The Contribution of the European Court of Justice of the EU
This course will focus on the role of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) within the institutional framework of the EU in general as well as on the influence of the case-law of the CJEU on the development of certain key areas of EU law.
The course will
- Address the different sources and forms of EU law and discuss their interrelationship.
- Discuss some of the leading principles of EU law, such as the principal of primacy of EU law, the principle of subsidiarity and the principle of proportionality.
- Give an introduction to the functioning of the CJEU, its composition and its jurisdiction.
- Portray the main actions and procedures that can be brought before the CJEU.
- Preliminary ruling procedures
- jurisdiction of the CJEU to give preliminary rulings on the interpretation of primary and secondary Union law and on the validity of secondary Union law
- relation between national courts and the CJEU in the context of the preliminary ruling procedure
- Actions for infringement of EU law by a Member State, with emphasis on the changes introduced by the Lisbon Treaty
- Actions for annulment
- Appeals against rulings of the General Court
- Analyse the case‑law of the CJEU in the field of
- Fundamental rights
- European private law
- Protection of intellectual property and the internet
- Union citizenship
Requirements: Performance will be assessed on the basis of attendance and participation in class and class discussions (10%), an essay to be handed in at the beginning of week 2 (40%) and a written final exam (50%)
Recommended reading: K. Lenaerts and P. Van Nuffel, European Union Law, Sweet & Maxwell, 3rd edition 2011.
This course, which looks at European integration from a legal perspective, is recommended for students with prior knowledge of the institutions of the European Union or who have taken Andrea Lenschow's course: The Institutional Framework of the European Union.
