Too much, too little, too late? Reflections on law and ethics in the EU’s foreign policy
Journal: Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks
Year: 2018

This chapter aims to discuss the ever-fraught relationship between law and ethics in foreign policy. Its argument boils down to the suggestion that however much legal rules are needed, no foreign policy can succeed without practical wisdom on the part of the decision-makers. Following brief case studies of a minor judicial saga involving EUPM and the annexation of Crimea by Russia, the chapter explores in what ways virtue ethics, and in particular the Aristotelian virtue of practical wisdom (phr