Admission requirements
Required course(s):
Sovereignty and Statehood
Structure and Functioning of the EU
Description
This course is dedicated to the study of economic integration taking place around the world. Having adopted a comparative approach, this course focuses on regional economic integration initiatives and on comparing and analysing their main features from a predominantly legal perspective. The course will start off with a general overview of economic integration to be followed by a basic introduction to GATT/WTO law, before switching the lens onto the regional stage, starting with European Union law and notably the development of the four freedoms (goods, services, persons, and capital). The course will then move onto regional economic integration in the Americas, in Asia and in Africa.
This course aims at comparing each economic integration area/organization by highlighting their commonalities and specificities. In doing so, this course analyses a common set of topics (e.g., trade in goods & services and related issues such as quotas and tariffs, dispute settlement mechanisms) and then situate each organization/area along a spectrum of economic integration.
This course serves as a potential replacement for the course ‘Europees Recht’ at Leiden Law School in the context of the Double Degree Studies programme.
Course Objectives
Skills:
to understand and use legal language prevalent in economic integration treaties and related legal documents;
to undertake analyses of additional and previously unknown regional economic organizations;
to apply legal rules to a hypothetical case study
to draw comparisons between liberalization processes on the basis of their scope and coverage and application to various areas of economic activity;
to decipher international economic news and on-going trade and investment negotiations by relating to regional economic integration processes;
Knowledge:
Economic globalization and integration
Models of market integration in the EU;
The EU internal market
Other Models of economic integration (WTO, NAFTA, MERCORSUR, ASEAN, East African Community etc.)
Timetable
Timetables for courses offered at Leiden University College in 2022-2023 will be published on this page of the e-Prospectus.
Mode of instruction
The course aims to merge lectures with inputs from students in the form of discussions.
Active knowledge is required of the topics covered in mandatory prerequisite courses.
Students will have the opportunity of working on a hypothetical case on EU internal market law through a moot court exercise: they will submit written pleadings (group work) and will present their argument in oral proceedings (individual presentation). In addition, they will work on specific case studies and will present their work to their peers and comment on each other’s work (group presentations). The topics seen in class need to be well understood as they will form the basis of the final exam which will consist of the application of theoretical knowledge to a practical case study and essay question(s).
Assessment Method
Group written pleadings in a moot court exercise 22% (week 3 & 4)
Individual oral pleadings in a moot court exercise 19% (week 4)
Group presentations on given case studies 19% (week 7)
Final exam 40% (week 8)
Reading list
Course textbook:
- Catherine Barnard and Steve Peers (eds), European Union Law (third edition, Oxford University Press, 2020)
Additional readings, cases and/or legislation assigned for each class
Generally recommended readings and research resources (selection):
Check the journals Legal Issues of Economic Integration, Journal of International Economic Law, Journal of World Trade, and Common Market Law Review
The websites WorldTradeLaw.net and Afronomicslaw.org
Carlos Closa and Lorenzo Casini, Comparative Regional Integration: Governance and Legal Models (Cambridge University Press, 2016)
Peter Van den Bossche and Werner Zdouc, The Law and Policy of the World Trade Organization: Text, Cases, and Materials (fifth edition, Cambridge University Press, 2021)
Emmanuel Ugirashebuja, John Ruhangisa, Tom Ottervanger, Armin Cuyvers (eds), East African Community Law: Institutional, Substantive and Comparative EU Aspects (Brill/Nijhoff, 2017)
Marcilio Toscano Franca Filho, Lucas Lixinski, María Belén Olmos Giupponi (eds), The Law of MERCOSUR (Hart Publishing, 2011)
Jacques Pelkmans, The ASEAN Economic Community: A Conceptual Approach (Cambridge University Press, 2015)
Registration
Courses offered at Leiden University College (LUC) are usually only open to LUC students and LUC exchange students. Leiden University students who participate in one of the university’s Honours tracks or programmes may register for one LUC course, if availability permits. Registration is coordinated by the Education Coordinator, course.administration@luc.leidenuniv.nl.
Contact
Dr. J.E. Larik: j.e.larik@luc.leidenuniv.nl
Remarks
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