The power and capacity of the European Union (EU) to make trade and investment agreements post-Lisbon has been shaped through a series of recent decision by the Court of Justice of the European Union, including especially Opinions 2/15 and 1/17. The present chapter aims to illustrate the resulting ex ante review of the EU’s competence in the field of trade and investment, the legal instruments providing that review, and its effects on the procedure and design of EU trade and investment agreements. In short, it looks at where we are now, by what means we got here, and how we might go on.