European Law
Objectives
The proposed course provides an opportunity to address the most salient recent developments in European constitutional law both at the EU level and at the level of member states. It will furthermore explore the most pressing challenges to European constitutional values that the Union is facing, including the spread of so-called illiberal democracy and the mechanisms in place to resist it.
After completion of the course, Ph.D. students will familiarize themselves with the most relevant topics in European constitutional law, namely the idea of Europe as a transnational democracy, European values, and European human rights. They will have, more importantly, developed the required skills to critically assess major scholarly works in the area, by providing structured comments on legal papers that are triggering discussion at the EU level on such topics. In order to further strengthen the academic skills of Ph.D. candidates, the course will provide a detailed account of how to comment on scholarly works as well as include a class session on how to write a case note.
General characterization
Code
22114
Credits
10
Responsible teacher
Nausica Palazzo
Hours
Weekly - 2
Total - 26
Teaching language
English
Prerequisites
Not Applicable
Bibliography
Richard Bellamy, A Duty-Free Europe? What¿s Wrongwith Kochenov¿s Account of EUCitizenship Rights, Eur L J, Vol 21, 2015
Jürgen Habermas, Democracy in Europe: Why the Development of the EU into a Transnational Democracy Is Necessary and How It Is Possible, Eur L J, Vol 21, 2015
Robert Schütze, On 'federal' ground : the European Union as an (inter)national phenomenon, Common Market L Rev, Vol 46, 2009
Zsolt Körtvélyesi, The Illiberal Challenge in the EU: Exploring the Parallel with Illiberal Minorities and the Example of Hungary, Eur con l rev, 2020
Gábor Halmai, Populism or Authoritarianism? A Plaidoyer Against Illiberal or Authoritarian Constitutionalism, in Anti-Constitutional Populism, CUP, 2022
Julian Scholtes, Populism and the Crisis of Constitutional Pluralism, in Anti-Constitutional Populism, CUP, 2022
Paul Blokker, Populism and Illiberalism, in Routledge Handbook of Illiberalism, Routledge, 2021
Nika Ba¿i¿ Selanec, Davor Petri¿, Migrating with Dignity: Conceptualising Human Dignity Through EU Migration Law, Eur con l rev, 2021
Virginia Passalaqua, Homophobic Statements and Hypothetical Discrimination: Expanding the Scope of Directive 2000/78/EC: ECJ 23 April 2020, Case C-507/18, Associazione Avvocatura per i diritti LGBTI, Eur con l rev, 2020 (case note)
Grainne de Burca, The Road Not Taken: The EU as a Global Human Rights Actor, American Journal of International Law, Vol 105, 2011, available on SSRN, from page 36
Matteo Bonelli, Infringement Actions 2.0: How to Protect EU Values before the Court of Justice, Eur con l rev, 2022
Domaradzki, Spasimir, Milosavljevi¿, Ivana Radi, Between Populism and Technocracy: How National Executives in Bulgaria and Serbia Manipulate EU Rule of Law Conditionality?, J Contemporary Eur Research, vol 17, 2021
Dimitry Kochenov, On Bites, Barks, and Promises, in U.Belavusau & A. Gliszczy¿ska-Grabias (eds), Constitutionalism under Stress: Essays in Honour of Wojciech Sadurski, OUP, 2020
Teaching method
The course adopts the form of seminar classes, namely interactive classes where Ph.D. students are expected to participate in a structured discussion over the topics being presented. The discussion is structured in a workshop-like format whereby first the instructor provides an overview of the paper, then two students who signed up during the first class provide comments on the paper (roughly 15 minutes) and act as icebreaker discussants, before the discussion is opened to the class. At the end of each class, the instructor provides comments on how to improve the critical analysis and discussion of legal papers.
Evaluation method
Essay-based assessment. Written essay consisting of providing structured comments on a legal paper in the field of European constitutional law. The paper will be uploaded on Moodle on April 30, and students will have two weeks to provide structured comments. The structure is illustrated in the first class and feedback is provided throughout the course.
Class participation: + 2 points to the final grade of the essay. Active and constructive participation in class is worth up to 2 extra points on the final grade and is conferred at the discretion of the instructor at the end of the course.
Subject matter
- Introduction to the course + Notes on the role of discussants and structure of comments
- The EU as a transnational democracy
- The EU as a federal state
- EU values - The Illiberal Challenge
- EU values - Populism and Illiberalism
- EU values - Populism or Authoritarianism?
- EU values - Populism and the Crisis of Constitutional Pluralism
- Human rights in the EU - Migrating with Dignity
- Human rights in the EU - LGBTQ rights (Case note workshop)
- Human rights outside the EU - The EU as a Global Human Rights Actor
- Mechanisms to protect EU values - Infringement Actions 2.0
- Mechanisms to protect EU values - Rule of Law Conditionality
- Mechanisms to protect EU values - Rule of Law Mechanism