EUROPEAN UNION LAW (LL205) Course duration: 54 hours lecture and class time (Over three weeks) Summer School Programme Area: Law LSE Teaching Department: Department of Law Lead Faculty: Dr Michael A. Wilkinson and Dr Floris de Witte (Dept. of Law) Pre-requisites: Introduction to Legal Methods or Equivalent. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW This course aims to develop your understanding of EU law and politics as well as your capacity to critically evaluate the institutional, substantive and constitutional dimensions of European integration. Special attention will be given to topical issues such as the Eurozone crisis, the migration crisis, and Brexit. The course covers: (i) constitutional aspects of EU integration; (ii) institutions of the EU; (iii) substantive law of the EU. This will provide an overview of the judicial architecture and political structures of the European Union, the authority of EU law, law-making processes, and the relevant case law in free movement, citizenship, and fundamental rights, while at the same time introducing more complex questions about the dynamics and direction of the integration process, particularly since the Euro crisis and Brexit. 1 The course will challenge you not only to understand, but also to critically assess the structures, methods and content of EU law. It will include discussion of the current state of the Union and its likely future trajectory, and involve practical problem-solving skills such as moot court exercises. The course is therefore aimed at those interested not only in the law of the EU, but also in understanding the functioning of the EU institutions and the broader project of European integration. It is not restricted to those with a background in law but will also appeal to those with an interest in European politics, history and economics and international relations. The basic reading for this course will consist of the following textbook in EU law: Chalmers, Davies and Monti, ‘EU Law: Cases and Materials’ (CUP, 2014), which will be supplemented by case-law or specific articles related to the topic of the class. The seminars will be used to allow you to work with the material, in teams and engage with EU law from different angles. The course is taught by Dr Michael Wilkinson ([email protected]) and Dr Floris de Witte (f.e.de- [email protected]). It will consist of 12 lectures of three hours each, and 12 seminars of one and half hour each. The course focuses on three dimensions of EU law, as follows: Course content is subject to change. Last updated: December 2017 - Constitutional issues: how the European Union has developed into a unique supranational system (and the role of law in this process), how its political and legal authority is shaped and challenged, and how it has responded to issues of fundamental rights, democracy and constitutional identity. - Institutions and Law-Making: a detailed legal and political analysis of the role and functions of the EU institutions, the legislative process, and the judicial architecture of the European Union (including the law and governance of the Eurozone). - Substantive fields of EU law, in depth analysis of the case law of the Court of Justice on free movement of goods, free movement of services, and citizenship. We will conclude by exploring the EU’s engagement with current problems, most notably the Euro-crisis, and considering its future trajectory. The general programme of lectures – which may be subject to minor revision - will be as follows: - Lecture 1: History of European Integration and Basic Concepts in EU Law - Lecture 2: Institutions and Law-Making - Lecture 3: The Judicial System of the EU and Enforcement of EU Law - Lecture 4: Free Movement of Goods - Lecture 5: Free Movement of Persons and Citizenship 2 - Lecture 6: Authority of EU Law - Lecture 7: Fundamental Rights - Lecture 8: Democracy, Subsidiarity and Differentiated Integration in the EU - Lecture 9: Area of Freedom, Security and Justice - Lecture 10: Law and Government of the Eurozone - Lecture 11: Brexit and Euro-Crisis - Lecture 12: The Future of the European Union Recommended Text: Students are advised to acquire the following text: - Chalmers, Davies and Monti EU Law (Cambridge University Press, 2014) A broad range of additional readings, as well as recommendations for in-depth analysis of the separate topics of the course will be set in support of lectures, and as preparatory readings for classes. These will made accessible over the Moodle site for the course (https://shortcourses.lse.ac.uk/). Course content is subject to change. Last updated: December 2017 Assessment: Students will have one formative essay to submit on Friday of week 1. This will not count towards the final overall grade, but feedback will be given to aid preparation for the summative assessments. Students will be set one summative piece of coursework comprising an essay of 1,500 (worth 50% of the overall grade) words maximum on one of a number of set themes, this will be due on Friday of week 2. The other aspect of the summative assessment for the course will take the form of an unseen two-hour examination paper (worth 50% of the overall grade) on Friday of week 3. The precise time and location of the exam will be confirmed during the programme. Teachers: Dr Mike Wilkinson is Associate Professor of Law in the Department of Law at the LSE, where he teaches and researches in EU Law, Jurisprudence and Constitutional Theory. He has been EU-US Fulbright Research Fellow at Columbia and NYU, visiting professor at Cornell University, Université Panthéon-Assas (Paris II) and National University of Singapore (NUS), and is a member of the Bar (Lincoln’s Inn). You can find more information here: http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/law/staff/michael-wilkinson.htm 3 Dr Floris de Witte is Associate Professor of Law in the Department of Law at the LSE. He teaches several EU law courses in the LL.B and LL.M, and his research focuses on the institutional and normative challenges thrown up by the Euro-crisis and on the interaction between free movement law and political theory. You can find more information on Floris on his staff page: https://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/law/staff/floris-de- witte.htm Course content is subject to change. Last updated: December 2017 LECTURE 1: HISTORY OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION AND BASIC CONCEPTS IN EU LAW The purpose of this introductory class is threefold. First, to get a sense of the idea of Europe and what, if anything, it means to be European, in cultural, political and social terms. Second, to think about the nature and role of the European Union, of its relationship with its member states and to consider what the EU does, or should, add to the lives of Europeans. What is the EU’s raison d’etre? Third, we will consider some themes and theories of European integration, which attempt to explain the dynamics of the EU and how and why it changes over time. Running alongside these three threads, is the question that will preoccupy us for the remainder of the course: what is the role of law in the process of integration? How does the EU affect our traditional understanding of law and related concepts, such as sovereignty, authority and public power? The introduction to Van Middelaar’s book offers a good starting point. He sets out three very general ways in which we can think about the EU: (i) as serving the purposes of the governments of the Member States (‘Europe of States’), (ii) as serving certain functional purposes (‘Europe of Offices’), or (iii) as being the start of a democracy beyond the state (‘Europe of Citizens’). Each of these understandings is reflected in different elements of EU law, and each is supported by different political and social groups. Each of these three has distinct disadvantages and benefits, and we will come back to these three paradigms throughout the course. The purpose of today’s lecture and class is to help you see a bigger picture – the social, political, economic and cultural context of EU law – and the different interpretations of it that are on offer. You will return to these introductory themes at later stages in the course, and they will help you to understand, locate and make sense of discrete topics as a part of this bigger picture. Getting some sense of what the European Union is, in any case, 4 seems necessary before we can begin to understand EU law. Background Reading Chalmers, Davies and Monti, Chapter 1 Class Reading Luuk van Middelaar, The Passage to Europe (Yale University Press, 2013), pp 1 – 9. E-book accessible here: https://catalogue.lse.ac.uk/Record/1456676 Class Questions 1. Is there such a thing as a European identity? A European citizen? A European polity? What do you think might be the implications, if any, of your answer to these questions for understanding the European Union and its law? 2. What, in your opinion, are the most significant events in the history of the European Union? Why? 3. Why did law assume an increasingly important role in the process of European integration? For each of Van Middelaar’s conceptions of the EU: a. what role do you think law plays in developing them? b. And how does law relate to the role of politics – on either the national or European level? Course content is subject to change. Last updated: December 2017 c. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each? 4. What does Brexit tell us about the nature of the EU? 5. What do you think the current crises in the Eurozone, Brexit and the migration crisis might mean for the future of European integration? 5 Course content is subject to change.