European Union Law (LAW 2230/ LAW3145)

Module Handout 2017/18

Professor Iyiola Solanke

This Module Handout contains basic

information on the module, including details
of the core texts, the teaching team as well
as an overview on the study of EU law, the
module structure, the assessment and the
teaching schedule. An electronic copy is
available on the VLE.

1. Basic module information

Module structure: this is a 20 credit module with 34 lectures and 8 seminars (plus drop in
revision sessions). It is taught over Semesters 1 and 2.
Module team: Lectures are delivered by Professor Iyiola Solanke (Module Convenor) and Dr
Konstantinos Stylianou. Seminars are also taught by Magali Eben, Joshua Warburton and Oriana
Casasola.
Seminar Participation Policy: This module operates a full participation policy. This means that all
students present are expected to contribute to discussions. The seminar is a place for you to ask
questions that arise from the lectures and your own further reading. Advance preparation is
therefore to your advantage, as you will be able to ask questions that help you to better understand
this topic.
Module meetings: Lectures are held on Tuesdays from 2-3 pm and on Wednesdays from 9-10
am. Lecture locations and the Seminar Schedule can be found on your personal timetable. This
handout contains the overview of lectures and seminars (see Section 4).
Assessment Mode: the module has two modes of assessment. In response to student feedback,
as of AY 16/17 there is a closed book Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) assessment at the end of
Semester 1. This paper will contain 30 questions focused on material covered in Semester 1
Lectures. The MCQ assessment will last 60 minutes and be worth 20% of the overall mark. At the
end of Semester 2 there will be a 3-hour open book examination on material covered in
Semesters 1 and 2. In this exam, you will answer three out of five questions, at least one essay
question and one problem question. The open book exam is worth 80% of the overall mark.
Reading list: The core texts are: EU Law by Dr Iyiola Solanke (Pearson Press, 2015) and a
statute book: Blackstone's EU Treaties and Legislation 2016/17 (Oxford University Press).
These two publications are available from Blackwells Bookshop on Blenheim Terrace.

For a deeper understanding of EU Law, it is important to consult other texts on the themes we
cover. There are many texts and many are of a very high quality. We cannot recommend them all.
You should independently explore additional texts. Read them in the library, and/or copy what
you need. These are our main suggestions:

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  Catherine Barnard & Steve Peers (eds) European Union Law (Oxford University Press,
2017)
 Catherine Barnard, The Substantive Law of the EU (Oxford University Press, 2016)
 John Fairhurst, Law of the European Union (Pearson Press, 2017)
 Paul Craig and Grainne de Búrca, EU Law, Text Cases and Materials (Oxford University
Press, 2015)
 Robert Schuetze, European Union Law (Cambridge University Press, 2015)
 Stephen Weatherill, Cases and Materials on EU Law (Oxford University Press, 2016)
 Damian Chalmers, Gareth Davies & Giorgio Monti, European Union Law (Cambridge
University Press, 2014)
 Trevor Hartley, The Foundations of EU Law (Oxford University Press, 2014)
 Grainne de Búrca, The Evolution of EU Law (Oxford University Press, 2011)

In addition, there will be recommended readings from law journals. Specialist journals for EU law
include the Columbia Journal of European Law, the European Law Journal, the European Law
Review, and the Common Market Law Review. The major general law journals (e.g. the Modern
Law Review, the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, and the Cambridge Law Journal) also regularly
publish articles on aspects of EU law. Finally, there are now many good blogs on EU law such as
Eutopialaw.com, eulawanalysis.blogspot, and Europeanlawblog.
Basic information on everything that the EU does can be found at the official website for the EU,
http://europa.eu. Here you will find details on all the EU institutions, EU policies and key persons.
All cases of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) – that is, the Court of Justice, the
General Court and the Civil Service Tribunal – can be found at the official CJEU website,
http://curia.europa.eu/. Material on these official sites is provided in all 24 official languages of the
EU.
Cases can also be found at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/. You will also find materials on Westlaw and
Lexis-Nexis.

