The course provides a space on the syllabus for discussion of topical issues in EU law, and thus for students to develop an academic understanding of the debates which are preoccupying politicians and the media. The content of the course is necessarily flexible but this year will focus on four issues: the functioning and reform of the EU’s system of judicial protection, the EU’s system for human rights protection, (de)pillarisation, and competences in the EU.

1. The functioning and reform of the EU’s system of judicial protection
   1. Seminar on the basic legal provisions concerning the ECJ (preliminary rulings, actions for annulment, etc)
   2. Proposals for procedural/substantive/structural reform of the ECJ
   3. Different perspectives on the ECJ and its role (judicial activism, political science, economics)
   4. Examining the role of the ECJ and its interaction with national systems in different sectors of judicial activity (eg consumer law, free movement law)
2. The EU’s system for human rights protection
   1. The evolution of human rights at EU level
   2. The Court’s approach to human rights, looking in particular at Kadi, Mangold, Bartsch and Kucukdeveci
   3. The Charter, the ‘opt-out’, general principles of law and the relationship with the ECtHR
   4. Doing things with rights: the principle of equality
3. The systems in operation: the terrorist lists
   1. The adoption and operation of the terrorist lists
   2. Judicial review and the UN list: the interaction between the EU and the UN
   3. Judicial review and the EU list: the interaction between the EU and domestic legal orders
   4. The challenges raised by the use of confidential information
4. The EU framework for data protection
   1. Development of European and international data protection law
   2. Human rights aspects of data protection law
   3. Regulation of international data transfers
   4. Current revision of the EU legal framework