Offered
Not offered in 2008
Synopsis
This unit may be offered wholly in Prato or in Prato followed by a study tour of key EU institutions : The unit examines the institutional structure of the EU; the motivation behind the move towards a EU; major treaties implementing the union: The European Community Treaty, the Treaty on European Union and subsequent amendments to these treaties; various institutions of the EU: the Commission, the Council, the European Court of Justice and the European Parliament; decision-making processes within the Community; the enactment of measures to create a single European market: the four 'freedoms': free movement of goods, services, people and capital; and the attempts to create an EU constitution.
Objectives
Upon completion of this subject students should
- have an appreciation of the forces behind the desire to create a single market and, ore broadly, a closer European Union;
- be able to distinguish between the different methods of achieving a closer European Union, viz, the supra-nationalism of the main EU institutions as opposed to the inter-governmental nature of the European Council and the method of legislating according to the principle of 'subsidiarity';
- understand the functioning of the main EU institutions in a supra-national legal system which does not embody a separation of powers doctrine (exemplified by the co-decision legislative procedure and the Parliament's power over the composition of the Commission);
- be able to appreciate the central role of the European Court of Justice in the reinforcement of a supra-national organisation and in the harmonisation of the laws of the member states;
- be able to advise on the ways in which the laws and decisions of EU institutions may be challenged and the remedies available to both state and private parties;
- have a broad understanding of the operation of the single European market and of the four freedoms.
Assessment
Take-home examination (maximum 3,500 words to be completed within 7 days): 50% and research assignment (4,000 words): 50%
Prerequisites
LAW1100 or LAW1101 and LAW1102 or LAW1104
