EU Internal Market Law

ldreu2206  2019-2020  Louvain-la-Neuve

EU Internal Market Law
Note from June 29, 2020
Although we do not yet know how long the social distancing related to the Covid-19 pandemic will last, and regardless of the changes that had to be made in the evaluation of the June 2020 session in relation to what is provided for in this learning unit description, new learnig unit evaluation methods may still be adopted by the teachers; details of these methods have been - or will be - communicated to the students by the teachers, as soon as possible.
5 credits
30.0 h
Q1
Teacher(s)
Lewis Xavier (compensates Sibony Anne-Lise); Sibony Anne-Lise;
Language
English
Prerequisites
EU law [LDROI1226] or similar course covering institutional aspects of EU law and enforcement mechanisms.
Contents
1.       The internal market toolbox
2.      Free movement of goods
3.       Free movement of persons and services
a.      Free movement of workers
b.      Freedom of establishment
c.       Freedom to provide services
d.      European Citizenship
4.      Free movement of capital
5.      Brief introduction to competition law (art. 101 and 102 TFEU)
The methods which characterise European legislation on one hand (harmonisation, mutual recognition, administrative cooperation) and case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union on the other (typical patterns of reasoning) will be emphasised throughout the course. 
Main themes
This course covers the core of substantive EU law, namely internal market law. More precisely, it deals with the four freedoms: free movement of goods, freedom of establishment, freedom to provide services and free movement of capital. It also covers citizenship and offers a brief introduction to EU competition law.
This course complements the basic course on EU law [LDROI1226], which focuses on EU institutions and deals with how legislation is produced as well as enforcement mechanisms of EU law. This course focuses on the content of (some) EU rules. It is complementary with other courses that cover other aspects of EU substantive law such as free movement of (natural) persons [LDREU2205], EU competition law [LDREU2208] or Firms and antitrust [LDFIRM2207], EU consumer law [LDREU2207] or EU labour law [LDROP2143].
Aims

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :

1 Learning outcomes specific to EU lawAfter taking this course, you will have a basic command of internal market law and possess the know-how to apply the relevant legal rules in simple factual situations. You will be familiar with how various sources of European law interact, in particular treaty and directives.
Generic learning outcomesThis course also aims to provide opportunities to acquire horizontal skills that are useful beyond the practice of European law, in particular: 1) being able to identify legal rules applicable to a given factual situation and relevant in order to reach a practical aim; 2) being able to present in writing the legal analysis of a given factual situation clearly and correctly. At the end of the course, you will be able to identify whether or not European law governs a given factual situation. You will be capable of solving simple problems involving one or several of the four freedoms and develop on your own a legal reasoning following the most common patterns which will have been studied during the course. 
 

The contribution of this Teaching Unit to the development and command of the skills and learning outcomes of the programme(s) can be accessed at the end of this sheet, in the section entitled “Programmes/courses offering this Teaching Unit”.
Content
This course covers the core of substantive EU law, namely internal market law. More precisely, it deals with the four freedoms: free movement of goods, freedom of establishment, freedom to provide services and free movement of capital. It also covers citizenship and offers a brief introduction to EU competition law.
1.      The internal market toolbox and customs union
2.      Free movement of goods
3.       Free movement of persons and services
a.      Free movement of workers
b.      Freedom of establishment
c.       Freedom to provide services
d.      European Citizenship
4.      Free movement of capital
5.     Brief introduction to competition law (art. 101 and 102 TFEU)
The methods which characterise European legislation, on the one hand (harmonisation, mutual recognition, administrative cooperation), and case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, on the other (typical patterns of reasoning), will be emphasised throughout the course. 
Introduction to EU law [LDROI1226], or a similar course covering institutional aspects of EU law and enforcement mechanisms, is a prerequisite.
This course focuses on the content of (some) EU rules. It is complementary with other courses that cover other aspects of EU substantive law such as free movement of (natural) persons [LDREU2205], EU competition law [LDREU2208], EU consumer law [LDREU2207] (not offered in 2019-2020 or EU labour law [LDROP2143].
Teaching methods
In 2019-2020, Prof. Sibony is on sabbatical and the course will be taught by Xavier Lewis (European Commission)
Readings will be assigned before each class. For some classes you will have to research a hypothetical question.
Evaluation methods
The exam is a 3 hour written exam. It will take place in IT rooms (you write your exam on a computer -- with a French keyboard, sorry). You will be able to access Curia and Eur-Lex, as well as Lingee and Wordreference for lingusitic assistance.
The exam consists of one hypothetical and several questions (examples will be provided).
The questions will be in English. You may choose to answer in French, but beware that Frenglish is not accepted. This means that, if you want to opt for French, you will need to study the technical vocabulary of free movement law in French. To this effect I strongly recommend that you read the French version of legisation and at least part of the case law studied in this course.
 Assessment criteria are as follows:
  • ability to correctly identify a legal issue in a given factual situation,
  • ability to identify correctly the applicable rule
  • ability to enunciate clearly a legal rule
  • ability to adequately explain applicable legal rules (taking into account who your fictitious interlocutor is)
  • ability to justify the choice of a legal rule with regard to practical aims
  • exact knowledge of legal rules
  • ability to select relevant knowledge in relation to a given question or problem,
  • logical reasoning,
  • quality and sufficiency of reasons given to justify the analysis proposed or the point of view argued,
  • correct use of legal vocabulary
  • adequate structure of written answer (link with the question, logical order of arguments, link between sentences and between paragraphs)
Other information
For the exam, you may bring a hard copy of the EU treaties (since you will have access to Eur-Lex, this is not stricly necessary). You may also bring the course pack. Authorised documents may not be annotated (nothing may be written on the documents). You may higlight passages and use flags to navigate the course pack more easily. On the flags you may write a few letter or words, such as "FMG" for Free Movement of Goods, or "Keck" for the eponymous case.
You may also bring a dictionnary (monolingual or bilingual) though you will have access to online lingustic tools.
Online resources
The electronic version of the course pack (mandatory readings), supplementary readings as well as exercises and past exam papers will be available on Moodle.
Bibliography
  • EU INTERNAL MARKET LAW - Documents
Textbook for this course (mandatory reading): Catherine Barnard, The Substantive Law of the EU : The Four Freedoms, Oxford: OUP, 2016 (Fifth Edition).
Other reference books in English
Paul Craig et Gráinne de Búrca, EULaw : Text, Cases, and Materials, Oxford : OUP, 2015 (Sixth Edition). Covers a broader selection of topics than this course (including EU constitutional law).
Robert Schutze, European Union Law, Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2015. Covers a broader selection of topics than this course (including EU constitutional law).
En français
Nathalie de Grove-Valdeyron, Droit du marché intérieur européen, Paris : LGDJ, 2017 (5ème édition).
L. Dubouis et Cl. Bluman, Droit matériel de l'Union européenne, Paris : Montchrestien, 7ème éd., 2015. Un manuel de référence, plus approfondi que le précédent, qui traite de l'ensemble du droit matériel européen : le droit du marché intérieur, sur lequel porte principalement ce cours, mais aussi les autres politiques européennes (agriculture, transports, concurrence, coopération judiciaire).
Pour un rattrapage de droit institutionnel : Jean-Paul Jacqué, Droit institutionnel de l'Union européenne, 9ème éd., Paris : Dalloz, 2018.
Teaching materials
  • EU INTERNAL MARKET LAW - Documents
Faculty or entity
BUDR


Programmes / formations proposant cette unité d'enseignement (UE)

Title of the programme
Sigle
Credits
Prerequisites
Aims
Advanced Master in European Law

Master [120] in Law