Advanced EU Law

Module description

This course looks at current challenges in European Union law: the response to the war in Ukraine, the pandemic and its regulatory aftermath including NEXT Gen EU, Brexit, and the rule of law backsliding. Grounded in crisis studies, it equips students with the legal tools to assess such challenges, while evaluating the limits of the general principles of EU law. Students will discuss how the policy instruments choice, based largely on non-legally binding material, might affect, from a democratic perspective, the EU response to the pandemic. The limits to EU competences will be assessed while looking at current landmark cases on the rule of law, and the ways in which the Commission and the EUCJ have been dealing with the Polish and the Hungarian rule of law violations. Issues such a conditionality of EU funding and the new regulatory architecture created by NEXT Gen EU will also be debated. Students will learn how the EU flexed its security muscle during the Ukraine crisis and will appraise the tools available under EU law to treat situations of military conflict and humanitarian crises. Brexit is used to explore legal disintegration: the disentanglement of the EU and the UK legal orders, what does it mean for judges, administrators, and practitioners in the UK. 

Assessment details

Summative essay (90%)

Class participation & Moot (10%)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, students should:

Be able to critically assess the application of general principles of EU law to current issues of European integration, whilst being aware of the political, social, and economic context

Evaluate the legal limits to European integration, as well as the legal positioning of the EU on a global level

Competently analyse the legal problems raised in the EU by crises, such as Brexit, the war in Ukraine, or the rule of law backsliding

Be able to undertake informed and thorough research on the legal sources of the European Union

Develop mooting skills in EU law, as the course will feature a compulsory moot court exercise

Teaching pattern

Weekly 2 x hour lecture

Suggested reading list

There will be no prescribed manual for the course. Readings will include academic articles and judgments of the ECJ.

Module description disclaimer

King’s College London reviews the modules offered on a regular basis to provide up-to-date, innovative and relevant programmes of study. Therefore, modules offered may change. We suggest you keep an eye on the course finder on our website for updates.

Please note that modules with a practical component will be capped due to educational requirements, which may mean that we cannot guarantee a place to all students who elect to study this module.

Please note that the module descriptions above are related to the current academic year and are subject to change.