ABSTRACT
The introduction sets out the main aims and arguments of the book and outlines its content. The chapter starts by introducing the main theme of the book, the commitment to human rights in the EU’s development policy and a discussion of why we need to revisit our current understanding of the Union’s development policy. The chapter continues by showing how a global justice approach can contribute to developing a critical and novel analysis of the EU’s rights-based approach. It is an approach that sees the EU’s policy not as a result of power imparity and pursuit of national interests, as the literature to date has argued, but rather as a result of human rights interpretation. The chapter continues by presenting a primer of the EU’s commitment to a rights-based approach to development and subsequently shows how the EU’s policy is currently facing a crossroads. Finally, the chapter sets out the main aims and arguments of the book and how I will proceed in making these arguments, including a discussion of methods and sources.
