Programme

The Master in European Law consists of 12 seminars of 24h each (288 hours of instruction in total).

Seminar 1: Institutional and Decision Making Structure of the European Union

24h of instruction

This seminar is essentially dealing with the nature, the architecture and the institutional system of the European Union. It also discusses the main features of the European legal order and the relations of this order with the law of Member States. The focus of this seminar is on the one hand, current and relevant issues such as the institutional reforms set up in order to face the current economic crisis and Brexit or the refugee crisis in Europe, and basic structural and legal issues that are considered the pillars of the European Union.

Seminar 2: The Internal Market - Four Freedoms

24h of instruction

The seminar deals with the law of the internal market. This substantive law, which is based on the economic freedoms (free movement of goods, freedom of establishment, freedom to provide services, free movement of persons, freedom of the movement of capital and of payments), constitutes the cornerstone of European integration.
The aim of this course is to give an in-depth knowledge on this area by focusing not only on the specific freedoms but also understanding the transversal issues proper to all the freedoms as well as understanding the new challenges and boundaries of the internal market.

Seminar 3: EU Competition Law

24h of instruction

This course aims at introducing you to EU competition law. At the end of this course, you will be familiar with the basic concepts of EU Competition law (such as relevant market, restriction of competition, abuse of a dominant position) as well as the actors involved in enforcement of competition law. When presented with hypothetical facts, you will be able to identify 1) whether EU competition rules apply, 2) if so, which substantive and procedural rules apply and iii) the main steps of the reasoning to be conducted. You will be able to consider substantive and procedural issues both from the point of view of undertakings and from that of enforcement authorities. You will be able to search for case law and Commission decisions.

Seminar 4: External Relations of the European Union

24h of instruction

The European Union is today a major player on the world stage. It asserts its identity through its foreign and security policy, as well as its bilateral and multilateral cooperation with other countries and regions of the world. This seminar will focus on a number of current issues in the external relations of the European Union. The perspective is a legal one, including political and economic reflections. It will examine: the Treaties' provisions that provide the legal basis for EU and EC external action, the demarcation of competences between the EU, the EC and the Member States, the relations between International and Community law in matters relating to international agreements, the role of the European Courts in the interpretation and application of international agreements concluded by the EU and the EC and the effects of such agreements and of International Law in the EU legal order.
In addition, this seminar’s focus will be on the main fields of the external policies such as Common Commercial Policy, Common Foreign and Security policy as well as the links between trade policy and foreign policy in the areas of economic sanctions; the relations between EU law and WTO law, between EU law and UN law will be analyzed. Special attention will be paid to the impact of the Lisbon Treaty on external relations.

Seminar 5: History of the European Idea

24h of instruction

From the Antiquity until our Modernity, different Foundations took a part in the Making of the Idea of Europe. Cultural and political aspects will be examined. The seminar will study the Greek Influence, the Roman Contribution, the Barbaric Changes, the Medieval Transformations and the Renaissance Revival with a particular Regard on the first European Projects.
The analysis will continue with the diverse attempts to realize the European Idea. After the First World War, several European Movements presented peculiar projects but nationalism and Hitler's coming to power postponed the construction of the European institutions. After the Second World War, the idea revealed a new progress in the context of the Cold War but the institutional creations only came in the fifties. Since 1957, the European Integration has given an important place to this continent in the world in spite of many crises. This seminar will also analyze the recent period and the renewal of Europe after the Lisbon Treaty.

Seminar 6: European Private International Law

24h of instruction

This course covers essential principles relating to international jurisdiction, choice of law and free movement of judgments, in the field of civil and commercial matters. Emphasis will be put on intra-European relationships, but the course will also examine the interaction of the European judicial area with the rest of the world.
It is designed as an interactive course, with a particular focus on case-studies. It provides students with the complex tools and skills needed to understand and act within the internal market of the EU.

