ASTK18025U Core Subject: Important Challenges in European Governance

Volume 2024/2025
Education

Core subject in the core subject track in European Politics. Only accessible to students who are admitted to European Politics.

Not accessible to students who have passed exam in the elective: "Political Advocacy, Lobbying and the Influence Production Process" (ASTK18437U)

 

NB! All exams (both ordinary and re-exams) will take place at the end of the autumn semesters only, as the course is not offered in the spring

Content

This course will engage with challenges arising from the judicialization of politics in Europe. Charges of a “democratic deficit” are frequently raised, both regarding decision-making at the European Union level, but also regarding national political processes. In the intersection between these tensions sits the Court of Justice of the European Union, playing an increasingly politicized role as the Union’s central arbitrator as well as the peak court of the evolving European judicial system.


The Court of Justice of the European Union, established already with the foundation of the European Coal and Steel Community, has been an increas-ingly central arbitrator in the decades that have followed. Playing this role the Court has not only shaped the European Union as we know it, through the formulation of defining doctrines of European Union law; it has also fundamentally changed the legal system of European member states, both challenging the national constitutional order and working alongside national judges in a shift towards a European one. In this course, we examine how the judicialization of politics has redefined Europe, and the central challenges that arises from this transformation.

Learning Outcome

Knowledge:

  • Knowledge of the aspects that make the Court of Justice of the Euro-pean Union into a political actor and how to situate it in a comparative context.
  • Understanding of the role of the Court of Justice of the European Union in the process of European integration.
  • Overview over the theoretical approaches that are commonly used to analyze judicial behavior – the legal, attitudinal and strategic ap-proaches – and how they may apply to the CJEU.

 

Skills:

  • Ability to identify and discuss elements that constrain or enable judicial policy making in the EU.
  • Apply different theories of judicial behavior in a critical discussion of the relationships between actors within the Court and between the Court and its external interlocutors.
  • Give an account of the main academic debates pertaining to different aspects of judicial policy making in the EU.

 

Competences:

  • Independent reflection on judicialization of European politics based on the academic literature
  • Critical analysis of the scope, nature and/or effect of the role of the Court of Justice in European integration.
Literature

Readings can be found in Absalon

Classes will be structured around student presentations, lectures and discussions. On each topic, the readings present a theoretical overview and/or a classical study in the field before they exemplify with empirical applications on the EU. Students are expected to familiarize with the assigned literature before each class and be able to ask questions and meaningfully engage with their peers in class discussions.
Each class starts with a 10 minute student presentation that recapitulates the main takeaways from the previous week. Presentations are done in groups, and therefore allow students to prepare a topic in a similar format as the synopsis for the exam in collaboration with peers. We then move on to the week’s lecture and class discussion.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Class Instruction
  • 28
  • Total
  • 28
Oral
Continuous feedback during the course of the semester
Feedback by final exam (In addition to the grade)
Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Oral exam on basis of previous submission
Type of assessment details
Students will be asked to make an individual oral presentation based on a written paper (synopsis) of max 7200 characters. Although the presentation will be individual, you may write the synopsis alone or in groups of up to three people.

The presentation of the synopsis will be followed by a broader discussion of the entire syllabus of the course, as you are to be graded on the contents of the entire course as such. You will not be graded on the basis of the written synopsis: Grading is made solely based on the oral performance.

Students may bring an outline consisting of maximum 100 keywords to the oral exam. You may not add further comments to the synopsis or to your keyword sheet.
Exams are to be held individually, and no other students are to be present during your presentations.
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
No external censorship
Re-exam

- In the semester where the course takes place: Synopsis oral exam

- In subsequent semesters: Free written assignment

NB! All exams (both ordinary and re-exams) will take place at the end of the autumn semesters only, as the course is not offered in the spring

Criteria for exam assesment
  • Grade 12 is given for an outstanding performance: the student lives up to the course's goal description in an independent and convincing manner with no or few and minor shortcomings
  • Grade 7 is given for a good performance: the student is confidently able to live up to the goal description, albeit with several shortcomings
  • Grade 02 is given for an adequate performance: the minimum acceptable performance in which the student is only able to live up to the goal description in an insecure and incomplete manner