European Institutions

Academic year 2011-12

Date last modified

23-4-2012 1:29

Period

Period 1

Startdate:

05-Sep-11

Enddate:

28-Oct-11

Code

SSC3030

ECTS credits

5.0

Organisational unit

University College Maastricht

Coordinator

Description

This course focuses on the institutions involved in the European integration process, i.e. the institutions of the European Union (as created pursuant to the Treaties and secondary legislation), and also the institutions of the Member States insofar as they are also Union institutions. At the same time, this course provides an opportunity for students to be exposed to legal thinking. Law is central to the process of European integration, and it plays a greater role in European affairs than it does at national or international level. It is accordingly essential for students to become familiar with the ways of legal thought and reasoning, if they want to understand fully the European integration process, and European matters more generally.

Goals

At the end of the course, students should have acquired adequate knowledge, practical skills and a critical understanding with respect to the following: • The role and significance of law in the European integration process; • The legal foundations of the European Community (EC) and European Union (EU) (as set out in the Treaties); • The institutions of the EC and EU, their historical evolution and the horizontal relationship between them (as reflected in decision-making procedures); • The vertical relationship between the EC/EU and the Member States (including the principles of supremacy, legality, subsidiarity, proportionality and loyalty); • The implementation and enforcement mechanisms of EC law (infringement proceedings, enforcement through national courts, review of EC action); • The position of the individual as a holder of fundamental rights and a citizen of the Union. In addition, throughout the course and the accompanying workshop, students should have become familiar with legal thinking and legal reasoning, and should in particular be able to: • Find legal instruments in paper or electronic format; • Keep abreast of legal developments; • Read a legal document and extract the relevant information from it; • Put together a legal argument on a basic issue of EC/EU law; • Use EC/EU law to give an opinion on a simple problem. political process in which policy is made and the policy content of American foreign policy.

Instruction language

Prerequisites

SSC1007 Introduction to Law and at least one of the following courses: SSC2012 Comparative Government or SSC2024 International Law.

Recommended literature

• Fairhurst, J., Law of the European Community, Pearson/Longman, (latest edition). • The Law Cards – European Law, Cavendish. (not mandatory literature however, it contains a particularly useful summary of EU law and the subjects dealt with in this course).

Teaching methods

PBL
PRESENTATION(S)
LECTURE(S)
ASSIGNMENT(S)
PAPER(S)

Assessment methods

FINAL PAPER
ATTENDANCE
PARTICIPATION
WRITTEN EXAM
ORAL EXAM
TAKE HOME EXAM

Key words