University of the West of England, Bristol
SUBJECT SPECIFICATION
Code: UJXU58-20-3 Title: Law of the European Union Version: 2
Level: 3 UWE credit rating: 20 ECTS credit rating: 10 credits
Subject type: Non MAR subject (but standard module equivalent)
Owning Faculty: Social Sciences and Humanities
Valid from: September 2008
Pre-requisites: None
Co-requisites: all other Foundations subjects, the other (8th) area of legal study (Independent Research Project) and English Legal System
Excluded combinations: None
Learning outcomes:
At the end of this subject students will be able to demonstrate:
Knowledge and understanding
• Knowledge and understanding of the principal issues of substantive law of the EC/EU
• An appreciation of the underlying social, economic and political issues that underpin the European Community
• Knowledge and understanding of the law making process of the EU/EC
• An appreciation of the institutional structures of the EU/EC
These skills are developed through lectures and seminar activities and are assessed in any coursework which is part of the assessment schedule in any given academic year, and examination.
Intellectual skills
• Skills of analysis and synthesis
• An ability to evaluate critically existing law
• An ability to apply problem-solving techniques to complex legal and factual situations
These skills are developed through lectures and seminar activities and are assessed in any coursework which is part of the assessment schedule in any given academic year, and examination.
Subject /practical skills
• An ability to conduct effective legal research
• An ability to present reasoned legal argument (both orally and in writing)
• Problem solving skills in the context of EU/EC law
• An ability to find, analyse and evaluate primary and secondary EU/EC law
These skills are developed through preparation for and participation at seminars. The ability to research using both primary and secondary sources also form part of the independent research skills needed to complete any coursework which is part of the assessment schedule in any given academic year.
Transferable skills
Skills that are developed include:
• Oral and written communication skills: oral communication is developed through and evidenced by interactive activities involved in the seminars. High quality written communication skills are required for any coursework and for the examination tasks.
• Time management skills: these are developed through and evidenced by the ability to cope with an intensive study in a new discipline, whilst working to a demanding schedule of class contact, preparation for classes and for assessments.
• Use of IT is developed both as a research tool and for the presentation of coursework. IT skills are also of increasing importance in the search for and retrieval of legal sources from the internet and legal databases.
• Team-working is developed most obviously through seminar activities, where small group discussion (groups of 4 or 5) is followed by more general debate between the whole seminar group and the tutor.
Syllabus outline:
1. Introduction
The historical, economic and political context of European integration
The relationship between the UK and the EU
2. Institutions of the European Union
The European Commission
The European Parliament
The Council of Ministers, COREPER, and the European Council
The European Court of Justice and Court of First Instance
3. Law-making in the European Community
Forms of secondary legislation
Legislative processes in the EC
Influencing the decision making process
4. Jurisdiction of the ECJ and CFI
Preliminary references
Enforcement proceedings
Review of acts of the institutions
5. General Principles of EC law
Supremacy of EC law
Direct effect and direct applicability
Indirect effect
State liability
Protection of individual rights
Proportionality
6. Free Movement of Goods
Customs duties and charges having equivalent effect
Discriminatory internal taxes of a Member State
Quantitative restrictions and measures having equivalent effect
7. Free Movement of Persons
Free Movement of Workers (and their families)
The self-employed (Free Movement of Services and Right of Establishment – including the application of rules to the legal profession)
8. Competition Policy
Anti-competitive agreements (Art.81)
Abuses of a dominant position (Art.82)
9. Social Policy – including anti-discrimination measures (in outline)
Teaching and learning methods:
The aims of the subject are to:
- provide the student with knowledge and understanding of the nature and workings of EC law and law-making structures and processes;
- provide the student with an appreciation of the pervasive nature of EC law and of its importance and effect on domestic UK law;
- enhance the student’s independent study and research skills; and
- develop the student’s critical awareness and understanding of major components of EC law and European economic integration.
The emphasis throughout the subject is to provide the student with the opportunity and facilities to question, understand, analyse and evaluate EC law in its historical, political, economic, social and practical context.
Class Contact
Full Time
The basic class contact pattern in the subject is as follows:
• one hour per week lecture session (whole cohort)
(24 lectures across the academic year)
• one hour every three weeks seminar session (max 12 students per group)
(7 seminars across the academic year)
Consequently, in any academic year, there will normally be 31 hours of contact time for each student.
Part Time CPE
EU Law is taught across both year 1 and year 2 of the part time CPE. All teaching is in the form of whole group plenary sessions comprising:
• At the year 1 Induction residential session: one hour of introductory lecture
• At each of the remaining residential sessions in year 1: one our plenary session
• At the year 2 Induction residential session: one hour of plenary revision of year 1 materials and one hour introductory lecture of year 2 material
• At each of the next three residential sessions in year 2: two hours plenary session
• At the March residential session in year 2: one hour plenary session
• At the final year 2 residential session: one hour revision of year 1 material and one hour revision of year 2 material
Consequently, over the course of the two academic years of the EU Law course, there will normally be 17 hours of contact time for each student.
Lectures on the Full Time course.
The principal purposes of lectures are to:
- provide students with an overview of a particular topic;
- stress the important issues within the topic;
- explain the more difficult issues within a topic; and
- stimulate interest in the topic and provide alternative views.
Students are given pre-reading of the topic to be considered in the lectures, so that students can attend the lectures having done some preliminary preparation.
Seminars on the Full Time course and Plenary sessions on the Part Time course.
