Rotating international Chair

The holder of the Chair Ganshof van der Meersch 2022-2023 - established by the Foundation Wiener Anspach - is Professor Catherine Barnard, Professor of EU law and Employment Law, University of Cambridge and fellow of Trinity College.

This is a course looking at certain aspects of the single market and how they are working in practice. The underlying theme of the course is to ask what is the internal market and how effectively is it working. The seminars will be divided into three: Old Europe, New Europe and Social Europe.
In respect of ‘Old Europe’, seminar one will return to the seminal cases on free movement of goods: Dassonville,Cassis de Dijon, Keck and Trailers. What was this case law trying to achieve and does it still work? Seminar two will look at the vexed issue of free movement of persons. Why was this introduced into the Treaty in the first place, how much use has been made of it and how is it working in practice? Seminar three looks at the question of EU citizenship: again, why was it introduced and what does it mean in practice?
In respect of ‘New Europe’ seminar 4 will look at the digital single market and specifically the question of what the Digital Services Act might deliver. Is it a new form of regulation? Is it up to the challenge?
Finally, in respect of Social Europe, seminar 5 will consider the tensions between a pure social Europe and the internal market, as demonstrated by the Viking litigation. It will also consider how internal market legislation is beginning to have a direct impact on social Europe matters, taking the case of the Corporate Sustainability and Due Diligence Directive as an example.
Remaining session are devoted to group presentations moderated by Prof. Ramona Coman.

This course aims to:
- introduce students to revisit some of the specific topics related to the single market while aiming to develop their knowledge
- provide students with knowledge of some of the principal challenges facing the internal market
- help students develop their knowledge and skills of interpreting EU law
- develop students’ ability to critically discuss at a Masters level the relevant themes of the course, based on closed textual analysis of cases and assigned readings
- encourage students to develop further their particular interests in the law of the European Union and the single market in particular

Required and Corequired knowledge and skills

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The class will be conducted as a seminar with Professor Barnard taking the lead and encouraging class discussions. That discussion will be based on the assigned readings and students are expected to read them in advance of class. Remaining session are devoted to group presentations moderated by Prof. Ramona Coman. 
 

References, bibliography, and recommended reading

Readings will be available on the Université virtuelle. 

Course notes

• Université virtuelle

Contacts

Prof. Ramona Coman
Ramona.Coman@ulb.be 

Campus

Solbosch

Method(s) of evaluation

• Oral presentation
• Other
• Written report

Oral presentation

Other

Written report

Final grades will be awarded as a combination of three elements:
(1) A written paper (max 2,500words) on a topic set by Prof. Barnard (40%). References should follow traditional legal citation style (see e.g. Common Market Law Review as an example). The bibliography should include a minimum of 10 academic articles or books as citations. Citations of newspaper articles or blogs etc. are in addition to these minimum of 10 citations of academic work.
(2) Participation over the course of the whole class (30%) NB. The class format will facilitate participation through discussion of texts and group work. Only active participation in class discussion and group activities will merit marks.
(3) A group presentation on a topic set by Prof. Barnard (30%) – see details below
On the presentations:
Group presentations are scheduled for the later class meetings in March (last week). They will be moderated by Professor Coman. The purpose of the presentation is to develop a legal argument based on an assigned case. The purpose of the presentation will be to place it in the broader context of other jurisprudence and analyze its significance. Each presentation should be no 15 minutes long.

Mark calculation method (including weighting of intermediary marks)

A written paper (40%), participation (30%) and group presentations (30%)

Language(s) of evaluation

• english