Advanced European Law
Full course description
This course is devoted to the advanced study of European Union law. It is primarily addressed to those students who have followed one or more introductory courses of EU law. However, students with little prior knowledge of EU law are also welcome to participate. Indications of recommended literature will help them to make up for possible knowledge deficits.
The course proposes an integrated study of EU law, in the sense that it emphasizes the interaction between the two traditional subdivisions of ‘Institutional EU law’ (which deals with decision-making processes and the role of the judiciary) and ‘Substantive EU law’ (which deals with the content of EU law in the various policy areas). The course will thus explore both how substantive EU law is influenced by the structure of the EU Treaties and institutions, and how the EU’s institutional framework has evolved in response to new social, political and economic challenges.
This integrated study will take the form of a weekly general lecture for all participants, combined with interactive tutorial meetings at which, each time, one specific and current legal problem area will be examined from both institutional and substantive perspectives. The course also seeks to integrate legal analysis with the social and political context in which the law emerges and operates, which involves the use of non-legal literature.
Course objectives
- Explain the institutional and constitutional framework of the EU and assess its compatibility with key constitutional principles (democracy, the rule of law, fundamental rights) and its ability to respond to current challenges of European integration;
- Evaluate how the institutional law of the EU informs and affects the content of EU substantive law, and also vice-versa, and how the policy aims of the European Union determine its institutional evolution;
- Analyse judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union and to assess the contribution of these judgments to the evolution of a (specific part of) EU law;
- Situate new EU law developments (a new judgment, a new regulation, a new external agreement, etc.) in the overall context of the European Union’s legal order;
- Reflect on the normative implications of alternative interpretations of EU law.
Prerequisites
None
Recommended prior knowledge
Foundations of EU Institutional Law. Students who have never followed a course of EU law are invited to read an introductory EU law textbook before the start of the course.
Recommended reading
- C Barnard & S Peers (eds.), European Union Law (OUP 2023)
- Other literature indicated in the syllabus