Wiater-Hellgardt P (2022)
Publication Type: Book chapter / Article in edited volumes
Publication year: 2022
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Edited Volumes: European Yearbook of International Economic Law 2020
Series: European Yearbook of International Economic Law
City/Town: Cham
Book Volume: 11
Pages Range: 195-236
ISBN: 978-3-030-59073-4
DOI: 10.1007/8165_2020_55
Direct and state-independent rights of action of private business entities are still exceptional in international economic law and are limited to a small number of regional economic systems. Based on the examples of the European Union (EU), the European Economic Area (EEA), the East African Community (EAC), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), this article examines the status quo of the procedural empowerment of business entities on regional integration levels. It reveals that both the contracting states and the regional economic courts engaged in interpreting individual rights of action attribute different functions to the role of business entities as litigants: Understood as instruments of economic and legal participation and control, individual rights of action give companies the opportunity to actively contribute to shaping the effectiveness of law enforcement in the integration process by means of court proceedings. This functional understanding has to be complemented by a rule of law approach. In this approach, states and courts perceive business entities’ rights of action to the regional courts primarily as defensive instruments, guaranteeing freedom from burdensome state or Community law interventions in the legal or economic positions of a company. The understanding as defensive instruments prevails (with the exception of the historical European Court of Justice (ECJ) in interpreting the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC Treaty)) in the European systems of individual legal protection and, in some regards, in the ECOWAS legal system. By contrast, a functional understanding can be found in the rest of the African systems and in the Caribbean Community.
APA:
Wiater-Hellgardt, P. (2022). Rights of Action of Business Entities in Regional Economic Systems. In Marc Bungenberg, Markus Krajewski, Christian J. Tams, Jörg Philipp Terhechte, Andreas R. Ziegler (Eds.), European Yearbook of International Economic Law 2020. (pp. 195-236). Cham: Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH.
MLA:
Wiater-Hellgardt, Patricia. "Rights of Action of Business Entities in Regional Economic Systems." European Yearbook of International Economic Law 2020. Ed. Marc Bungenberg, Markus Krajewski, Christian J. Tams, Jörg Philipp Terhechte, Andreas R. Ziegler, Cham: Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2022. 195-236.
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