These are fully inter-active teaching sessions, where students have the opportunity to raise questions and issues and to contribute to discussions. Seminars involve problem-solving and the analysis and synthesis of conceptual and contextual issues. Students are expected to fully participate in seminar discussions. The principal functions of seminars include:
(a) to monitor the acquisition by students of knowledge, understanding and skills
mentioned in the Learning Outcomes; and
(b) to allow students to evaluate, analyse and synthesis legal materials and issues in an inter-active environment.
Typically, a seminar session may involve:
- consideration of some self-test questions given to students in advance (the principal functions of which are to guide students in their preparation for the seminar; to ensure broad coverage of subject matter within the topic, and to highlight important and more difficult issues within the topic); and
- consideration of a problem based scenario (the principal functions of which are to consider specific areas within a topic in more detail; to stress the importance of students adopting a logical methodology to dealing with such scenarios, and to illustrate the practical application of EC/EU law in fact-based scenarios).
Assessment
Assessment in any given academic year takes the form of either:
(a) Coursework and Examination
(i) An unseen examination of two and a half hours duration at the end of the Teaching Block. Students will be required to answer no more than three questions from a minimum of six questions. Students are permitted to take their own, unannotated copy of the relevant statute book in the examination. The examination requires students to adapt their knowledge and demonstrate their understanding of the law in relation to novel situations and under time constraint; and
(ii) a coursework task set on a syllabus topic requiring students to demonstrate their ability to research a topic and to produce an appropriate response to the task set. For example, this may take the form of a critical analysis of the syllabus topic, an evaluative response to proposed reforms of the law in that context; advice to a hypothetical client based on a factual scenario provided by the tutor; the draft of a short scholarly article or conference paper etc.
OR
(b) Examination only
An unseen examination of three and a half hours duration at the end of the Teaching Block. Students will be required to answer four questions from a choice of eight questions. Students are permitted to take their own, unannotated copy of the relevant statute book in the examination. The examination requires students to adapt their knowledge and demonstrate their understanding of the law in relation to novel situations and under time constraint.
Reading strategy:
At the start of the academic year, each student will be provided with some core published materials for the subject, being a text book; a book of cases and materials, and a book of legislation (see below: Indicative Sources).
Any essential reading will be indicated clearly to students (normally by a combination of Topic Outlines; workshop / plenary instructions and seminar instructions). Essential reading for a particular topic or class will normally be a combination of parts of the core material provided to students and / or other specific references that students will need to access for themselves (eg case reports, journal articles, Law Commission reports, etc).
If further reading is expected, this will be indicated clearly to students (normally by a combination of Topic Outlines; workshop / plenary instructions and seminar instructions).
Students will be encouraged to make full use of the printed and electronic resources available to them through membership of the University (for the purposes of both class contact preparation and research in preparation for coursework and examination assessments). These include (amongst other things) a range of printed case reports, legislation, texts and journals, as well as a range of electronic journals and a wide variety of resources available through web sites and information gateways (including online study and legal research sites provided by the Law Library). The University Library’s web pages provide access to subject relevant resources and services, and to the library catalogue. Many resources can be accessed remotely. Students will be presented with opportunities within the curriculum to develop their information retrieval and evaluation skills in order to identify relevant resources effectively.
Indicative sources:
Each year the subject team will determine which texts are to be purchased for the individual use of the students studying this subject. The selection may vary from one year to another but will usually comprise, as a minimum, one student textbook appropriate in style for the intensive nature of the course; one casebook and one volume of selected statutes. In addition students will be referred to the range of materials in the Bolland Library and they will be expected to fully utilise the variety of legal journals available both in hard copy and electronically, as part of their research for coursework in the Foundation subjects.
By way of illustration, in the 2007/2008 academic year, the texts provided to students will be:
“EU Law” 9th edition, Steiner & Woods, Oxford 2005
“Cases & Materials on EU Law” 8th edition, Weatherill, Oxford 2007
“EU Treaties & Legislation” 18th edition, Foster, Oxford 2007
Assessment
EU Law is taught and examined at the same stage of the Diploma as Property, Public and Equity & Trusts. In any given academic year, there will be a coursework in two of these four subjects. Consequently, in one of each two year cycle, there will be assessed coursework in EU Law. In every academic year, there will be an unseen examination in each of the three subjects.
Weighting between components A and B
In an academic year in which there is an assessed coursework
A: 75% B: 25%
In an academic year in which there is no assessed coursework
A: 100%
First attempt within CPE Regulations
In an academic year in which there is an assessed coursework
Component A
1 Unseen examination of two and a half hours duration. Students are permitted to take their own, unannotated, copy of the relevant statute book into the examination.
Component B
1 Coursework task
In an academic year in which there is no assessed coursework
Component A
1 Unseen examination of three and a half hours duration. Students are permitted to take their own, unannotated, copy of the relevant statute book into the examination.
Second attempt within CPE Regulations
(further attendance at taught classes is not required)
In an academic year in which there is an assessed coursework
Component A
1 Unseen examination of two and a half hours duration. Students are permitted to take their own, unannotated copy of the relevant statute book into the examination
Component B
1 Coursework task
In an academic year in which there is no assessed coursework
Component A
1 Unseen examination of three and a half hours duration. Students are permitted to take their own, unannotated, copy of the relevant statute book into the examination.
Third and last attempt within CPE Regulations
Attendance at taught classes is not required.
In an academic year in which there is an assessed coursework
Component A
1 Unseen examination of two and a half hours duration. Students are permitted to take their own, unannotated copy of the relevant statute book into the examination
Component B
1 Coursework task
In an academic year in which there is no assessed coursework
Component A
1 Unseen examination of three and a half hours duration. Students are permitted to take their own, unannotated copy of the relevant statute book into the examination
Specification confirmed by …………………………………………………
Date ……………………………
(Head of Department / Programme Director)