European Union Law Seminar

This course aims to give students a comprehensive introduction to European Union law in light of the ongoing economic and political challenges facing the 28-country bloc. In the opening weeks, the course will survey the succession of treaties that have led to today’s EU and the institutions that govern the Union, and lay out key legal and political themes and principles associated with European integration. The middle portion of the course delves into the nature of the EU legal order, including the role of the judiciary, interaction with the domestic law of member states and with international law, and the Union’s increasingly important fundamental rights framework. The final segment, after spring break, covers data privacy law and migration issues, the basics of the EU internal market and competition (antitrust) framework, and the EU’s increasingly prominent and ambitious role as an international actor in its own right. The course offers a compressed survey of the constitutional, administrative, human rights, justice and home affairs, economic and foreign relations law of the European Union. The emphasis throughout is on institutional aspects and on the relationship between the EU and its member states, with comparisons to U.S. law as appropriate. In addition to the assigned reading in preparation for each week’s meeting, the instructors will provide brief topical primary and other documents during each class period for reading and discussion. The course will also give attention to EU law research methods and sources, and students will write a 20- to 25-page research paper.