HU Credits: 1

Degree/Cycle: 1st degree (Bachelor)

Responsible Department: Law

Semester: 2nd Semester

Teaching Languages: English

Campus: Mt. Scopus

Course/Module Coordinator: Dr. Matthias Oesch

Coordinator Email: matthias.oesch@rwi.uzh.ch

Coordinator Office Hours:

Teaching Staff:
Dr. Matthias Oesch

Course/Module description:
The course explores the role of the people in EU law and politics. The following three topics are dealt with in detail:

i) European Citizenship
evolution and content; relationship to national citizenships and the issue of golden passports; the substance of the rights; free movement and social security benefits; political rights; Brexit and the loss of EU citizenship; case study on the European citizens' initiative

ii) Fundamental Rights
evolution (general principles, Charter of Fundamental Rights); scope of the Charter; relationship to the European Convention on Human Rights; case study on financial crises, structural reforms and fundamental rights (in, e.g., Greece and Portugal)

iii) Democratic Legitimacy of EU Law
ratification procedures for treaty revisions; concept of representative democracy; elections to the European Parliament; the European Council, the Union method and democratic legitimacy; indirect participation (via national parliaments and governments); public consultations; case study on the (indirect) participation of the people in external relations of the EU (CETA, TTIP, EU-Ukraine association agreement)

Course/Module aims:

Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
- characterize, in their own words, the content of EU citizenship, and assess the relevance of the EU citizenship for the development of a common European identity
- understand/explain the evolution of the protection of fundamental rights in the EU, and to critically assess current challenges concerning fundamental rights
- determine whether EU law and politics lack democratic legitimacy, and identify ways and instruments to remedy potential deficits

Attendance requirements(%):

Teaching arrangement and method of instruction:

Course/Module Content:
See course description

Required Reading:
All required reading material – in English – will be posted on the course website in due course.

Additional Reading Material:

Course/Module evaluation:
End of year written/oral examination 0 %
Presentation 0 %
Participation in Tutorials 34 %
Project work 66 %
Assignments 0 %
Reports 0 %
Research project 0 %
Quizzes 0 %
Other 0 %

Additional information:
66% - final assignment
34% - class attendance and participation