2. Why study EU Law?

The CJEU is the busiest court in the world, producing up to and sometimes more than 500
decisions in a single year. The student of EU law should be clear that they are about to enter a
different world of law, with its own legal instruments, legislative institutions, law-making rules,
principles and concepts and priorities. Yet this world is not totally unknown: EU law covers topics
familiar from the first year of an undergraduate law degree such as administrative law, institutional
law and constitutional law. At the same time, EU law introduces learners to new areas of law that
may be pursued in later years at undergraduate or postgraduate level, such as international law,
trade law, immigration law, or equality and human rights law. Study of EU law therefore builds
upon past learning while creating a base for future studies.
EU integration is also politics and economics: economics and politics are both method and
motivation. Law has been effective in perforating the boundaries of the nation state, making them
permeable to create the internal market, yet not fully eroding them. All three – law, politics and
economics – have played a role in the complex process by which the member states have partially
opened up their markets and welfare systems. Member states have used European institutions to
both promote and prevent over-intrusion of global forces (internationalisation and liberalisation)
thus – as the current migrant crisis demonstrates - national differences persist, even if the
challenges are common. EU law has also in particular played a role where political compromise
and negotiation at the European Union level has failed or stalled.
The Eurozone and migration crises continue but have arguably been overshadowed by a bigger
issue: Brexit. On June 23rd 2016, the British people were asked in a national referendum whether

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the UK should leave or remain in the EU – 52% voted to leave and 48% voted to remain. David
Cameron resigned as British Prime Minister and former Home Secretary Teresa May took his
place. The formal exit process began when Article 50 TEU was triggered in March 2017; the
earliest date for the UK to leave the EU is March 2019. Negotiations are underway for a
Withdrawal Agreement, led by the new ‘Department for Exiting the European Union’ headed by
David Davis MP (https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-exiting-the-european-
union ). The House of Commons has also created its own Commons Brexit Committee
(https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/exiting-the-european-
union-committee/). The EU has also created its own ‘Brexit Taskforce’ and posts information on the
negotiations on the Commission website (https://ec.europa.eu/commission/brexit-negotiations_en).
At the national level grassroots campaigns have been created: Vote Leave Watch, has been set up
to ensure that the Brexit negotiations deliver the promises made during the campaign
(http://www.voteleavewatch.org.uk ). The3Million is more specific campaign group lobbying to
preserve the rights of EU citizens in the UK (https://www.the3million.org.uk). As yet there is no
group lobbying for other groups whose right to reside in the UK is based on EU law, such as the
non-EU citizens who are parents of British children (so-called ‘Zambrano carers’).
However, while the UK prepares to leave the EU, others still seek to join (Kosovo, Serbia,
Montenegro and Macedonia, for example). As Article 50 was triggered the EU celebrated its 60 th
Anniversary with a lavish event and a bold set of plans for the future
(https://ec.europa.eu/commission/white-paper-future-europe-reflections-and-scenarios-eu27_en).
Business continues, as demonstrated at the Brexit European Council in April 2017
(https://ec.europa.eu/commission/news/president-juncker-brexit-european-council-2017-apr-
29_en) and by the 2016 State of the EU session in the European Parliament
(http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/20160909STO41755/plenary-highlights-state-
of-the-eu-car-emissions-poland). Despite Brexit therefore, the work programme set out by the
Commission will be pursued (https://ec.europa.eu/commission/work-programme-2017_en) and EU
law continues to be important. Even when the UK leaves the EU, citizens, residents and
businesses in the UK will still travel to and trade with the EU. Brexit should arguably be seen as
introducing a new phase of European integration rather than the end of European integration - EU
integration remains important to Britain in the 21st century.
There are therefore many important questions to consider on EU law and European integration, not
least: what is the process of leaving? This is the first time that Article 50 TEU will be used. We will
discuss the process that has been set out (https://ec.europa.eu/commission/sites/beta-
political/files/presentation_president_task_force_edited_v5.pdf) and follow the negotiations.
Beyond Brexit we will think about the powers of the EU and those it requires to create an area of
economic prosperity, freedom, security and justice for its citizens and residents. Studying this
module, you will therefore become acquainted with contemporary legal issues in national and
European Union law so that you are able to contribute to debates on such questions in a clear and
theoretically informed way.
For very useful additional guidance on studying EU Law read:
http://eulawanalysis.blogspot.be/p/studying-eu-law-catherine-barnard.html).

