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2010/1 Module Catalogue
 Module Code: LAW2001 Module Title: EUROPEAN UNION LAW
Module Provider: School of Law Short Name: LAW200
Level: HE2 Module Co-ordinator: CLEARY AJ Miss (Schl of Law)
Number of credits: 30 Number of ECTS credits: 15
 
Module Availability
Yearly
2½ hours per week (2 x 1 hour lectures weekly and 1 hour tutorial fortnightly)
Assessment Pattern

Unit(s) of Assessment

Weighting Towards Module Mark (%)

Three-hour examination

75

Coursework: 3,000 words

25

Students will be required to submit coursework of 3,000 words. Students wishing to attain good marks must exhibit personal research and originality, particularly in relation to course-work. Course work should demonstrate computer literacy, both in its presentation and content where familiarity with electronic data-bases should be shown. Students must be able to structure the totality of their work as well as individual arguments within it. In proffering solutions legal expertise should be joined with analysis, logic and practical awareness. Copied or plagiarised course-work will be totally rejected and appropriate sanctions applied.

The examination will cover not only those areas dealt with in lectures and tutorials but also those included in general and guided reading. The examination questions will be divided between individual topics requiring an “essay” answer which should be knowledgeable, structured, reasoned and logical and problem questions designed to test further understanding and application skills. The former will be particularly appropriate in relation to constitutional law where a wide knowledge of underlying ethical and philosophical concepts will be required. In respect of both the examination and course work students will be expect to write grammatically and free from spelling errors. Students are advised that persistent non-attendance of classes may affect performance in the assessment.  
Module Overview

Students address such questions as:

  • What are the fundamental principles of Community law? how are they derived and applied?
  • What is the Internal/Single market? How does this differ from the Common Market?
  • What are the foundational freedoms of EC law?
  • What is the role of the European Court of Justice, particularly in the making of the internal market?
Prerequisites/Co-requisites
Public Law; Legal System
Module Aims
The objective of the course is to analyse the substantive law of the European Union and in particular the European Community pillar. It builds upon the constitutional and institutional knowledge acquired by students from their study of European Legal System and Public Law I. Understanding European Community substantive economic and social law is the primary objective of the module. The module also examines the policy issues which underpin the substantive law. The evolutionary nature of EC law will be considered, along with some of the new challenges in this area concerning the regulation of the market after it has been integrated.
Learning Outcomes

At the end of this module students are able to:

  • Demonstrate a basic understanding of the historical, philosophical and political influences on the development of the European Union;
  • Identify, evaluate and apply the fundamental principles of European Community law;
  • Demonstrate a basic understanding of the relationship between policy-making and the judiciary;
  • Differentiate between the concepts of the Common Market, the Internal Market and the Single Market;
  • Explain in detail the objectives of the internal market and its legal framework;
  • Explain in outline the acquis communautaire regarding economic and social integration and appreciate its significance;
  • Manipulate the various primary and secondary sources of European Union and Community Law;
  • Analyse the impact of the principle of subsidiarity;
  • Apply European Community law to factual situations to solve problems;
  • Assess critically the strengths and weaknesses of the Single Market and evaluate current law critically;
  • Demonstrate an ability to analyse judgments of the European Courts
  • Undertake directed legal research to locate relevant materials.
Module Content
  • Foundational freedoms in the European Union Treaty system
  • The role and functions of the European Court of Justice
  • The effect of European Community/Union law in national courts (building on the material on Supremacy and Direct Effect considered in the Public Law and Legal System modules)
  • The scope and application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality
  • The Principle of State Liability
  • Direct actions in the Court of Justice
  • The nature and importance of economic policy; the background and development of the free movement of goods
  • The Customs Union, the Common Customs Tariff and Fiscal Barriers to Trade
  • Quantitative Restrictions and Technical Barriers to Trade
  • Mutual recognition and the Cassis de Dijon doctrine
  • Harmonisation
  • Free movement of people and services
  • European Citizenship
  • Free movement of capital and financial services
  • Management of the internal market
Methods of Teaching/Learning

The teaching and learning methods include lectures, seminars and tutorials. The lectures will introduce the students to the subject areas and provide an overview to enable students to understand the basic principles and underlying concepts. 

