Postgraduate Course: The Law of Integration: understanding the EU Legal System (LAWS11530)
Course Outline
| School | School of Law |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | What are the basic components and features of the European Union¿s legal system? How does it interact with national legal systems? What makes it distinct from international law on the one hand and national law on the other? Finally, what do we mean by legal integration, what purpose does it serve and how is it achieved? This course aims to provide answers to these questions. It analyses the legal system of the European Union, understood as a system of legal integration. European Union law is something distinct from international law. It creates its own legal system with its own autonomous law-making apparatus and a relationship with national legal systems characterised by supremacy and direct effect. This course will explore this legal system, identifying what makes it distinct from international law, analysing its relations with national legal systems and how it contributes towards the process of European integration. |
| Course description |
Indicative Course Content:
- Introduction: the history of legal integration in the EU and the Treaties
- Institutions of the EU
- Laws and Law-making
- Constitutional Principles (i): Primacy and Direct Effect
- Constitutional Principles (ii): Values and Autonomy
- Application of EU Law before National Courts: Direct Effect & Remedies
- The Preliminary Reference Procedure
- Direct Actions: Infringement and Annulment actions
- Interpretation of EU Law
- Mechanisms of legal integration
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2025/26, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
|
Quota: 25 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
The summative assessment consists of a long essay of 4000 words (100%). Students will select a topic from a choice of 4. |
| Feedback |
Students will be given the opportunity to complete a short 1000-word essay on a topic from the beginning of the course. Feedback on the first, shorter essay (formative) will be given with a view to the second, longer essay (summative). Feedback will have a particular focus on the structure and coherence of the argument(s) the nature of the supporting evidence etc. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Critically understand the EU¿s legal system, including its legal instruments, law-making processes, constitutional principles, legal system and its relationship with national legal systems.
- Synthesise knowledge from other areas of EU law within a framework of legal integration.
- Develop research skills through identifying primary and secondary sources through use of library resources and legal databases. Engage critically with primary and secondary sources and synthesize substantial legal materials.
- Identify and conceptualise new issues and develop and complete an individual research project
- Develop essay writing skills, including identifying a thesis, developing arguments, presenting evidence and writing persuasively.
|
Reading List
The reading will consist of a combination of primary and secondary materials.
Primary materials
- Treaties of the European Union
- Judgments of the Court of Justice of the EU
- EU legislation (regulations and directives)
Main Secondary Materials
- TC Hartley, The Foundations of European Union Law (OUP 2014)
- Elise Muir, An Introduction to the EU Legal Order (CUP 2023)
- Pierre Pescatore, The Law of Integration (Sijhoff, 1974) (trans C Dwyer)
- Karen Alter, Establishing the Supremacy of European Law (OUP 2001)
- Academic journal articles:
- Common Market Law Review
- European Law Review
- European Law Open
- European Law Journal
Weekly outlines will provide some background as well as more detailed weekly reading lists. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Given the content of the course (encouraging engagement with processes of transnational legal integration), the course aligns well with the Mindset Attribute of outlook and engagement and also the Skills Attribute of personal and intellectual autonomy. The assessment method (and completing a term paper) also encourages research and enquiry from the skills group of Attributes and enquiry and life-long learning from the Mindset Attributes. |
| Keywords | Legal integration,supranational courts,internal market,area of freedom security and justice |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Stephen Coutts
Tel:
Email: scoutts@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Susanna Wickes
Tel:
Email: Susanna.Wickes@ed.ac.uk |
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