Description
The module highlights the main features of the legal and institutional framework for the European Union (EU) external relations. Even though the EU has become an important international actor who is involved in many levels of treaties’ conclusion and foreign relations in the international sphere, the nature of the exercise of its external relations is legally a unique one, due to the fact that its international legal personality co-exists with the one of its member states. This legal perplexity affects the way and the degree to which the EU achieves the status of a global actor.
Objectives
Upon completion of the course, the student will be able to:
Contents
Topics discussed comprise issues pertaining to the EU’s competence to conclude international agreements and the legal procedure of negotiating and concluding international agreements by the EU; the nature and position of international law rules as a source of law in the EU legal order: their binding nature and hierarchy; their direct effect and interpretation; the judicial review and interpretation of such rules in the EU legal order. The course particularly concentrates on mixed agreements, and on the issue of the international obligations of the Member States before their accession to the EU. It also covers EU as a member of international organizations: the example of WTO; it discusses the interaction between the EU and the international community in the framework of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP); the European Neighbourhood Policy and Development Policy and, most importantly, the relationship between the EU and the ECHR.
Academic Requirements
Participants are required to have at least some basic previous knowledge of EU Law, as well as Public International Law.
Teaching method
The course will run under seminar format, which requires a high degree of student participation. A power-point presentation will be used in the teaching of each lecture, and out of class the students will be required to read relative academic articles indicated by the lecturer, which will help them deepen their knowledge. Participants to the classes will also be supported through the discussion of important case-law, as well as by other related legal materials such as international treaties concluded by the EU.
Lecturer
The course is taught by Assistant Professor Manolis Perakis.
Assessment and testing