The seminars in the early parts of the Autumn Semester will provide a structured link between this module and the material covered in the Public Law and the Legal System modules. The tutorials will open out the subject and consider key principles and theories. Students will be provided with signposts to background and supplementary reading. During tutorials students will be expected to have researched topic area and to apply that research to discuss given legal problems. Programmes of guided reading will be provided and students will be required to demonstrate, during tutorials, that this has been undertaken. Students will be expected to present logical arguments founded on legal authorities. Their ability to challenge the propositions of others and to respond to challenges to their own will be monitored and developed. The format of the tutorials will include considering the underlying value systems and philosophies underpinning substantive European Union and European Community law. 

The teaching and learning strategy is designed to stimulate private study using derivative and original sources, both paper based and electronic. It is designed to develop an understanding and critical awareness of the essential principles and underlying philosophies and ethical values of European Community law.
Selected Texts/Journals
Expected purchases:
Steiner, Woods & Twigg, European Union Law (OUP, 20060 10th Ed.
Weatherill S., Cases and Materials on EU law  (OUP) – 7th ed. 2005
Blackstone’s EC Legislation OR Butterworth’s Students’ Statutes on EC Law
 
Background Reading:
 
Alter K., Establishing the Supremacy of European Law: (Oxford: OUP, 2001)
Douglas-Scott, S., Constitutional Law of the European Union (Harlow: Pearson, 2002)
Horspool & Humphreys. European Union Law (OUP Core Text, 2006) 4th Ed.
Tridimas T., The General Principles of EC Law (Oxford: OUP, 1999)
K. Davies, Understanding European Union Law, 2nd edition - Cavendish Publishing 2003
 
Reference only:
Arnull, The European Union and its Court of Justice (Oxford: OUP, 1999)
Arnull, Wyatt & Dashwood, Substantive EC Law (London: Sweet & Maxwell, 5th ed, 2006)
Barnard C, The Substantive Law of the EU (Oxford: OUP, 2004)
Brown & Jacobs, The European Court of Justice (London: Sweet & Maxwell 5th Ed., 2000)
Craig & de Búrca, EU Law: Text, Cases and Materials (Oxford: OUP, 3rd Ed., 2002)
Craig & de Búrca, The Evolution of EU Law (Oxford: OUP, 1999)
Dehousse R., The European Court of Justice: The Politics of Judicial Integration (London: Macmillan, 1998)
Hartley T., The Foundations of EC Law, (Oxford: OUP 5th Ed., 2003)
Laffner B., The Finances of the European Union (London: Macmillan, 1997)
Lenaerts, Nuffel & Bray, Constitutional Law of the European Union (Sweet & Maxwell, 1999)
Lonbay & Biondi, Remedies for Breach of EC Law (Chichester: Wiley Chancery, 1997)
Neunreither & Wiener, European Integration after Amsterdam (Oxford: OUP, 2000)
O’Keeffe D. & Bavasso, Judicial Review in EU Law Vol. 1 (Kluwer 2000)
Oliver P., Free Movement of Goods in the EEC (European Law Centre, 1995)
Schermers, Heukels & Mead, The Non-Contractual Liability of the European Communities (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff 1998)
Shaw J. & More( eds.), New Legal Dynamics of the EU (Oxford: OUP, 1995)
Steiner J. Enforcing, EC Law (London: Blackstone Press, 1995)
Twomey & O’Keeffe (eds.), Legal Issues of the Amsterdam Treaty (Oxford: OUP, 1999)
Twomey & O’Keeffe (eds.), Legal Issues of the Maastricht Treaty (Chichester: Wiley Chancery, 1994)
Weiler J., The Constitution of Europe (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1999)
Woods L., The Free Movement of Goods and Services in the EC  - (Ashgate, 2004)
 
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Common Market Law Review
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European Law Review
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Modern Law Review
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Last Updated

01.04.2008