The interface between trade, law and politics and the erosion of normative power Europe: Comment on brita

The European Union and the State of Israel have been at odds over the legal status ofproducts exported by Israel to the European Union from territories which were placed under Israel control following the Six Days' War (1967). The European Court of Justice was asked to adjudicate on the legal status of these products and held that these products cannot en] oypreferential treatment. This article analyses the dispute and its judicial resolution and advances three arguments. First, although the judgment "bottom-line" may be considered as correct in legal terms, its reasoning is slender and leaves much to be desired. The article further contends that the reliance on international law was in places ill-founded (A.G. Bot) and one-dimensional, incomplete and selective (the ECJ). Finally, the article argues that the European Union (political andjudicial) approach with respect to goods exported by Israelfrom the West Bank is inconsistent with the European Union 's own practice in some other contexts, particularly that of Western Sahara, and that such inconsistency erodes the credibility of the European Union as a normative power.