European union law
- A.A. 2017/2018
- CFU 9
- Ore 45
- Classe di laurea LMG/01
Students are expected to have attended institutional courses on Public Law or Constitutional Law
(per gli studenti iscritti al Corso di laurea magistrale in Giurisprudenza, classe LMG/01: Diritto
costituzionale 1 nell'attuale piano di studi del Corso di laurea) and Private Law (Diritto
privato 1) and to have passed the relevant exams. Since the course will be delivered in English, and
in the same language students are expected to be able to discuss in class on the cases which will be
examined and sit for the relevant exams, an adequate level of competence in the English language
shall be considered as an implied prerequisite.
The Course, which forms part of a programme of courses delivered in English, aims to introduce
students to the peculiarities of the law of the European Union as a distinct legal order. Particular
attention will be devoted to the institutional structure of the EU and to its legislative procedures,
facing the current concern for the lack of democratic representation in the decision-making
process of the Union, as well as to the instruments allowing a flexible participation by
the Member States in the pursuit of some of its goals.
The Course will be based on a detailed analysis of the provisions of the EU Treaties concerning
the said institutional features, in light of the case law developed by the European Court of Justice.
Cases will be examined in class, in order to develop students' abilities to discuss competently on
the main issues posed by EU law, acquire a good command of the relevant terminology and a
thorough understanding of the legal dynamics of the subject.
The Course will be mostly focused on the following topics:
-distinctive features of the EU legal order, especially its "supra-national" character, viewed
through its origins and its subsequent developments;
-the role and nature of the founding treaties as primary sources of the EU legal order;
-the institutions of the Union: their powers and role in the structure of the Union and their
respective incidence in the decision-making process of the EU;
-the competences of the EU, their limits and coordination with the competences of the Member
States, the principles guiding the exercise of EU competences: subsidiarity and proportionality;
implied powers;
-the external competences of the EU: the principle of parallelism between internal and external
competences and the position of treaties concluded by the EU within its legal order;
-the legislative and non-legislative procedures as contemplated by TFEU and the issue of
democratic representation;
-the acts adopted by the EU and their distinctive features; legislative and non-legislative acts;
binding and non binding acts; acts of a general nature and acts addressed to specific subjects;
-the acts adopted in the field of common foreign and security policy, their features and
relationships with acts adopted in the other fields;
-enhanced cooperation as a means of introducing a form of differentiated integration among the
Member States;
-the relationship between the EU and the legal orders of the Member States: supremacy and its
consitutional limitations;
- the implementation of EU acts in the legal orders of the Member States; in particular, the issue
of direct effects;
-the judicial system of the EU: role and competences of the European Court of Justice and of its
constituencies: the Court of Justice, the General Court and the specialised courts;
-in particular, the judicial and advisory functions of the ECJ: contentious and non-contentious
procedures, opinions on the conclusion of agreements by the EU;
-the protection of fundamental rights within the EU: Article 6 TEU and the planned EU accession
to the ECHR; problems of coordination among different fundamental rights provisions;
-an introduction to the main policies of the EU as fundamental components of the Internal
Market: free movement of persons, including the implications of the European citizenship; free
movement of goods, services and capitals;
-issues posed by the prospective withdrawal of a Member State from the EU: the s.c. Brexit
case.
Texts and materials:
Students regularly attending the Course will be expected to prepare for the exam on the basis of
the notes taken during the Course and of the relevant materials indicated by the lecturer
(Treaties, EU and domestic legislation, case law and literature). These materials will be posted,
as a rule, on the webpage of the Course.
Students not attending the Course will be expected to study the subject on the following
textbook:
D. CHALMERS, G. DAVIES, G. MONTI, European Union Law, 3rd Ed., Cambridge (Cambridge
University Press), 2014 (repr. 2015), Chapters 1-11, 15, 17-19.
Students are advised to supplement the above programme by studying the on-line Chapter 5A of
the said textbook, titled "The Authority of EU Law Beyond the Union", available for download
free of charge at the publisher's website:
http://www.cambridge.org/nz/academic/subjects/law/european-law/european-union-law-text-
and-materials-3rd-edition#i4IkYHAOjKsb8X0y.97
Students studying on the said textbook are advised to consult the provisions of the Treaties (TEU
and TFEU), as well as relevant EU legislation and cases, as cited in the specified chapters of the
textbook.
- 1. (A) D. CHALMERS, G. DAVIES, G. MONTI European Union Law 3nd Ed., Cambridge, 2014 » Pagine/Capitoli: 1-11, 15, 17-19, plus on-line chapter 5A available at the publisher's website
Students regularly attending the Course will be expected to prepare for the exam on the basis of the notes taken during the Course and of the relevant materials indicated by the lecturer (Treaties, EU and domestic legislation, case law and literature). The said materials will be posted, as a rule, on the webpage of the Course.
Students not attending the Course are advised to consult the Treaties (TEU and TFEU), as well as relevant EU legislation and cases, as cited in the specified chapters of the textbook.
-
The course will be delivered in classes (lezioni frontali).
These will be supplemented by case studies (esercitazioni), mostly based on cases decided by the
European Court of Justice (ECJ), which will be posted by the lecturer on the webpage of the Course.
Special attention will be devoted to the discussion of cases, so as to allow students develop an
ability to discuss competently in English issues related to the main topics forming the subject of the
Course, acquiring a good command of the relevant legal terminology as well as a deep
understanding of the underlying legal dynamics of EU law.
- The exams will take place in both written and oral form. Students regularly attending the Course
will have the opportunity of an intermediate written proof. Students passing the said proof shall
sit for the final exam only on the issues treated in the Course after the intermediate proof.
Written proofs (both the intermediate one for students attending the Course and the final one)
will be based on open questions (themes) on the topics treated in the Course (for students
regularly attending) or in the study programme for the exam (for students not attending the
Course).
The oral proof, which presupposes the passing of the written proof, may imply further questions
on the topics treated in the Course (for students regularly attending) or in the study programme
for the exam (for students not attending the Course).
English
English