Advanced EU Law

General characterization

Prerequisites

Not Applicable

Bibliography

Not Applicable

Teaching method

The course adopts the form of seminar classes, namely interactive classes where students are expected to participate in a structured discussion over the topics being presented. The discussion is structured as follows:

1. first half of the class: first the instructor provides an overview of the topic;


2. second half of the class: the students who signed up for the reading assigned for that class provide comments on the paper/judicial case and act as icebreaker discussants, before the discussion is opened to the whole class. The second half of the class adopts a discussion-based format and interaction is integral to this second part.

At the end of each class session, the instructor provides comments on how to improve the critical analysis and discussion of legal papers.

Evaluation method

1. Final exam

Written essay consisting of providing structured comments on a legal paper in the field of European constitutional law. The essay must be up to two pages, it will cover an assigned topic amongst the topics covered during the course (classes 1 to 11). The essay must be written in English, and it is NOT open book. The exam lasts three hours.

 

The grading will be based on the following three criteria:

1. Orderly structure of the essay (ideally containing an introduction and overview of the topic and/or a roadmap) and linearity of the arguments presented (30%).


2. Ability to respond to the issues raised by the author (pertinence) (30%).


3. Ability to connect it to other topics relevant to the course (systematic attitude) (30%).


4. Linguistic skills (10%).

 

The maximum grade is 20/20. The minimum grade to pass the exam is 10/20.

 

2. Continuous Assessment

 

In the alternative to taking the final exam, students can participate in the continuous assessment.

 

This means that if they are satisfied with the final grade, the final exam is not mandatory.

 

The CA consists of two components:

1. Written essay: 17 points out of 20. On the last day of classes, students have an opportunity to write a final essay up to two pages on an assigned topic, amongst the topics covered during the course (classes 1-10, discrimination and EU law excluded). The essay must be written in English, and it is open book. Students must bring a laptop and upload the essay in PDF format on the relevant Moodle section (‘final essay continuous assessment’). The exam lasts 3 hours.

 

2. Class participation: 3 points out of 20. 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

PART I History and nature of the EU
1	Introduction to the course	Introduction to the course   Notes on the role of discussants and structure of comments   Students sign up for the role of discussant   History and philosophical origins of the EU: An introduction
2	The EU as a federal state	History of the EU – main treaties, the enlargement, and Lisbon   Overview of federalism, regionalism and central states   Robert Schütze, On 'federal' ground: the European Union as an (inter)national phenomenon, Common Market L Rev, Vol 46, 2009
3	Direct effects	Interplay with domestic legal systems   ECJ, Van Gend en Loos ECJ, Tanja Kreil
4	The EU as a demoicracy	Overview of the form of government in the EU   Kalypso Nicolaïdis, The Idea of European Demoicracy, in Julie Dickson and Pavlos Eleftheriadis (eds), Philosophical Foundations of European Union Law, OUP, 2012
5	EU citizenship	The EU citizenship   Dora Kostakopoulou and Tony Venables, Towards a Statute on European Union Citizenship: A Manifesto, European Journal of Migration and Law, 2023
PART II Rule of Law
6	Rule of Law	Rule of law crisis   Carlos Closa and Dimitry Kochenov, Overseeing the Rule of Law in the EU: Legal Mandate and Means, in Carlos Closa and Dimitry Kochenov (eds), Reinforcing Rule of Law Oversight in the European Union, CUP, 2016
7	Illiberalism in the EU	The rise of Illiberalism within the EU   Zsolt Körtvélyesi, The Illiberal Challenge in the EU: Exploring the Parallel with Illiberal Minorities and the Example of Hungary, Eur con l rev, 2020
8	Illiberalism in the EU	Illiberalism, family and LGBTQ people   Nausica Palazzo, The EU Family: Surviving Ideological Familism in Times of Illiberalism, in Alina Tryfonidiou, Marja-Liisa Öberg, EU Family Law, CUP, forthcoming
PART III Fundamental rights and EU law
9	Fundamental rights in the EU	Fundamental rights within the EU: An Overview Case Law   ECJ, Stauder ECJ, Grogan
10	Fundamental rights in the EU	Fundamental rights within the EU: An Overview Treaty Law   ECJ, Omega  ECJ, Schmidberger
11	Discrimination and EU law	Discrimination and EU Law   Employment discrimination   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)   Final class review
Final essay continuous assessment
12	Continuous assessment	In-class essay: 1st component of the continuous assessment
FINAL EXAM (January 2024)

Programs

Programs where the course is taught: