Seminar: Analysing the Western Sahara Campaign Case

On May 3, 2018, the Centre for European and International Legal Affairs at Queen Mary University of London will host a seminar on "Analysing the Western Sahara Campaign Case." Here's the idea:

Western Sahara is a Non-Self-Governing Territory which has been under Moroccan occupation since the 1970s, in defiance of international law. The Western Sahara Campaign Case involves the interpretation of EU/Moroccan Agreements – specifically the 2006 Fisheries Partnership Agreement and its successive protocols – which have resulted in the vessels of Member States fishing in the waters off Western Sahara. In essence, the CJEU was asked to consider whether the exploitation of natural resources belonging to this Occupied Territory, seemingly under the cover of established EU/Moroccan agreements, violated EU Law and International Law. This decision – along with the CJEU’s 2016 judgment in Front Polisario v Council – has major ramifications for the interpretation and conclusion of agreements between the EU and third States; the EU Courts’ ability to oversee such arrangements; the EU’s compliance with peremptory norms and obligations erga omnes; and the interaction between EU Law and International Law more generally.