Micro-states of Europe and their Legal Relations with the European Union

Despite their size, the European micro-states that are not part of the European Union maintain intricate, sometimes surprising legal relations with the EU and its Member States. This first comprehensive legal study clarifies the EU's legal relations with four micro-states - Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, and the Vatican City State - and scrutinises these legal relationships through the lenses of EU constitutional law, the EU internal market, EU institutional law, and EU external relations law, revealing an evolving system of specific sector-by-sector integration, held together by a patchwork of both international agreements, including monetary agreements. In a thematic, detailed analysis of these legal relations, with clear explanations of the scope, limits, and legal effects of various international agreements, the book examines such aspects as the following: customs provisions for the movement of goods and provisions concerning the EU customs union and the EU customs territory; non-fiscal barriers and regulatory aspects concerning the movement of goods; alignment with the EU s Common Commercial Policy and the challenges micro-states face in exercising independent trade powers; legal provisions governing the movement of persons and workers; the very limited internal market for services, establishment, and capital; cooperation regarding the Schengen Area and external border management; the domestic taxation systems of the micro-states; adoption of the single currency (euro) through monetary agreements and its accompanying obligations and dynamic homogeneity with EU banking and financial law; joint committees and bodies governing EU micro-state legal relations; and dispute settlement mechanisms, including consultation procedures, arbitration, and specific jurisdiction of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). The book also provides a rich historical context demonstrating how the micro-states constitutional, geopolitical, social, and economic evolution has shaped their present-day legal relations with the EU as well as a forward-looking assessment of potential avenues for deeper legal integration into the wider European legal space. By uncovering the distinctive models of integration that govern the EU s interactions with these four micro-states, this study assesses what these exceptional legal relationships with the EU tell us about the wider phenomenon of differentiated integration in Europe, in legal terms. For this reason, the book will be welcomed by practitioners, academics, national and international civil servants, judges, and other policymakers seeking to understand patterns, divergences, and anomalies that arise from the expanding reach of EU law to non-EU Member States on the European continent.