Course info

CREDITS 4 (LV) 6 (ECTS) - 64 Contact Hours

This course offers a general introduction to European Union law. It aims to give a basic knowledge of the main features of the EU’s legal-institutional framework and the most important aspects of the Law of the European Union.

The course covers the principles governing the functioning of the European Union, its objectives and the core values that have inspired and prompted the European integration process. It deals with the European institutions, as well as with other EU relevant institutional bodies, focusing on their role, mutual interactions and functioning, including the different decisional procedures in place within the EU law-making process. The hierarchical and functional systematisation of the legal sources forming EU law is also addressed, focusing on how EU rules are adopted and enforced at EU and national level.

Additionally, the course provides the basic instruments to approach questions concerning the relationship and the interaction between EU law, national law and other legal systems, especially with regard to the protection of human rights in the European legal context (such as, in particular, the Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights).

Finally, the course provides an introduction to some specific areas of EU law, such as the internal market (free movement of persons, goods, services, capitals), competition law, EU external Relations, the Area of Freedom Security and Justice. The course is designed to be interactive: theoretical issues will be confronted with practical cases (i.e. case-law of the EU Court of Justice and the European Court of human rights) in order to allow the students to understand and verify how EU law is actually implemented and understood by major EU actors. Particular attention will be devoted to the recent and current challenges faced by the EU and its Member States (e.g. the refugee crisis, Brexit, the COVID-19 emergency, the conflict in Ukraine, and rule of law issues in Poland and Hungary).