Three new elective courses

Common and Civilian Influence in a Mixed Legal System

With the Europeanisation of law, all of Europe is slowly turning into a mixed legal system. This is quite obvious for the legal orders of European Human Rights and the EU-law, since they are both a meeting spot for legal systems that usually are classified as a part of the civil law or common law traditions. But also the national legal systems in Europe now apply instruments and techniques from both the civil law and the common law-tradition.

Historically, mixed legal systems are a category of legal systems shaped through almost equal influence from the civil law and common law traditions. Scots law, with a strong and influential legal science and legal education, and with an equally strong and influential judiciary, has been regarded as almost the prototype of a mixed legal system in Europe.
In this course the historical development of Scots law will be examined. Scots law will hence serve as an example of how a mixed legal system have developed in Europe over time, to better understand the character of a mixed legal system. At the end of the course, the development of Scots law will be compared to that of Norwegian law, as an example of another mixed legal system. 

The course will be offered in the spring semester 2015. It has not yet been decided whether it will continue after that.

EU and EEA State Aid Law

This course aims to provide students with a comprehensive overview of the EU/EEA State aid rules and their application to state interventions that amount to aid within the meaning of Articles 107(1) TFEU and 61(1) EEA, respectively. For this purpose, this course focuses on both theoretical and practical aspects of rules governing the system of State aid control.

EU/EEA State aid rules are an essential component of EU/EEA competition law. State aid control has considerably gained in importance since the 1980’s, and the ongoing State Aid Modernisation reform launched in 2012 is one of the most ambitious and comprehensive reform programmes introduced by the Commission in recent history.

Contrary perhaps to popular belief, state aid law is not only about preventing EU/EEA Member States from granting aid that is incompatible with the internal market – it is first and foremost about granting aid that is compatible with the internal market. Such aid is justified as it corrects market failures and targets sustainable growth-enhancing policies, whilst encouraging budgetary consolidation and limiting distortions of competition.

The practical importance of State aid rules was well demonstrated in the wake of the financial crisis in 2008. National support to the financial sector between October 2008 and 31 December 2011 amounted to €1.6 trillion (13 % of EU GDP). Other non-crisis and sectoral aid measures came to €67.2 billion (0.52% of EU GDP) in 2013 alone.

State aid is subject to approval by the Commission (EU) or ESA (EEA). As regards aid that is declared incompatible, the Commission and ESA have the power to issue a recovery order. In the worst case, this may lead to a bankruptcy of the beneficiary in question.

European Civil and Political Human Rights

This course starts in 2016.

First and foremost, the course focuses on the Council of Europe´s system for protecting civil and political rights in its 47 Member States. Firstly, the history and background of the system, its institutions and the relationship between them is explored. Main emphasis is put on the European Court of Human Rights: what is it, how does it work, its legal method, the relationship between the Court and national Courts and the Court´s main challenges for the future. Secondly, the substantial rights of the European Convention of Human Rights is given considerable attention, i.e. the right to life, the prohibition of torture, the protection from slavery and forced labour, the right to personal liberty and security, the right to a fair trial, the right to private- and family life, the freedom of thought, conscience and religion, the freedom of expression and of assembly and association, the protection of property, the right to education, the right to free elections, the freedom of movement, the freedom from discrimination and the right to an effective remedy.

The European Union is emerging as an ever more important institution securing and safeguarding civil and political rights in 28 European Union Member States. Firstly, attention is drawn to the structural and institutional framework of the European Union human rights regime of civil and political rights. Secondly, the course focuses on the most important substantial civil and political rights in the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, i.e. how these rights are interpreted and operationalized through the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice. 

Soon to come, the European Union will accede to the European Convention of Human Rights. A wide range of questions surfaces, which some of them will be addressed at the course. An overreaching topic in this regard is the relationship between the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice.