EUROPEAN UNION LAW (2) (ILS130)

Professor Lloyd Bonfield

Introduction to the institutions and constitutional structure of the European Union, an entity that began as a modest free trade area and is now a powerful force of 25 countries and more than 400 million people in global trade, environmentalism, human rights, discourse, and global politics. Explores how law is made on a pan-European level, and the status of such laws vis-a-vis the laws of individual member countries. Studies such facets of legal regulation as the "four freedoms," the harmonization of law, and several practice-oriented areas of EU law. Focuses on a close reading of the EU’s foundational texts, the landmark decisions of the European Court of Justice, and the extent to which the judicial architecture of the EU is a variant of federalism, a model for international judicial cooperation more generally, or neither of those but rather something uniquely European. All readings are in English translation. Graded on a take-home examination and several papers.

A previous course in international law is helpful but not required.