Legal Origins and Intersectoral Regulation of AEO Institution

Abstract

The main elements of AEO institution initially emerged in legislations of different countries, which legal systems belong both to common law and civil law families. In addition, there was an inevitable variability towards the tasks being solved, from general supply chain security issues to a focus on countering terrorist threats. At the same time, the modern AEO standards formed both at the level of international organizations, like WCO and WTO, and the regional level, such as the EU and associated countries. Therefore, we argue that there are several promising approaches to analyzing the legal status of AEO, including the concept of ‘legal origins’ and the institutions’ legal theories. They have a significant potential for explaining national differences in the implementation of the AEO institution, the specifics of the interaction of the norms of different branches of law in regulating the activities of the AEO, the methods, and methods of state administration of the AEO programs. Besides, the paper addresses the issue of intersectoral regulation of AEO institution, which embraces norms of several branches of law, including both public (administrative, tax and customs) law and private. Furthermore, the idea of delegation of competence and responsibilities towards granting supply chains security from state authorities to private entities (i.e. ‘trusted traders’) creates a shift in legal regulation where different internal rules and practices of private companies become essential to achieving the tasks assigned to AEO institution.

Keywords

• aeo
• institution
• customs
• security
• supply chain
• legal origins
• trade facilitation