50204 - KEY ISSUES IN EU LAW

Students who do not have a background knowledge of EU law should acquaint themselves with the basic institutional and constitutional architecture of the EU and should read a A. Arnull EU Law : a Very Short Introduction (OUP 2017)

The course aims to introduce students to advanced and separate topics of EU law, so as to equip them with more sophisticated tools to understand and work with EU law. The first part of the course focuses on the External Relations of the EU and, in particular, on the Trade and Investment Policy, the Common Foreign and Security policy and the Sanctions Policy. The second and third part of the course will look at the Economic and Monetary Union and State Aids respectively.

Introduction to the External relations in the EU system

Constitutional foundations of the EU external relations

International law and the EU legal order

The Common Foreign and Security Policy

The Common Commercial Policy 

EU Trade and Investment in times of global crisis 

EU Sanction Regime 

Sanctions against Russia and the war in Ukraine

History and Theoretical Foundations of an “incomplete” EMU;

EMU’s Legal Framework: a core asymmetry between the monetary and economic pillar;

The Monetary Pillar: Powers and Mandate of the European Central Bank (ECB);

The Economic Pillar: economic policy coordination and governance system;

The EU’s response to the euro crisis: financial assistance and the European Stability; Mechanism (ESM), judicial scrutiny of bailouts, ECB’s bond-buying programmes;

The EU’s response to the pandemic: Nex generation EU and its impact on EMU;

The future of EMU: completing the banking union, reforming EU fiscal rules, and other proposals;

State Aid

State Aid Regime

State Aid Policy

State Aid in time of crisis

• Define and describe the workings and the shortcomings of EU policies in the relevant areas.
• Illustrate their points with examples from the case law, policy documents and acts of the EU institutions.

• Summarize effectively and critically complex information and express clearly their opinions on the topics examined.

  Argue coherently their view point illustrating their answers with examples
• Evaluate the effectiveness of EU action in the policy areas under examination.

• Face-to-face lectures
• Group assignments
• Interactive class activities on campus/online (role playing, business game, simulation, online forum, instant polls)

The classes are intended to stimulate and ensure student participation. To this end, there are going to be group assignemetns as well as problem question solving within the class. 

The final exam aims to assess students' knowledge and understanding of the workings and the shortcomings of EU policies in the relevant areas as well as their ability to critically assess discrete topics of EU law.

The group assignment is designed to test students' ability to conduct independent research and critically engage with, and examine, relevant primary and secondary sources (case law, legislation, scholarship).

Teaching materials consist of specialist articles and chapters from books, case law, policy documents etc, as well as the slides used during the lectures. Where possible, and consistently with copyright, teaching materials are uploaded on Bboard; where teaching material cannot be directly uploaded detailed references are given on Bboard.