Course 2002-2003 a.y.

Introduction to the course:

This course aims to provide a solid overview over central topics of international and European law. It is intended to familiarize students with the particular features of the international legal system, its subjects, its sources and its basic principles. It will continue to outline the history and development of the European Community/Union, its institutional structure and legislative role as well as its main policy areas, the Four Freedoms, the Common Commercial Policy and competition law.

Particular emphasis will be put on the economic aspects of both international and European law.

Course Content :

International Law

1. Basic Concepts and Historical Overview: From an inter-state law of coordination to a law of cooperation. Subjectivity in and compliance with international law. 

2. Sources of International Law: Custom and general principles of law, soft law and equity. 

3. Treaties: The principles of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Formation, reservations, interpretation, invalidity, termination and suspension of treaties. 

4. International Law and National Legal Systems: direct applicability vs. incorporation. "Self-executing" treaties and the role of international customary law before national tribunals. 

5. The Subjects of International Law: The elements of statehood, recognition and state succession. The jurisdiction of states, extraterritoriality and state immunity. 

6. International Organizations: membership, structure, and functions. Overview over WTO, World Bank, IMF, OECD. 

7. The United Nations and the Law Governing the Use of Force: UN peacekeeping and the system of collective security. Self-defense and humanitarian intervention. Principles of humanitarian law and international criminal law (From the Geneva Conventions to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia). 

8. Principal Duties of States and Settlement of Disputes: The Friendly-Relations-Declaration and the Helsinki Final Act. International arbitration and adjudication. The practice of the International Court of Justice and other dispute settlement institutions (WTO, ICSID). 

9. State Responsibility and Expropriation Law: The principal features of the draft articles on state responsibility of the International Law Commission. Diplomatic protection and compensation for expropriation. 

10. The Status of the Individual in PIL and Human Rights: From the law on the treatment of foreigners to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The UN Covenants and regional human rights treaties. Universal and regional human rights protection mechanisms.

European Law

1. History of European Integration and Overview: From Pan Europa to the European Union. From the development of a supranational organization to the enlargement of the Union. 

2. The Institutional Framework: Council, Commission, Parliament, The European Court of Justice (=ECJ), and other EC/EU institutions. Their structure, working methods and tasks. 

3. The Making and Effect of Community Law: The main legislative procedures in the EC. The legal effect of regulations, directives and decisions. The doctrines of direct effect and its limits (from Van Gend en Loos to Francovich). Primacy/Supremacy of EC law over the national law of the member states (Costa v. ENEL). 

4. Judicial Control and the Protection of Fundamental Rights within the Community: The structure and functioning of the ECJ. Direct remedies before the ECJ and preliminary references. The need to guarantee fundamental rights vis-à-vis Community action. The development of a general principles jurisprudence by the ECJ. 

5. The Four Freedoms: The creation of the Common Market by legislation and by the case-law of the ECJ. Free movement of goods from Dassonville and Cassis de Dijon to Keck. The free movement of persons and the right of establishment and to provide services. 

6. Competition Law: EC cartel law and its territorial reach. Procedural aspects of competition law. Abuse of a dominant position. Mergers and Acquisitions law. 

7. Other Selected Community Policies: the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the Common Commercial Policy, Environmental and Social Policy. 

8. The EC/EU as International Actor in the Economic and in the Political Sphere: The international legal personality and treaty-making power of the EC. The Community and third states and international organizations (WTO). Association and other trade agreements. The European Community and Political Unity. From European Political Cooperation to a Common Foreign and Security Policy. 

Textbooks:

International Law

• M. SHAW, International Law, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 4th ed., 1997.

European Law

• P. CRAIG, G. De BURCA, EU Law: Text, Cases, and Materials, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2nd ed., 1998. 

Examinations:

Students´ works and final written exam.