Curriculum
The curriculum is supplemented by various lectures and seminars out of sequence. During the second semester, three courses from the chosen specialisation are taken, and a fourth may be taken from either the chosen specialisation or the other one.
We reserve the right to make changes to individual courses or specialisation ares as well as the possibility of changing lecturers.
First semester: foundational knowledge
Basic modules
The basic modules in the first semester serve the purpose of providing a basis in European legal thinking, as well as equipping students with a grounding in the political, legal and economic order of the EU.
| EU – Legal and Political Perspectives | Following an introduction into the establishment of the European Union, the legal aspects of European integration will be explored. Most importantly, students will be acquainted with the relationship between European and national law. | Prof Stephan Hobe |
| EU – Political and Economic Perspectives | The EU is based on economic considerations. The creation of the Common Market, transcending the markets of the respective 27 member states, is designed to create specific dynamics for the economic benefit of our member states. Moreover, a circle today comprising of 19 states are members of the Currency Union, an even greater step of economic integration. | Prof Ludger Giesberts |
| European Private Law | The basis for any commercial dealings within the Common Market is laid out by Private Law. Although the member states still possess their own systems of Civil Law, the EU creates examples of common European Private Law rules. This course encompasses an introduction into the different national Private Law systems and the common European aspects of Private Law. | Prof Heinz-Peter Mansel; Dr Lukas Rademacher; Dr Tobias Lutzi |
| Introduction to the Methods and Procedures of European Law (Add-on module) | This course deals with the typical European methods and legal procedures within the EU as concerns the interpretation of contracts or the constitution, the specific methods utilised by the European Court of Justice (e.g. effet utile) and its relationship with the European Court of Human Rights. Emphasis will be placed on the basic tools of legal writing, which will provide useful preparation for the compulsory thesis to be written at the end of the programme. | Prof Barbara Dauner-Lieb; Nicolaj Kuplewatzky |
Additional modules
Keynote speeches by members of European institutions (planned)
Case Studies
This module includes a Case Study during the semester break as a practical exercise unit. The module consists of a written processing phase and an oral presentation as well as a subsequent discussion among all participants.
Second semester: specialisation
Specialisation Area 1: Litigation and Arbitration in European Law
| Litigating EU law before the national judge, the General Court and the Court of Justice | The module deepens the knowledge acquired in the basic modules 1 and 2 with regard to the judicial and administrative application of EU law. While module SM 1.2 concernsthe extrajudicial settlement of disputes, this module deals with litigation before the courts of the Member States as well as the European Union. This relates, on the one hand, to legal protection against national measures invoking EU law and, on the other hand, legal protection directly against measures taken by the EU and its institutions. The first group of cases relates in particular to cases concerning fundamental freedoms or the prohibition of discrimination. The second group of cases deals primarily with cases under economic law (e.g., state aid and antitrust law). | Dr Tim Maxian Rusche |
| Commercial Arbitration and Conflict Resolution | The course is divided into two parts. While the first part teaches the legal basics of international commercial arbitration and dispute resolution, the second part consists of a comprehensive case study, which interactively works out the individual steps of a commercial arbitration with the students. | Prof Klaus Peter Berger/Prof Christian Borris |
| Private International Law: Choice of Law and Jurisdiction | In an era of ever-increasingglobalization and migration, more and more legal relationships are emerging that do not stop at the external borders of a state and its law. These cross-border legal relations raise two questions to which European law increasingly provides the authoritative answers in the form of regulations;they aredealt with in detail in this module. | Dr Tobias Lutzi/Dr Lukas Rademacher |
| International Investment Law | The subject of the module "International Investment Law" is the protection of foreign investments under international law and the related investor-state dispute settlement. In contrast to the SM 1.2 module, the focus is on the special features of international investment law and its relationship to EU law. | Junior-Prof Julian Scheu |
Specialisation Area 2: European Economic Law
| European Business and Tax Law | Tax law has a great influence over legal consultation in the economic sector and is increasingly the subject matter of European regulation and jurisprudence. It has a mutual relationship with developments in the world economy and in EU Law and is thus of enduring significance. | Prof Johanna Hey |
| EU Competition Law and Digital Markets | Competition law is an important foundation of the European market and competitive order and a substantive part of the European economic constitution. The module concentrates on competition law, with its three central pillars of a ban on cartels, the prohibition of abusive practices and merger control. It also encompasses competition procedure, the application of competition law in the digital economy and the competitive economic and legal particularities of digital markets. | Dr Max Baumgart |
