European Union and Domestic Parliamentary Governance (P02265)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 11 ? Acronym : LAW-P-P02265

This course is a social science based optional course on the MSc programme 'EU Politics and Law'. Other interested students on general MSc or LLM courses are also very welcome to take this course. The course starts with the identification of the challenge faced by domestic parliaments in the EU polity; namely, how the emergence of the EU has structured the transformation of parliamentary deliberation and re-cast executive-legislative relations. From this, we evaluate the analytical purchase of different social science approaches (positivist, institutionalist, sociological) to the study of how national parliaments across the EU have adapted their practices in EU affairs. To do this, we examine both comparative parliamentary practice across a number of Member States (with students taking the lead on a parliament of their choice) and changing British parliamentary practice post-devolution Scotland, Wales and Westminster. Overall, the course considers questions of theory and method in the study of parliaments, as well as raising broader questions on whether old concepts of formal parliamentary control capture new types of parliament-government relationships brought about by EU processes and what the consequences are for the legitimacy of political processes.

? Keywords : Domestic parliamentary transformation
National and regional parliaments
Comparative theory and method
Comparative EU Member State parliamentary adaptation
Changing Executive-Legislative Relations
British Parliamentary Governance Post-Devolution
Changing notions of 'influence' and 'deliberation'

Entry Requirements

none

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Law, (School of Law, Schedule F)

Other subject areas

Politics, (School of Social and Political Studies, Schedule J)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : Postgraduate

? Delivery Period : Semester 2 (Blocks 3-4)

? Contact Teaching Time : 2 hour(s) per week for 10 weeks

All of the following classes

Type	Day	Start	End	Area
Lecture	Tuesday	11:10	13:00	Central

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, the students should be able to do the following:

o Identify the challenge facing domestic (national and regional) parliaments within the unfolding EU polity;

o Compare and contrast different political and social science approaches to the study of parliamentary EU adaptation and change;

o Evaluate the relationships between theory and method in the comparative (inter-state and intra-state) study of EU parliaments;

o Critically assess British parliamentary adaptation post-devolution and adaptation in at least one other Member State;

o Critique transformative notions of 'deliberation' and 'influence' in the context of EU governance processes;

o Critically assess the academic literature on domestic parliaments and the EU.