Droit de l'Union européenne

The class is taught in French. The course is intended for students in law who have not yet had the opportunity to study extensively European Union law. It consists of several parts, which aim to explore and analyze major issues that structure the legal order of the European Union.

• Part 1 | The European Union, a club of member states founded on common values
• Part 2 | The actors of the European Union
• Part 3 | The decision-making process
• Part 4 | Monitoring the application of European Union law
• Part 5 | The integration of European law into national legal orders
• Part 6 | The reality of European integration through the example of the Internal market

At the end of the course, students will be able to:

• to read, understand and critically analyze a decision of the Court of Justice of the EU or an article of doctrine in these matters and to carry out relevant and fruitful legal research in these fields.
• to identify and explain the key concepts of EU law (principles, fundamental freedoms, the different institutions and their role).
• to mobilize them, as well as the content of the European treaties, to develop a personal and original legal argument on a given subject.
• to have a critical and informed approach to the major topical issues that cross EU law.

Required and Corequired knowledge and skills

NA

Cours co-requis

Cours ayant celui-ci comme co-requis

The course takes place in the autumn semester (September to December). It is made up of ex-cathedra course sessions with times for discussion and exercises (QCM/QRM via Wooclap, training to answer open questions via Padlet). The lectures of two hours are taking place on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays (morning). The calendar is available via Time Edit. 

The course is supplemented for some students by practical exercise sessions (travaux pratiques) given in the second semester, which are shared with the course in economic law and intellectual property law (DROI-C3006).

The class materials are the following:
-    PPT presentations used in class and made available to students on the Virtual University. These presentations determine the scope of the subject to be examined. 
-    A collection composed of extracts from European treaties (TEU, TFEU, Charter of Fundamental Rights), as well as extracts from judgments of the CJEU (note this is a change from previous years).

All the class materials will be made available via the Virtual University on the course's page DROIC3003_202324.

Contribution to the teaching profile

The course is mainly intended for students engaged in a bachelor's degree in law and aims to offer them an introduction to the concepts, techniques and terminology applicable to European Union law, and to develop their ability to express rigorous legal thoughts taking into account the existence of this legal system and its interaction with national legal orders.

The course aims as much as possible to offer a pragmatic approach to European law, inviting students to provide a legal response to concrete questions by defending a critical and constructive point of view with the required scientific rigour.

References, bibliography, and recommended reading

A list of references will be communicated to the students. 

Students who wish to explore the subject on their own can consult the many existing textbooks on the subject available in the library. The book "Droit de l'Union européenne", by Marianne Dony and Chloé Brière (Editions de l'Université de Bruxelles, 8th edition, 2022) is one of the many existing books and can be useful for those who wish to study the course in the form of a written text. For those who wish to consult a text in English, a free textbook "The ABC of EU Law" is available online (link). These works do not correspond exactly to the subject matter submitted for examination and do not constitute a course syllabus. They are indicated here as potentially useful resources for the understanding of certain points of the subject.

Course notes

• Syllabus
• Université virtuelle

Contacts

Dr Chloé Brière (chloe.briere@ulb.be)

Campus

Solbosch

Method(s) of evaluation

• written examination

written examination

• Closed question True or False (T/F)
• Open question with developed answer

The exam is a written exam lasting 3 hours, which takes place in January (first session) or in August (second session).

The written exam is composed of two parts: a part including short closed questions (10 points our of 50), and a part including open questions (essays - 40 points out of 50).

Sample questions will be communicated to students during the semester and posted on the Virtual University. A questions-and-answers session will be organized at the end of the course.

Mark calculation method (including weighting of intermediary marks)

For students not taking part in the travaux pratiques, the exam is worth 100% of the course mark.

For those who take part in the travaux pratiques, the exam is worth 75% of the mark, and the travaux pratiques 25%.

Language(s) of evaluation

• french