L82444 EU Internal Market Law

At the end of the course the student will be able:

a)   to solve problems concerning issues of free movement within the European single market;

b)   to elaborate written papers on the issues above, applying the proper theoretical and methodological approach acquired, as regards in particular the case law of the European Court of Justice. 

This advanced course aims to provide students with a thorough understanding of the basic rules of the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union concerning the internal market, one of the most important areas of EU substantive law. This will be achieved by analysing the case law of the European Court of Justice and key secondary legislation with regard to the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital as well as their interactions. 

The course will provide appropriate coverage of the following topics:

a)   The concept of the Single Market in the EU legal order: decentralized versus centralized model; the interplay between positive and negative harmonization;

b)   The fundamental freedoms in the EU Internal Market: general remarks;

c)   The free movement of goods: in particular, the prohibition of quantitative restrictions and measures having equivalent effect;

d)   The free movement of persons: in particular, the rights conferred on migrant workers;

e)   The right of establishment: in particular, the free movement of companies within the EU;

f)    The freedom to provide and receive services;

g)    The Services Directive;

h)   The posting of workers in the framework of the provision of services within the EU;

i)    The free movement of capital.

The course is aimed to provide the critical knowledge needed to deal with each of these issues. 

The course will run under a workshop format requiring active students’ involvement. Lectures are held throughout the entire semester. Students are responsible for LEARNING the material before coming to class and for PROVIDING a meaningful contribution to the discussion led by the instructor. It means to be able to provide accurate and sensible answers and comments whenever personally quizzed by the instructor (it will happen several time during each lecture) and to contribute new and original ideas.

In preparing for lectures students are required to know any detail of the required readings (EU law primary and secondary provisions, case law of the European Court of Justice, but also academic papers from top journals).

Students are responsible for consulting on a regular basis the website of the course on “my.liuc.it” where updates, additional material and slides about the course are posted. No excuse will be accepted for any failure during the course they may incur into due to a delayed consultation of the website.

Students are also required to submit written papers and to discuss them in the class. They may work individually or in group, under the supervision of an instructor. Students are supposed to give properly motivated legal advices on cases which raise one or more problems of EU internal market law.

For students attending classes, grade is based on class participation (40%) and on the discussion of their written paper (60%). All other students should pass an oral exam.