ABSTRACT
Recent events have shown tensions between the European Union (EU) and international law as the EU has sought to protect its own identity as a ‘virtuous international actor’ (de Búrca 2010) on the basis of its commitment to human rights, and refused to uphold UN measures for the prevention of international terrorism in the case of Kadi. 1 A popular motto of the EU, as it becomes an ever more prominent actor on the international stage, is ‘governance without government’ (New Modes of Governance Project, emphasis added). 2 In this vein, the Commission of the EU talks of how ‘we need to govern ourselves better, together’ (COM(2002)275: 2, emphasis added). I explore in this chapter how the EU uses governance talk to speak about rights and how this, on a critical reading, reveals a new form of government — that is, a governmentality — of rights, where individuals govern themselves through rights. 3
