This is to distribute some basic information about a brand new module I am able to offer at University College Cork in the academic year 2022/23. It has been opened for a number of LLM / MA programmes, but the students in these programmes will not know me! I have been at UCC from December 2020, but so far only taught a few niche modules in EU law (EU law for non-law undergraduate students), as well as the elective in employment law. So, here is some basic information, hoping students will get this before 31 August, the last day for their choice of modules.
There are so many challenges today, including the ongoing global pandemic, the energy crisis triggered by Russia’s war in Ukraine, and – at least for Ireland – the unfinished agenda of “Brexit”. While it is easy to join the augurs to predict that EU policy may have to change even more than it has already. What is more difficult is to comprehend the opportunities and limits posed by EU law. This is what this module sets out to do. It is open to students who have completed a module in EU Constitutional Law, giving them an idea what the EU is, how its law is generated and what effects its law has in Member States. From there I would take you on a journey through analysing two areas of EU substantive law and finishing with an assessment of EU governance.
First we will look into the question whether and how EU Internal Market Law (the four economic freedoms) creates or reduces tensions between economic integration across borders and social and ecological integration. Questions discussed include how movement of workers – through posting or on their own – affects national economies, and how freedom of movement for business may curtail national policies around raising taxes or employment standards. Second, we will analyse the law of Economic and Monetary Union, in order to find out whether programmes such as “Next Generation Europe (NGE)” are within or without the limits of the law. The NGE programme for the first time creates a bond of financial solidarity between the EU and its Member States, in order to help the MS to overcome the post-pandemic economic crisis. Yet it is already challenged as going beyond limits. What about potential other programmes, such as bulk-purchases and redistribution of energy or energy generating equipment? Finally, how will the EU govern in the future? Will it continue to generate hard and fast law, such as the Data Protection Regulation of old? Or is the trend more towards more programmatic legislation such as the directive on minimum wages? What does governance by objectives mean for the coordination of economic or ecological policy?
My aim is to conduct this module as a conversation with students. Thus, essay titles will reflect your preferences, and you get to present your essay plan in class, in order to receive early feedback. I hope I have you interested! Here is a link to the module syllabus as well.
Post Scriptum April 2024: Since I left UCC in October 2023 to start a new post at University College Dublin in November 2023 (Full Professor of Labour law and EU law), this module was also discontinued. I use some of the ideas in the LLM EU Law & Governance (with the core module EU Law & Governance) which I lead at UCD.
EU Law Critique 