Undergraduate Course - Jean Monnet Module

2023/2024 Course (36 hours) “European Citizenship, Democracy and the Rule of Law in the EU” has started in March 2024.

By targeting Law students, as well as Political Sciences, Economics students, and Erasmus incoming students, it aims to educate European youth on the relevance of European Citizenship, the rights and duties connected to it, as well as on the juridical concepts of democracy and the rule of law, what they mean in a national and in an EU context, how they have evolved over time and which challenges and threats they are currently facing; to understand the role of the EU institutions to promote, uphold, and put democracy and the rule of law into practice and which tools they have at their disposal to effectively prevent or tackle the erosion of these values; to give knowledge of the parallel role of the EU in the global context. Moreover, by improving democratic participation instruments (even the digital ones), and exploring and managing juridical actions to assure the respect of principles, rights, and values, students might gain awareness of being protagonists of the EU policy-making and decision-making process.

Syllabus:

– Fundamental principles and values of the EU

– What are the democracy and the rule of law and why should we take care of them

– The values in the EU accession negotiations

– The rule of law and democracy in the EU external action

– Rule of law and effective judicial protection in CJEU case-law: Articles 19 TEU, 267 TFEU, and Article 47 CFREU

– Council of Europe and EctHR standards on the Rule of law

– The EU rule of law toolbox

– The rule of law conditionality mechanism

– National resistence to the implementation of CG and ECHR judgements as a Rule of law issue

– Democracy, legitimacy and authority in EU

– Is the EU democratic?