| Corporate Law, Capital Market Law and Compliance | The EU strives towards harmonising corporate rights in the member states; national corporate rights are hereby coming under increasing pressure to reform; at the same time EU law and the ECJ’s jurisprudence has an impact upon the governing rules. Moreover, the foundations of European capital market regulation will be taught and it will be analysed how the financial crisis and the persisting debate as to how capital market law is to be regulated in the future affect and will affect current developments in the future. | Prof Lars Böttcher, Attorney at law |
| Law and Public Sector | The module deals with the relationship between law and the public sector. It is divided into two major sections: public procurement law (part a)) and state aid law (part b)). | Dr Pascal Friton/Dr Max Klasse |
Specialisation Area 3: European Law and Sustainability
| Environmental Law | Environmental pollution and climate change are omnipresent issues and have mobilised people of a young age in the context of “Fridays for Future” The EU has committed itself to work towards sustainability and improving environmental pollution and the quality of the environment. For this reason, numerous institutions, procedures and legal norms have already been created; others, which are still to be created, are highly controversial. The focus in this regard lies on the EU as a global environmental actor. | Prof Kirk W. Junker |
| EU Energy Law | The energy industry has always been a cornerstone of the European economy. In times of climate change and a turnaround in energy, coal and phasing out nuclear energy, energy law is increasingly loaded with the aspect of sustainability. The module thus deals with the substantive questions of the energy industry with a focus on the relations between national and European energy law. | Prof Ulrich Ehricke |
| Challenges of Digitalisation for Europe (Industry, Law, Ethics) | In the light of digitalisation, the EU stands before tremendous legal and ethical questions and challenges. The transformation, which has occurred through increasing digitalisation, will encompass all aspects of life and will lead to great changes. The thematic focus will be artificial intelligence, freedom of expression and the working world of the future. | Prof Frauke Rostalski |
| Air and Space Law | Air law and space law have always occupied a special position in European and international law. On the one hand, this is due to the special -typically state-related -position of the aerospace industry with numerous legal peculiarities. On the other hand, however, air and space law regularly involves legal issues that are of global interest or go beyond it. In times when more and more private actors are entering the market and striving for an economic use of outer space, numerous new legal questions arise, for example concerning the exploitation of resources in outer space. In addition, "classical" issues such as environmental protection in air transport or outer space (space debris) as well as the military use of air and outer space are still topical. | Prof Stephan Hobe |
Specialisation Area 4: European Law and International Relations
| Basic Rights of the EU and ECHR | The resolution of fundamental rights issues at the European level has become very important, not least because the EU is also increasingly active in areas that are particularly sensitive to fundamental rights. With the European Charter of Fundamental Rights (EuGrCh) and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), two comprehensive codifications are available, which the member states have to observe. The lecture will present the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on selected topics. Particular focus will be placed on issues where the case law of the ECtHR and the European Court of Justice (ECJ) overlap (e.g., migration issues, European Arrest Warrant issues, children's rights issues in abduction cases, ne to in idem issues, use of religious symbols in the workplace). | Prof Angelika Nußberger |
| EU and Development | Law in general and the law of the European Union in particular have a great influence on development processes inside and outside the European Union, not only in terms of economic policy but in general. The criteria that a state has to fulfill in order to become a member of the EU influence its (legal) development just as much as the EU, for its part, influences its (economic and legal) development through agreements with developing countries. | Dr Markus Böckenförde |
| The EU and the Common Foreign Security Policy | The module follows a "triple 'A' approach" (analysis, assessment and advice) and deals with the treaty foundations (i.e. the legal texts) and empirical evidence (reality) in five chapters. | Prof Wolfgang Wessels |
| European Common Commercial (and Currency) Policy | The European Union is increasingly appearing on the international stage alongside the member states as an actor in its own right in the field of trade and economic policy. The module deals with the main issues of international economic law (international economic law) and the role of the EU in this respect on the basis of case studies. | Arnoud Willems |
Master's Thesis
The process of finding a topic already begins in the semester break following the first semester. The emphasis is placed on the semester break after the second semester in which the independent work should be produced.