This course aims to enable students to form a well-reasoned opinion on the main techniques and processes of harmonisation in the EU, and also on their value, functioning and practical consequences. It starts with discussing market harmonisation and, then, it moves on to the approach towards non-market subjects. The course moreover situates the process and techniques of harmonisation within the broader context of European constitutional law, as well as building bridges with the global context within which the EU develops its rules, and where it is even known to shape regulatory approaches on other continents.
After completing this course, students will be able to explain and critically evaluate relevant cases, placing them in the framework of the existing EU law rules, often to the background of norms of international law that sparked their creation or modification. The course thus also serves as a follow-up to Substantive Law of the EU (B2), in which the most important manifestations of negative integration have been studied, and Institutional Law of the EU (B2) that deals with – amongst other things – the legislative process and division of competences between the Union and the Member States. The emphasis of the Harmonisation in the EU course lies on the interplay between those negative rules and positive integration. As it is an ‘integration course’, it aims to showcase the interconnectedness between not only the harmonisation phenomenon and the topics covered in the aforementioned bachelor courses, but also between the domains of international and European law, as well as the different areas of EU harmonisation themselves.
|
 |
|
The course offers students important insights into the processes and products of harmonisation, which is one of the main legal techniques to attain different objectives set down in the EU Treaties. The aim of this course is to explore the implications and manifestations of harmonisation in present and future European law, sketching the global context and building bridges with selected fields of international law in the process. It focuses on the types and techniques in both economic, and non-economic fields of EU law. The substantive fields that will be covered this year are:
- Digital single market law
- Company law
- Public procurement law
- Gender equality & non-discrimination law
- Environmental law
- Asylum law
These fields have been selected on the basis of their practical importance, but also in order to showcase specific interrelations between the nature of the policy area concerned and the harmonisation techniques employed there. This, in turn, may lead to a critical analysis of the role of national law after harmonization, and the nature of the European rules compared to global equivalents.
The course intends to combine the theoretical framework, including the relationship between negative and positive integration, discussed in the two first lectures, with topical examples that are relevant in practice. Attention is equally paid to how the provisions in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and the rule of reason, on the one hand, interact with secondary law rules harmonising domestic legislation, with a view to the Court's role in safeguarding the acquis. Moreover, in the introductory sessions, students will be familiarised with the global reach of harmonised EU rules – usually referred to as the ‘Brussels effect’.
|
|
|
|
DUTCH STUDENTS: Preliminary courses and minimum of ECs required for attending this course and being admitted to the exam:
- Preliminary course: 'Inleiding internationaal en Europees recht' or 'Inleiding Europees recht' (B1)
- ECs: 45 EC's of B1 courses
FOREIGN EXCHANGE LAW STUDENTS: a good command of the English language is required
|
|
| The final grade is composed of a written examination (100% of the final grade). |
|
|
Contact information
Lecturers:
- Prof. Dr. Pieter Kuypers
- Dr. Nariné Ghazaryan
- Susan Andriessen, LL.M.
- Kris van der Pas, LL.M.
- Najib Zamani, LL.M.
- Dr. E.E.E.L. Marique
Coordinator: Dr. E.E.E.L. Marique, enguerrand.marique@ru.nl
Secretariat: Department International and European Law, mrs. M.C. (Charley) Berndsen-Teering, Montessorilaan 10, room GR 01.005, e-mail charley.berndsen@ru.nl
|
|