European substantive law

Duration

40h Th, 10h Pr

Number of credits

Lecturer

Pieter Van Cleynenbreugel

Language(s) of instruction

French language

Organisation and examination

Teaching in the first semester, review in January

Schedule

Schedule online

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Learning unit 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).

Learning outcomes of the learning unit

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

Lectures will be offered face-to-face (but will also be recorded) and will be complemented by face-to-face practice sessions. See the course schedule below.

Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)

Face-to-face course


Additional information:

In principle, all classes will take place in face-to-face modus, but all sessions will also be recorded and made available as soon as technically possible after each class. See the French version for more information.

Recommended or required readings

The coursebook for this course is P. Van Cleynenbreugel, "Droit matériel de l'Union européenne - Libertés de circulation et marché intérieur", Brussels, Larcier, 2017, 347 p. It can be bought at the Presses Universitaires shop at Sart-Tilman. A collection of reading materials for this course, along with a series of questions will also be made available.
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.
The slides and illustrations are made available to students on e-Campus.

Assessment methods and criteria

Exam(s) in session

Any session

- In-person

written exam ( open-ended questions )

- Remote

written exam ( open-ended questions )


Additional information:

The evaluation is a written, open-book exam, in both the first and second session. All written supporting materials may be used. It consists in three parts: theoretical questions, an essay question and a practical case. Depending on the conditions, the exam will be held on line (via eCampus) or on campus (classical written exam).

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

The following classes will be offered:
Semaine du 20 septembre : semaine théorique

• Introduction au cours et au régime juridique du marché intérieur européen (20/9, 11h00-13h00, 303 (B7a), Sart-Tilman)
• Libre circulation des marchandises : champ d'application et droits de douane (21/9, 13h00-16h00, Salle Gothot (A1), Place du XX août
• Libre circulation des marchandises : droits de douane (suite) et taxes d'effet équivalen (23/9, 8h15 -11h00, De Méan (B31), Sart-Tilman)

• Groupe 1: 28/9, 13h00-15h00, Salle Gothot (A1), Place du XX août
• Groupe 2 : 30/9, 9h00-11h00, De Méan (B31), Sart Tilman

• Libre circulation des marchandises : restrictions quantitatives et MEERQ - importation : Dassonville, Cassis et ses conséquences (4/10, 11h00-13h00, 303 (B7a), Sart-Tilman)
• Libre circulation des marchandises : Keck et Mithouard + harmonisation technique + justifications (5/10, 13h00-16h00, Salle Gothot (A1), Place du XX août
• Libre circulation des marchandises : justifications (suite) et libre circulation des capitaux (7/10, 8h15 -11h00, De Méan (B31), Sart-Tilman)

• Groupe 1 : 11/10, 11h00-13h00, 303 (B7a), Sart-Tilman
• Groupe 2: 12/10, 13h00-15h00, Salle Gothot (A1), Place du XX août

• Libre circulation des travailleurs : principes et exceptions (18/10, 11h00-13h00, 303 (B7a), Sart-Tilman)
• De travailleur à citoyen + citoyenneté européenne (19/10, 13h00-16h00, Salle Gothot (A1), Place du XX août)
• Citoyenneté européenne : la Directive 2004/38 et application exceptionnelle du droit primaire + l'espace Schengen et la crise Covid (21/10, 8h15 -11h00, De Méan (B31), Sart-Tilman)

• Etablissement/services : établissement des indépendants et des sociétés : principes clés (25/10, 11h00-13h00, 303 (B7a), Sart-Tilman)
• Etablissement/services : la directive services et le droit primaire + justifications et exceptions (26/10, 13h00-16h00, Salle Gothot (A1), Place du XX août)
• Libertés de circulation : récapitulatif (28/10, 8h15 -11h00, De Méan (B31), Sart-Tilman

• Groupe 1: 2/11, 13h00-15h00, Salle Gothot (A1), Place du XX août
• Groupe 2: 4/11, 9h00-11h00, De Méan (B31), Sart Tilman

• Groupe 1: 8/11, 11h00-13h00, 303 (B7a), Sart-Tilman
• Groupe 2: 9/11, 13h00-15h00, Salle Gothot (A1), Place du XX août

• Aides d'Etat : principes et exceptions (15/11, 11h00-13h00, 303 (B7a), Sart-Tilman)
• Aides d'Etat : procédure et mise-en-œuvre ; Marché intérieur - le statut des plateformes en ligne (16/11, 13h00-16h00, Salle Gothot (A1), Place du XX août
• Plateformes en ligne et droit du marché intérieur (suite) (18/11, 8h15 -11h00, De Méan (B31), Sart-Tilman)

• Groupe 1: 22/11, 11h00-13h00, 303 (B7a), Sart-Tilman
• Groupe 2: 23/11, 13h00-15h00, Salle Gothot (A1), Place du XX août

• Récapitulatif- Résumé du cours - Q&A (29/11, 11h00-13h00, 303 (B7a), Sart-Tilman)
• Préparation à l'examen - questions de connaissance et question de synthèse (30/11, 13h00-15h00, Salle Gothot (A1), Place du XX août)

• Groupe 1: 6/12, 11h00-13h00, 303 (B7a), Sart-Tilman
• Groupe 2: 7/12, 13h00-15h00, Salle Gothot (A1), Place du XX août

• Résolution de l'examen de l'année dernière (13/12, 11h00-13h00, 303 (B7a), Sart-Tilman)

Contacts

Professor: Pieter Van Cleynenbreugel (contact at pieter.vancleynenbreugel@uliege.be)
Assistants: Valérian Fabry (vfabry@uliege.be), Cyril Fischer (cyril.fischer@uliège.be) et Clélia Jadot