Study Programmes 2015-2016
DROI8011-3  
Substantive European Law
Duration :
40h Th, 5h Pr, 15h AUTR
Number of credits :
Master in management (120 ECTS)5
Lecturer :
Pieter Van Cleynenbreugel
Language(s) of instruction :
French language
Organisation and examination :
Teaching in the second semester
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite :
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Course contents :
What does the European Union do? What legal techniques and methods do the Union's institutions use in order to implement, maintain and promote European integration as provided for in the founding treaties (the Treaty on European Union - TUE - and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union - TFUE)? This course's goal is to introduce students to the content of EU law. It follows up on the course on European institutional law (2nd year of the bachelor in law), which covered European institutions (the European Union and the Council of the European Union), the decision-making processes and how EU law is implemented. The course on substantive law mainly studies the legal implementation of the European Union's objectives. Among the many objectives defined in the founding treaties of the European Union, the establishment of an internal market has always been one of the most prominent. In order to understand the current scope and limits of European integration, it is necessary to first look at the legal foundations that govern the establishment of an internal market: a legal system that forbids Member States from impeding the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital, and creating a special status for European citizens. Attention will also be given to the crises that have hit the European Union: the economic and banking crisis, and the humanitarian crisis. Finally, the course will present an introduction to European competition law and its implementation. The European Court of Justice played a major part in the implementation of Europe's internal market: the Court is generally considered to be a driving force of European integration, and it has been able to provide a structure for the legal rules governing the internal market. In addition, European case law has also given us the principles that continue to govern the adoption of secondary legal instruments. The course will therefore focus on the inductive discovery of reasoning processes that characterise EU law, both in terms of case law (typical patterns of EU case law) and legislation (alignment, mutual recognition, administrative cooperation). Given the importance of case law, the course will be taught following the Socratic method, following the example of law courses in the US. This teaching approach requires that students be more active in preparing and participating in class.
Learning outcomes of the course :
Skills that are specific to EU law: students who complete the course will know the essential rules that govern the internal market, and have the basic know-how necessary for their practical application. They will be familiar with the sources of EU law, and will know how to do a simple search through the EU's legislation or case law and how to identify, analyse and solve a hypothetical problem related to EU law. Transversal skills: the course also aims to develop transversal skills related to EU law. Four skills in particular are targeted: 1) the ability to identify the rules that can apply to a factual situation and that are relevant to achieve a given practical objective; 2) the ability to develop, then implement, the reasoning patterns implicitly used by EU jurisdictions; 3) the ability to write a detailed and argued legal opinion regarding a simple law problem related to the internal market; and 4) the ability to produce a written presentation, using a formal register and appropriate legal terminology, of the legal analysis of a real-world situation. Students who complete this course will be able to determine whether or not EU law is relevant to a given real-world situation. They will be able to solve simple problems related to one or several of the four basic freedoms, and develop typical EU law reasoning processes themselves in order to question the existence and legality of some national regulations from the perspective of EU law. In addition, they will be able to provide understandable explanations for an (imaginary) person to whom they are speaking, and who may not be a legal expert. They will be able to write a structured note covering the essential legal concepts from one or several decisions related to internal market law.
Prerequisite knowledge and skills :
European institutional law
Planned learning activities and teaching methods :
Before each lecture class, students are required to prepare reading material (decisions or other documents). They should read documents and answer the questions found in the course book. During class, the teacher will generally adopt a Socratic approach. After presenting a reminder of the basic legal principles covered over the previous classes, they will offer new case law examples from which students can deduce and refine the case law methods and reasoning patterns on which the internal market was built. In order to create a true dialogue between teachers and students, active participation in class is expected; teachers will ask questions that aim to facilitate such an exchange. During lecture classes, questions from student are of course welcome. Students are also encouraged to use the online forums for this course on the e-Campus platform, in order to ask questions or to launch discussions on certain topics covered in class or in the reading material. In addition to theoretical classes, six classes will be dedicated to reviewing the course and studying practical cases: teaching assistants will field student questions and offer clarifications if needed. During these classes, students will learn how to approach European legal cases related to the internal market.
Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning) :
Face-to-face
Recommended or required readings :
A collection of reading materials for this course, along with a series of questions. The e-Campus platform also features a section dedicated to the course. There, students will find the course calendar, the slides used during lectures, optional reading material, links to various relevant websites, and advice on passing the exam. For the 2015-2016 academic year, a course book written by the professor will not yet be available. Detailed slides and illustrations are made available to students on e-Campus. A concise book that is suggested for students is: N. De Grove-Valdeyron, Droit du marché intérieur européen, 4th ed., LGDJ, 2014 (available at the Point de Vue bookstore).
Assessment methods and criteria :
The evaluation is a written exam, in both the first and second session. It consists in three parts: multiple-choice questions on the course's content, essay questions, and case study. Students can bring the European treaties to the exam, as well as the course reading materials. Article references are allowed in the treaties, but not in the course materials. Students may underline or highlight passages and use bookmarks; these bookmarks may have a few letters or words that identify chapters of parts of the course materials. Students may also bring a monolingual and/or a bilingual dictionary. The evaluation criteria are as the following:
  • accuracy of the student's legal knowledge,
  • quality of the essay's structure (logical order of arguments, links between sentences and paragraphs),
  • ability to select relevant knowledge in order to answer a given question or subject,
  • quality and adequacy of the justifications offered by the student to back their analysis or position,
  • adequate attention paid to the scope of European principles and rules,
  • correct identification of the legal rules applicable,
  • correct justification for choosing to apply a certain rule based on the practical objectives pursued,
  • strong logical reasoning,
  • accurate legal terminology.
Work placement(s) :
Organizational remarks :
Theoretical classes are followed by six classes dedicated to reviewing the course and studying practical cases, during which students will be split into four groups. Students following the "law" optional course should join groups 1, 2 or 3. Students following other optional courses can join group 4. During the first week of class, each student must join the appropriate group depending on the optional course they follow. For the first week of case studies, which will be taught by the professor himself, groups 1 and 2 will work together, as will groups 3 and 4. Students following the "law" optional course will attend an extra class (Tuesday, May 3); this class will be part of the course on "practical case studies - partim European law - partim judicial law". Students following the "law" optional course who are not required to attend this course should not attend the extra class. Theoretical lectures
  • Introduction - The internal market - Overview of the European legal system
  • Free movement of goods - Customs union
  • Free movement of goods - Charges having equivalent effect and national tax regulations
  • Free movement of goods - Quantitative restrictions and MEEQR
  • Free movement of goods - Sales conditions and usage rules
  • Free movement of goods - Rationales for prohibitions
  • Free movement of goods - Alignment and standardisation
  • Free movement of capital
  • Free movement of workers - Primary law
  • Free movement of workers - Secondary law
  • Free movement of citizens - European citizenship
  • Free movement of citizens - Rights of residency
  • Free movement of citizens - Social welfare
  • The humanitarian crisis: Schengen, immigration law and the European asylum system
  • Free movement of citizens - Establishment
  • Free movement of services - Primary law
  • Free movement of services - Secondary law
  • Free movement of services - National sensitivities
  • Internal market, economic crisis and monetary union
  • Competition law - Cartels
  • Competition law - Abuse of dominant economic position
General review class
Contacts :
Professor: Pieter Van Cleynenbreugel (contact at pieter.vancleynenbreugel@ulg.ac.be and after class) Assistants: Audrey Zians (audrey.zians@ulg.ac.be) and Iris Demoulin (iris.demoulin@ulg.ac.be)