Abhandlungen ExploringtheAutonomyoftheEuropean UnionLegalOrder Koen Lenaerts President of the Court of Justice of the European Union and Professor of European Union Law, Leuven University, Leuven, Belgium Koen.Lenaerts@curia.europa.eu José A. Gutiérrez-Fons Legal Secretary at the Court of Justice of the European Union, Luxembourg Jose_Antonio.Gutierrez-Fons@curia.europa.eu Stanislas Adam Legal Secretary at the Court of Justice of the European Union and Professor of European Union Law, Ghent University (G. E. L. I.), Ghent, Belgium Stanislas.Adam@curia.europa.eu * Abstract 47 Keywords 48 I. Introduction 48 II. What EU Law Is Not 52 1. EU Law Is Not Ordinary International Law 52 a) General Observations 52 b) An Example: The EU System of Fundamental Rights Protection 54 2. EU Law Is However Open to International Law 57 III. What EU Law Is 59 1. The Incorporation of External Norms Into the EU Legal Order 60 2. The Transnational Dimension of Autonomy 69 3. The Principle of Direct Effect 75 4. The Absence of Normative Gaps 78 5. Normative Conflicts and Value Diversity 80 6. The Treaties and the Charter as a ‘Living Instrument’ 84 IV. Concluding Remarks 87 Abstract Two different dynamics govern the autonomy of the European Union (EU) legal order. On the one hand, autonomy seeks to define what EU law is * All opinions expressed herein are personal to the authors. DOI 10.17104/0044-2348-2021-1-47 ZaöRV 81 (2021), 47-87 https://doi.org/10.17104/0044-2348-2021-1-47, am 20.02.2022, 05:29:17 Open Access - - http://www.nomos-elibrary.de/agb