External Relations of the European Union
Full course description
The course focuses on the legal and constitutional foundations of the EU’s external relations. For this purpose the course divides into two parts. The first part is devoted to the Treaty foundations for external relations and its external policies, highlighting relevant case law and Treaty provisions. The case law of the European Court of Justice (CJEU) had and has a strong influence on the interpretation of competences, effect (and direct effect) of international law and international treaty law in the past. Important aspects of this case law have been codified and updated with the Lisbon Treaty. The second part of the course will focus on a few selected and important external policies. More specifically we will concentrate on the (i) EU Trade Policy, (ii) EU Development Policy, (iii) EU Common Foreign and Security Policy and (iv) EU Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy. While the lectures will introduce into the different topics, the tutorials aim to further the knowledge on the EU external relations principles but also discuss matters such as the external dimension of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice, the participation of the Union in international organizations and the role of the European Parliament after Lisbon.
The course builds on knowledge acquired in previous EU law courses, especially EU institutional law. For students who have no prior knowledge on this subject, they are advised to consult general EU law books which cover EU competences, legal remedies, hierarchy of norms and direct effect in general and especially in regard to international agreements.
Course objectives
Successful participants:
- will have acquired in-depth knowledge about the political and legal dimension of EU external relations law. They will be able to reflect on the characteristics and difficulties linked to this topic and connect to their knowledge gained in other courses, especially EU institutional law and substantive law;
- will have gained new insights into how to apply their knowledge and understanding of EU external relations law to identify specific problems, form coherent arguments, and develop problem-focused interpretations (both orally and in text). They will be able to apply their abstract knowledge acquired by lecture and reading on different cases and come to a balanced and argued conclusion;
- will gain experience and understanding in case law, legislation and literature in EU external relations law and develop a deeper understanding of EU law and political and legal problems arising from European Union polity. They will improve their writing and argumentation skills from an external relational law perspective during the course through weekly written and oral assignments;
- will have become more skillful in communicating legal theory, case law findings and own ideas to their peers;
- will thereby have further developed learning skills that will prepare them for their final Master Paper as well as for future academic education and/or work in practice.
Prerequisites
EU Institutional law
Recommended reading
To be announced