This first part will introduce students to the legal foundations of the EU institutional system. It is a first approach to the EU institutional framework intended to emphasize its specific traits and raise awareness of the uniqueness of the EU solutions to the problem of the division of power within a political structure. Such a structure involves not one but 27 States, in a context where EU Institutions may create law that applies directly to the citizens of Member States. The EU instituional system is unprecedented in Constitutional Law and International Law, as the EU is the most developed International Organization pursuing a high degree of integration among Member States. Awareness of this singularity from the start is considered by the teaching staff to be a significant, rewarding way to approach the EU institutional realities.
B) Detailed, in-depth study of individual Institutions
The focus will be on issues such as Membership, Functioning, Powers and the Nature and Mandate of each Institution, especially the European Council, the Council, the Commission, the European Parliament, the European Court of Justice and the European Central Bank. When studying the powers of each Institution, students are expected to realize to what extent Member States have limited their own sovereign powers in order to put them in common and create a supranational level of law-making and decision-making.
C) Institutional interplay
The third part of the course will provide students with a comprehensive view of how Institutions interact when fulfilling their respective mandates. Emphasis is to be placed on the system of checks and balances (or on the shortcomings in this regard) operating within the institutional framework when EU institutions appoint officials, make decisions, create and apply EU law and cooperate with each other.
