M3431 Law and Policy of the EU

This is a 30 credit, mandatory, level 5 (second year) module. The teaching pattern is two one hour lectures per week and a fortnightly one hour seminar per group. The lectures will give an overview of the subject matter and the seminars have been designed on the basis of feedback offered by students over the past are will enable you to build on the basic principles explored in the lectures by pursuing some of their applications in greater depth and by encouraging you to take a more reflective approach to the materials in question.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this module, a successful learner should be able to:

1.Explain the objectives, powers and law-making processes of the EU;

2.Understand the impact of EU law on national systems;

3.Interpret and apply key principles, rules and concepts of EU law to factual situations;

4.Critically assess the contribution of the Court of Justice to the legal integration of the EU; and,

5.Conduct independent research.

Syllabus

The aim of this module is to provide a sound introduction to the law and policy of the European Union, stressing the role of the law as a tool of European integration. Informed by past years’ student feedback, the syllabus will focus on certain key areas of European Union law and policy including:

·the historical background of the EEC/EC/EU;

·the objectives of the EU;

·the institutional and decision making structure of the EU;

·the EU legislative process;

·sources of EU law;

·the structures of the TEU, TFEU and Charter;

·the relationship between EU law and national law;

·the general principles established by the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU);

·individual protection and individual rights in EU law;

·some of the specific jurisdictions of the CJEU, esp. Art.267 TFEU;

·the scope of EU fundamental rights protection and relationship to ECHR;

·the rules and operation of the Single Market;

·the development, scope and significance of citizenship of the Union;

·activism of the CJEU and its role as an integrative force.

The teaching team

Prof. Nuno Ferreira is the Course Convenor during term 1 and Dr Ioannis Katsaroumpas is the Course Convenor during term 2. Questions about the organisation and administration of the course should be addressed to them by email ([email protected] and [email protected]) or making an appointment.

The lectures will be given by (in chronological order) Prof. Nuno Ferreira, Dr. Ioannis Katsaroumpas, and Chiara Armeni. Seminars will be with Dr. Samantha Velluti, Liljana Cvetanoska, Dr Carmelo Danisi, Dr Gianluca Gentili, Dr. Ioannis Katsaroumpas, Dr Emanuela Orlando and Chiara Armeni.

Each tutor will post details of their weekly office hours for individual consultation.

N.B. Your first point of contact in this module is your seminar tutor, so should you have a query regarding the content of this module, please contact your seminar tutor in the first instance. Should your seminar tutor not be able to assist you, please contact the lecturer who has delivered the lectures relating to the substantive topic in question. Should your query regard organisational aspects of the module or should you wish to provide feedback on the design or delivery of the module, please contact the module convenor. You can contact members of the teaching team in person at the end of the lectures/seminars or during office hours, or by email. If emailing, please contact only one person at a time, and only try to email another member of the teaching team should you not receive a reply within a reasonable period of time (e.g. 48 hours). Emailing the same query to multiple members of the teaching team without each others’ knowledge unnecessarily consumes the time of several staff members and may lead to contradictory advice, which is counter-productive.

Delivery of the Course

Lectures are Tuesdays 10-11 (Jubilee Large Lecture Theatre) and Thursdays 14-15 (Chichester Lecture Theatre).

The external examiner for this module is Professor Dagmar Schiek (Queens, Belfast).

This counts for 50% of your final grade in EU Law and is principally to demonstrate your competence in relation to learning outcome 5 above.

2.An unseen written examination in the summer Assessment Block 2 (worth 50% of the final mark), directed towards learning outcomes 1-4 above.

You will be ermitted to take your own copies of an approved legislation book into the examination, provided that they are not annotated (highlighting and underlining is permitted). No other material can be taken into the examination. Any legislation book not on the approved list will not be admissible and will be liable to confiscation in the exam room.

Please refer to your Sussex Direct study and assessment timetables for information.

In the autumn term you will have an opportunity to practise your research skills and knowledge in EU law on a ‘risk-free’ basis, i.e. you will be offered the opportunity to do an assessment which does not count as part of your formal assessment in the subject, but which will generate feedback from your EU law tutor. Following past years’ student feedback, this assignment will be brief (max. 1,000 words) and will consist in a case note on case law related to subsidiarity, the theme of the assessed essay mentioned above.