Foundations of European Union Law

The departments of European Law (EL) and Public Economic Law (PEL) offer an introductory course on the Law of the European Union (EU) to all students without any prior knowledge of European law, be it law students or students from other disciplines (such as economy, sociology, history and the exact sciences).

Topics to be dealt with include:
EU Institutional Law:

• Introduction: general aspects of EU law, structure of the EU

• EU Institutions and decision-making processes and legal instruments

• Primacy, direct effect of EU law, reception of EU law in Member States and state liability

• Judicial protection

• Fundamental rights in the EU legal order

EU Substantive Law:

• Free movement of goods

• Free movement of people, including EU citizenship

The principle aim of this course is to help students to achieve a critical and informed understanding of the way in which European Union law operates. It offers a general overview of the core principles of the treaties of the EU, secondary legislation and case law.

Effort requirements
You are obliged to attend the plenary seminars and the tutorials and should participate actively in class discussions. In order to do so, students are expected to study in detail the mandatory literature for each week in advance. It is expected that students bring their text of the Treaty with them to each seminar and tutorial.

Beware there is a mid-term exam in this course for which attendance is compulsory. The mid-term exam will take place in the week immediately before the end-of-year break and the final exam in the last week of the course.

Exchange students who need an ‘early exit’ due to having to return to their home universities should register under the course ID ‘RGBUIER025'. Please note that RGBUIER025 is worth 5 ECTS, not 7,5 ECTS.
 
Place of the course within the curriculum: