Kadi in Sight of Autopoiesis

The long-running saga of the prominent Kadi case raises a variety of issues, not least the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU)’s overt acknowledgment of the European Union (EU) as a ‘virtuous international actor’ (de Búrca 2009) in terms of rights protection, and the monism/dualism/pluralism issue in terms of global governance. This chapter will consider these from the standpoint of autopoiesis or ‘systems’ theory in order to present a fresh perspective on both legal-systemic unity and considerations of ‘justice’ vis-à-vis human rights.