European Public Law

Description

The European Union (EU) represents the largest and most populous trading bloc in the world.  Twenty five states stretching from the Baltic to the Mediterranean have created a single market in which the factors of production - goods, services and people – are able to move freely.  The EU also has broad political ambitions with some observers suspecting it of federalist intentions.  Whatever the ultimate political aims of the EU, it is a union based on the rule of law.

The course will examine and compare aspects of governance across the Member States of the European Union as well as the European Union itself.  The general aim of the course is to introduce students to the different constitutional traditions of Europe and compare them both with each other and those of New Zealand.  The general theme of the course is to explain these systems alongside the European Union's developing constitutional structures and examine how these are becoming part of a "European" constitutional system.

Students with an interest in public law, government or politics will find the course particularly interesting.  Although individual European states may be in decline, the European Union remains the world's biggest market (and New Zealand's second largest), the largest distributor of overseas aid and the world's second largest economy.  For these reasons the course will also prove useful to those wishing to pursue career paths in the fields of foreign policy, diplomacy or politics.  More generally, those wishing to work in the EU will find knowledge of European Public Law essential.