Course 2019-2020 a.y.

• The rule of law crisis:
  • The general framework of Fundamental rights protection in the EU and the genesis of Article 7 TEU.
  • The 'crisis' - From Haider to Romania.
  • The institutional response (Commission and European Parliament).
  • The Jucidial response.
  • Future prospects.
• Brexit
  • This part of the course is necessarily reactive to political developments; in any event we will consider.
  • Article 50 from both the èperspective of the EU and the perspective of the UK, also thinking forward.
  • The political and legal constraints which have created the stalemate in April 2019.
  • The Draft Withdrawal Agreement, focusing in particular on citizens rights and the Northern Irish Backstop.
  • The frameiwrk for the future relationship between the EU and the UK.
• State aids:
  • Definition of State aid.
  • Justifications for state aid: mandatory and discretionary exceptions.
  • Stae aid and services of general economic interest.
  • Enforcement of state aid rules.
• External relations
• Common Foreing and Security policy
• Individual and State Sanctions and
• Application of fundamental rights to external acts of the EU
• Common Commercial Policy (also linking to the Brexit debate)
• Conditionality clauses and the link between commercial policy and other policy objectives of the EU.

• Define and describe the workings and the shortcomings of EU policies in the relevant areas (rule of law, Brexit, state aid and external policy).
• Illustrate their points with examples from the case law, policy documents and acts of the EU institutions.
• Summarize effectively and critically complex information and express clearly their opinions on the topics examined.

• Analyze complex material (regulations, case law and policy documents).
• Apply their knowledge to concrete situations.
• Argue coherently their view point illustrating their aswers with examples.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of EU action in the policy areas under examination.

• Face-to-face lectures
• Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
• Group assignments
• Interactive class activities (role playing, business game, simulation, online forum, instant polls)

The classes are intended to stimulate and ensure student participation. To this end, there are going to be group assignemetns as well as problem question solving within the class. 

• For students who actively participate in classes, the average may be increased by 1/30 points and, on top of that, up to 2/30 points for group assignments.
• The program of the general exam for attending students is indicated in the section on teaching materials for attending students (see below).
• Exams are purported to verify that students have achieved a sufficient critical understanding of the topics addressed in class (Rule of law crisis, Brexit, State Aids, External Relations).

• Exams are purported to verify that students have achieved a sufficient critical understanding of the topics addressed in class (Rule of law crisis, Brexit, State Aids, External Relations)
• The program of the general exam for attending students is indicated in the section on teaching materials for attending students (see below).

Teaching materials consist of specialist articles and chapters from books, case law, policy documents etc, as well as the slides used during the lectures. Where possible, and consistently with copyright, teaching materials are uploaded on Bboard; where teaching material cannot be directly uploaded detailed references are given on Bboard.