1 - Autonomy of a Legal Order

Summary

Chapter 1 sets the scene by exploring the concept of legal order autonomy, which is used in the following chapters as an analytical framework for the analysis of the EAEU legal order. The chapter gives an overview of the notions of autonomy and autonomous legal order in their various forms. It further takes the EU as an exemplar autonomous legal order, analyses its two dimensions – internal and external – and uses a literary reference to capture it. Further, given the prima facie interrelations between autonomy and supranationality, the chapter situates the latter in this context, which links to the exploration in Chapter 3 of the EAEU’s claim that it has established the first supranational institution in the region. As there is no single doctrine of legal order autonomy nor a definition thereof, the chapter develops a number of indicia of legal order autonomy to be used in the book to analyse the EAEU, and explains why indicia are preferred to criteria in this book. As the idea of a legal order autonomy is largely a judicial construct, it is presented as a particular narrative of its own.