Face-to-face , first term, 45 hours of theory.

First term
Tuesday from 11:00 to 12:30 at 119 Marais 1100
Thursday from 09:00 to 10:30 at 119 Marais 1100

The course, supports and examination are in English.

This course aims to introduce the students to the fundamental issues that occur in European Union institutional law.

For the Bachelor in History :

For the Bachelor in French and Romance Languages and Letters : General :

For the Bachelor in Modern Languages and Letters: German, Dutch and English :

For the Bachelor in Philosophy :

None

The course is structured around three main themes: community construction, community power and the community legal system. This course discusses in depth issues that are a matter of Belgian internal law of constitutional law. The aim is to approach the Union as a whole, i.e. the European communities, Common Foreign and Security Policy and the police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters. We will also study the reasons of the failure of the constitutional treaty of 2005 and the widening of the European Union. The reforms introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon will greatly be taken into account. Because of the importance of the Community's legal processes, we will focus on the analyses of the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice, which is a fundamental vector of European integration.

The course is a lecture with intervening discussions on texts, which the students should have read and analysed in advance. These discussions will sustain the theoretical developments during seminars (only for Law students). Besides the textbook and the course outline, a PowerPoint presentation will complete the lecture.

The assessment is a written examination (± 3 hours) that includes the definition of specific legal concepts, attributions of any institution of the European Union, and the analysis of a text studied in class. The students are also invited to develop a reflection on a more general subject (different subjects will be proposed). The examination criteria include the evaluation of the students' understanding of the subjects covered during the course, the structure of their reasoning, their analytical and summarising skills as well as their ability to establish links between the various parts of the subject matter. The assessment also considers the quality of writing, clarity of exposition and correctness of style and spelling. The only documents allowed at the examination are the portfolio of treaties (containing at most encrypted references to articles) and a common dictionary French-English/English-French.

A bibliography will be handed out during the semester.

The students have a syllabus that includes an outline of the lecture and the texts they should read in advance. As mentioned above, the reading of the texts is strongly recommended in order to facilitate the understanding of the issues discussed in class and the sharing of reflections during class discussions. The professor will answer any questions by appointment or by email: vandermensbrugghe@fusl.ac.be.