Working Its Way Back to International Law? The General Court’s Judgments in Joined Cases T-344/19 and T-356/19 and T-279/19 Front Polisario v Council

The CJEU’s approach to international law in the context of territorial disputes has generally attracted substantial criticism, both for its engagement therewith – i.e., its tendency to cherry-pick the applicable rules – and reliance thereon – i.e., its tendency to apply international rules in a dissimilar fashion to their general meaning under international law. These tendencies were however partially remedied in the newest instalments of the Front Polisario saga (joined cases T-344/19, T-356/19 ECLI:EU:T:2021:639, and T-279/19 ECLI:EU:T:2021:640), in the context of which the General Court utilised international law as the applicable legal background against which to assess two seminal questions: the standing of Front Polisario and the obligations pending on the Council in EU external relations. This Insight focuses specifically on the question of standing, assessing the judgments’ contribution to this line of litigation in relation to the question of Western Sahara.