable of providing a sufficient legal basis for EU action aimed at promoting and protecting human rights. To endow the Union with the means of action necessary to discharge the engaging function of global protector of human rights, a further development of the European constitutional framework seems to be indispensable.