Module Catalogue 2025/26

Pre Requisite Comment

The module follows on logically from the Stage 1 Semester 1 Constitutional Law and Legal Institution and Methods modules.

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

Following the Stage 1 Semester 1 Constitutional Law and Legal Institutions and Methods modules, to start situating the UK as a legal actor in the rest of the world by examining its relationship with the European Union on a legal level. This module pays particular attention to the effects of ‘Brexit’ on the UK.

Outline Of Syllabus

The module will be framed by the overarching question of what Brexit has meant for the UK. Several case studies of topics of constitutional law will be addressed, examining first the UK’s situation when it was still a Member State and then considering the ‘future relationship’ between the EU and the UK.

Case studies will vary from year to year, but may include topics such as:

•       Law-making in the EU, and law-making outside of it: how were decisions affecting the UK taken when the UK was a Member State, and how are they taken now that it is not?
•       The role of the Court of Justice in developing EU law: to what extent did CJEU activism affect the UK as a Member State, and to what extent will it do so in the future?
•       Movement of goods between the EU and the UK: how did it work before Brexit, and how does it work now?
•       Movement of persons between the EU and the UK: how did it work before Brexit, and how does it work now?

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

Students will be able to demonstrate a thorough knowledge and understanding of the basic legal
principles underpinning the European Union and how these have interacted with UK law, both when it was a Member State and now that it is no longer a Member State.

By the end of the year, students should be able to demonstrate detailed knowledge and understanding of:
The EU’s Treaty Framework and the Framework of the ‘Brexit’ Settlement (the WA and the Windsor Framework)
The role and functioning of the EU institutions and institutions operating under the ‘Brexit’ Agreements
Remnants of EU law - and how they continue to operate in the UK and Northern Ireland
Specific taught ‘case study’ aspects of the ‘Brexit’ Settlement (on, eg, some of the EU's four freedoms)

Intended Skill Outcomes

There are particular skills that will be relevant across the legal degree that the EU Law module focuses on teaching students. These include:

- the ability to break up learning into specific tasks so as to manage time effectively, especially when studying independently
- the ability to take notes across lectures, seminars and independent study in the specific context of being assessed by an open book take-home exam
- the ability to take a clear position on legal questions and debates
- the ability to identify and find the sources needed to answer different types of questions
- the ability to use authority when answering legal questions, in accordance with the School rules on referencing materials

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Lectures will set out the knowledge base that students will need to explore the case studies tackled in the subject, which will be done in detail in the small group seminars. The small group seminars will have a dual function: to have the students critically consider and develop their own opinions about the debates introduced by the lectures, and to help them hone their practical skills by testing out their approaches to both essay questions and problem questions in group contexts that enable peer review. The quizzes in relevant teaching weeks are there to for the students to check their understanding and to enable the teaching team to provide targeted further feedback on complex topics.

Private study is directed so as to broaden student knowledge and understanding and prepare them for research assignments, seminars, and assessment. Assessment preparation time gives an indication of the level of research or revision expected for each of the three assessments in this module.

'Drop-in/surgery' contact time is reserved so students can ask specific questions about the module content or any of its assessments.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The use of examination is justified in order to test the basic knowledge base conveyed in the module, which is structured around four bespoke but related topics that introduce students to how EU law works and what Brexit has meant for EU law’s role in the UK. The specific preference for take-home examination lies in the fact that it enables the students to avoid memorising material and to instead work up their notes on the material they have been taught throughout the year, and the recommended reading they have explored in addition to the required reading, with the ability to rely on those notes when they sit their end of year examination.

To cover essential but basic content, the students will sit a 5% MCQ to assess their knowledge/understanding of these foundational issues in EU law; and to practice ahead of the final exam, the students will sit a 20% take-home exam during the semester that will cover a single topic by means of a question they will have discussed in one of the seminars. These two assessments are consequently designed to be 'low-stakes' and to bolster student confidence in the material ahead of the final exam.

On a broader level, the assessments are there to test (directly or indirectly) the intended skill and knowledge outcomes identified above.

General Notes

N/A