Face-to-face , first term, 45 hours of theory and 6 hours of tutorials without cases.

First term
Monday from 09:30 to 12:30 at 109 Marais 100

The course, supports and examination are in English.

This course aims to introduce the students to the fundamental issues that occur in institutional law of the EU.

This course aims to provide students with a firm grounding in the institutional background and constitutional fundamentals of EU law. It will generally lay down the basics of the internal market, canvass the building of a European judicial system and deepen students' understanding of the relationship between EU law and the legal systems of the Member States.

For the Bachelor in Law :

For the Bachelor in Information and Communication :

For the Bachelor in Economics and Management :

For the Bachelor in Political Sciences: General :

For the Bachelor in Sociology and Anthropology :

None

The course is built around three main themes: the community building, the 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 deal with 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. 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.

In consideration of the fact that the legal system of the European Union is in a state of constant flux and change, emphasis will lay on the dynamic architecture of the European Union, brought about by the Court of Justice in the interpretation of Community law or amendments to the Union's basic treaties. The course will naturally devote attention to enlargement issues and the reasons that belie the failed adoption of a European Constitution in 2005. In so doing, students will reflect on current attempts to simplify the Treaties and redefine the Union's sphere of competence and inter-institutional allocation of power.

The course is a lecture with frequent discussions on texts (judicial decisions articles of doctrine), which the students should have read and analysed in advance. The reading of the texts is strongly recommended in order to facilitate the sharing of reflections during class discussions. These discussions will sustain the theoretical developments during seminars. 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 argumentation, 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.

A reference work completes the course: Karen Davies, Understanding European Union Law, 3rd Ed. London: Routledge-Candish, 2008.

Supports: Besides the PowerPoint presentations, the students have at their disposal a syllabus that includes an outline of the lecture as well as a collection of texts including the texts they should read in advance, the major court rulings of the Court of justice and the constitutive treaties of the EU.

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 mail