3. The Assessments: MCQs and Open Book Exam

Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) are used to test various levels of learning: this module uses
them to test basic recall. Students will be asked to identify the correct answer from a limited list of
potential options. Only one of the listed options is correct. Marks are awarded for the correct
answer; marks are NOT deducted for an incorrect answer. Formative MCQs will be held in Weeks

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6 and 11: in addition to being a useful means for review, they are also preparation for the
summative MCQ assessment.
MCQs are not an effective way to test the ability to analyse issues and organize thoughts. This is
the purpose of the open book exam. ‘Open Book’ means that you will be able to take material into
the examination room with you. Pedagogically, the open book exam seeks to reduce emphasis on
memorising and learning by rote. The exam challenges you to think analytically rather than
descriptively, identify relevant information from the materials you have compiled and organise your
thoughts quickly. The more you are able to demonstrate that you can compose your OWN answer,
the higher your marks will be. Please note that on this module exam answers which are
similar will be treated as academic malpractice and reported to the School Plagiarism
Officer and Director of Student Education.
Both forms of assessment require preparation. In order to be well prepared for the open book
exam, you are advised to – throughout the module - prepare clear notes and familiarise yourselves
with materials and statutes. It is essential that you engage in private study beyond reading the
textbook and cases covered in lectures. You should use the textbook and handouts as a starting
point to your private study. The best basis for an open book exam is a set of organised notes that
summarise the texts, seminars and lectures in your own words. Your notes taken in lectures are
the first step towards exam notes. Set aside time to review your lecture notes on the basis of
recommended and independent reading.
Active participation in the module will be of benefit to you. Ask questions throughout the year, not
just in the weeks before the exam. Seminars are an opportunity to reflect upon your progress.
Students who train their ability to engage in critical discussion in seminars on the basis of thorough
preparation will have a good set of materials for revision. Active participation may also enable you
to decide whether you would like to write an EU law dissertation. If this sounds like something you
might want to do, please see me discuss potential topics.
The assessments are designed to build upon skills you have developed in Year 1. The emphasis
on independent analysis is significantly increased. This is the only module that uses the open book
method, and as a result of the mode of assessment, the only module that does not use lecture
capture.

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4. Teaching Schedule 2017 – 2018 (IS = Iyiola Solanke; KS = Konstantinos Stylianou)

WEEK DATE (wk LECTURE TOPIC SEMINAR TOPIC

beginning)

SEPTEMBER

0 18 No Lectures No seminars

1 25 1. Overview of Module (IS) No seminars

2. Introduction to European
Integration (IS)

OCTOBER

2 2 3. Brexit I (IS) No seminars

4. EU Institutions (IS)

3 9 5. EU Law-making (IS) No seminars

6. EU Law-making (IS)

4 16 7. The CJEU – Art 267 TFEU EU Institutions & Law-making

(KS)

8. The CJEU – Art 263 TFEU

(KS)

5 23 9. Enforcement by the EU Institutions & Law-making

Commission I - Articles 258 &
260 TFEU (IS)
10. Solvit and EU Pilot ((IS)

6 30 11. Quiz/ Review (IS) The CJEU

12. Brexit II

NOVEMBER

7 6 13. Supremacy (IS) The CJEU

14. Supremacy (IS)

8 13 15. Direct Effect (IS) Enforcement by the

Commission I & II
16. Direct Effect (IS)

9 20 17. State Liability (IS) Enforcement by the

Commission I & II
18. State Liability (IS)

10 27 19. Human Rights (IS) Supremacy/ Direct Effect/ State

Liability
20. Human Rights (IS)

DECEMBER

11 4 21. Quiz/ Review (IS) Supremacy/ Direct Effect/ State

22. Brexit III Liability

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
JANUARY

14 22 23. FM Persons (TBC) Human Rights

24. FM Persons (TBC)

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 15 29 25. FM Persons (TBC) Human Rights

26. FM Persons (TBC)

FEBRUARY

16 5 27. FM Goods (TBC) FM Persons

28. FM Goods (TBC)

17 12 29. FM Goods (TBC) FM Persons

30. FM Goods (TBC)

18 19 31. FM Services/ Establishment FM Goods

(KS)

32. FM Services/ Establishment

(KS)

19 26 33. FM Services/ Establishment FM Goods

(KS)

34. FM Services/ Establishment

(KS)

MARCH

20 5 35. Brexit III (TBC) FM Services/ Establishment

36. Revision Lecture (TBC)

21 12 No Lectures FM Services/ Establishment

22 19 No Lectures No Seminars

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