Seminar 7: European Environmental Law

24h of instruction

European Environmental Law has a long standing history both at national and EU level. Despite the lack of an explicit policy competence, the EU started adopting legislation to protect the environment already in the sixties and seventies. This was necessary to reduce disparities in the legislation of the Member States that could stand in the way to the establishment and functioning of the internal market. While some Member States served as forerunners to the development EU environmental law, and constantly uploaded their standards to the EU level, other were exposed with this policy field for the first time. Yet, EU environmental law is more than the reproduction of the environmental law of the most green EU countries.
Over time, it has acquired an identity of its own, to the extent that it has even re-shaped the identity of the most green states. For example, one of such states, the Netherlands, is re-writing the whole of its national environmental law to copy the EU environmental acquis, encompassing nowadays, all possible fields, with soil protection and access to justice being probably the two fields in which EU environmental law is the least developed.
The peculiar multilevel structure of EU environmental law forms the core of this course. We will discuss its history, main governance features, including decision making, enforcement and judicial protection, as well as its main substantive fields.

Seminar 8: Human Rights: Europe and its Democratic Society

24h of instruction

Europe is both an economic and a political reality. On the political side, the European institutions (the European Union, the Council of Europe and the OSCE) have developed a European conception of democracy based on human rights and fundamental freedoms. This seminar will study the main facets of this conception through legal texts and case-law in the field of human rights. It will give particular attention to topics which are of common interest to the EU and the Council of Europe and will concentrate on current problems, like the fight against terrorism or the relationship between democracy and fundamentalism or extremism (a democracy capable of defending itself). Is this conception of democracy proper to Europe? What are its basic concepts (legality, Rule of Law, proportionality...)? What are the perspectives (the reform of the European Convention on Human Rights, the application of the European Charter of Human Rights...)?

Seminar 9: Employment Law

24h of instruction

From a comparative perspective, this course will cover current issues in EU employment law with a focus on discrimination law as it unfolds in France and the European Union. After a close look at how equality law has developed in the European Union, the course will focus more deeply on a series of issues including: the meaning of racial discrimination and diversity through positive action; proof of direct and indirect discrimination; systemic discrimination; sex discrimination and the equal pay gap; harassment as discrimination; parental rights; religious accommodation; age discrimination and its proxies; the concept of disability and of multiple discrimination. It is an interactive course focused on cases studies to understand the trends in EU employment discrimination law and the tools for strategic litigation.

Seminar 10: Company Law and Financial Markets

24h of instruction

The seminar will start with a short introduction about what are Financial Markets and a presentation of the most important European texts in the area, a presentation of the Committee of European Securities Regulators and the European Securities Committee. The seminar will then cover the following topics: markets in financial instruments; admission of securities to official stock exchange listing; prospectus to be published when securities are offered to the public or admitted to trading; takeover bids; market abuse; financial collateral arrangements; money laundering; the distance marketing of consumer financial services.

Seminar 11: Consumer Law

24h of instruction

This seminar will first present the consumer policy in the European Union, its history (EEC), its legal basis, its main characteristics and the present strategy.

Seminar 12: Intellectual Property Law

24h of instruction

The seminar covers all aspects of European law relating to intellectual property by taking into account both primary (Treaty) law and secondary legislation. Important issues to be covered are the role of different IP rights in the system of the fundamental freedoms or the delimitation of Community power to legislate on IP.
International law will be studied to the extent that the EC is bound by IP Treaties, like the WTO-TRIPS Agreement in particular, but also the raising number of bilateral agreements with other states or groups of states. The interface of IP and competition law will be of a particular interest, including the application of Art.81 EC to licensing agreements, of Art.82 EC to refusals to license or the regulation of collecting societies. With regards to secondary legislation, the seminar will select more focused topics that highlight how the European legislature deals with fundamental policy issues.
Aspects of applicable law and of the European judicial system for the legal administration of the IP system may also be discussed.
Students may be permitted to replace an LL.M. seminar by another seminar taught in French within another programme available at the European College of Paris. However, this may be done only with the agreement of the Director of Studies and the professor who teaches the seminar.