Duration
40h Th, 10h Pr
Number of credits
Lecturer
Language(s) of instruction
French language
Organisation and examination
Teaching in the first semester, review in January
Schedule
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Learning unit contents
What does the European Union do? How do its rules and legal norms contribute to implementing, maintaining and promoting European integration envisaged in the founding treaties (the Treaty on European Union - TEU- and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union - TFEU)? What is their impact on the regulatory powers still held by the Member States?
This course follows up on the course on European institutional law (2nd year of the bachelor in law), which covered European Union institutions, the decision-making processes and how EU law is implemented.
The course on substantive law principally covers 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.
The Court of Justice of the European Union has 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, its 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).
In addition, the course will offer a six hour introduction to EU State aid law, a field directly aligned with the fundamental freedoms. Three two-hour lectures will be taught by professor Jacques Derenne, one of the most renowned specialists in this subfield of EU law, which he practices at the Brussels bar (and who also teaches an optional course on the subject at LLM-level).
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 identify, analyse and solve problems related to EU internal market law and EU Stated aid law.
Transversal skills: the course also aims to develop transversal skills related to EU law. Three 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 Courts and 3) the ability to read, understand and summarise judgments rendered by the Court of Justice of the European Union in this field.
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 internal market fundamental 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 justify how EU law can contribute to the resolution of a dispute or to the disapplication of national legal norms that go against the objectives of European integration.
Prerequisite knowledge and skills
European institutional law
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
Lectures will be offered face-to-face and will be complemented by compulsory case law readings, contained in a cases & materials documentation folder. A podcast on how to read CJEU case law will be made available early October.
Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)
Face-to-face course
Further information:
In principle, all classes will take place in face-to-face modus.
Course materials and recommended or required readings
The coursebook for this course will be P. Van Cleynenbreugel, "Droit matériel de l'Union européenne - Libertés de circulation et marché intérieur", 2nd edition, Brussels, Larcier, 2023, 526 p.
The textbook, completely revised and restructured in 2023, 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.
ATTENTION: the second edition of the coursebook (published in 2023) is fundamentally different from the previous version published in 2017. The first edition of the coursebook is no longer useful to the course as it will be taught as of 2023 and cannot therefore be relied on as reading material anymore. Students are vividly encouraged to obtain the 2023 edition when taking this course.
The e-Campus platform also features a section dedicated to the course. There, students will find the course calendar, the slides used during lectures and optional reading materials.
Exam(s) in session
Any session
- In-person
written exam ( multiple-choice questionnaire, open-ended questions )
Further information:
The evaluation is a written, closed-book exam, in both the first and second session. It will take two and a half hours and consists in two parts: 14 theoretical and practical questions taking the format of multiple choice reasoning and "mini-casus" questions (14 pts) as well as a summary of a new CJEU case to provide by answering specific questions given (6 pts).
The evaluation criteria are as the following:
- accuracy of the student's legal knowledge,
- ability to select relevant knowledge in order to answer a given question or subject,
- adequate attention paid to the scope of EU 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.
Work placement(s)
Organisational remarks and main changes to the course
Classes will be held on Mondays and Thursdays:
- Mondays from 11h00 to 13h15 in classroom 304 (B4)
- Fridays from 16h00 to 18h00 in classroom De Méan (B31) - classes only on 10 and 17 October
- Thursdays from 10h30 to 12h30 in classroom De Méan (B31) - introduction to EU State aid law, taught by prof. J. Derenne - 3 classes in November and December
Attention: some class sessions on Thursday are replaced by self-study sessions during which you are expected to read the judgments in the reader - check the course agenda on MyULiège and eCampus for the latest information.
Classes start on Monday 22 September.
Contacts
Professor: Pieter Van Cleynenbreugel (contact at pieter.vancleynenbreugel@uliege.be)