EU Law and Institutions
The aim:
1. To provide understanding of the nature of European Union, its origins and dynamics of European integration
2. To provide understanding of the working of EU – its institutional an legal order and principles as well as relations with the Member States
3. To provide skills necessary for complex analysis of a given EU-related issue including drawing de lege lata and de lege ferenda conclusions
Acquired knowledge:
1. Student has knowledge of the characteristics of the European Union as an international organization – its principles, values as well as origins and dynamics of the process of European integration
2. Student has knowledge of the EU institutional system – composition, competences of each institution as well as their relations between themselves and between the Member States
3. Student has knowledge of the sources of EU legal order –the decision-making processes, rules of application of the EU law as well as its relations with the internal law of the Member States
4. Student has basic knowledge of the selected policies and activities of the EU especially in the spheres of Internal Market and those related to EU citizenship
Acquired skills:
1. Student is able to see the complex relationship between legal order of the EU and the Member States and is able to solve cases relating to these issues
2. Student is able to utilize his/her knowledge to provide in-depth and critical analysis of a give EU law-related case
3. Student is capable of drawing de lege ferenda and de lege lata conclusions
Acquired social skills:
1. Student understands influence of the EU, especially of its legal order on the law and societies of the Member States
2. Student is able to publicly present his/her analysis of the EU-related issue
3. Student is able to initiate and held discussion on the EU-related subjects
Course contents:
1. Foundations of the EU legal order. EU and principles of the modern European constitutionalism, the scope and categories of Union competences, protection of fundamental rights
2. Institutions of the Union. Composition and powers – European Parliament, European Council, Council, Commission, Court of Justice
3. Sources and Legislative Procedures: Primary law, general principles of Union law, international agreements, secondary law and other acts of institutions
4. Union law in the national legal orders of the member states. Primacy, direct effect, conformity through interpretation, state liability
5. Framework for enforcement of EU law. Actions before the European courts, actions before national courts, preliminary rulings procedure
6. EU citizenship. Concept, rights and obligations.
Recommended reading:
1. European Union Law, Koen Lenarets, Sweet&Maxwell. London 2011
2. EU Law. Texts, Cases & Materials, D. Craig, G. deBurca, OUP. Oxford 2018
