3 ECTS credits
90 h study time
Offer 1 with catalog number 6002086FNR for all students in the 2nd semester at a (F) Master - specialised level.
International criminal law and European Criminal law are two relatively young fields, which are nonetheless, progressively acquiring more and more importance in the present context. As a matter of fact, if globalization has had a revolutionary and positive impact in almost all fields of man activities, such an evolution has also had important consequences in a specific area which has historically been locally rooted: crime. States have thus started to develop different forms of judicial cooperation in criminal matters to counteract this phenomenon both at a global and at a regional level.
The course aims at providing students with an overview of the sources and the developments of this new branch of law, of the obstacles overcome, and the challenges it will face in the future. In particular the subjects covered will include:
Each course will be opened with an interactive discussion of the news items (new judgements, news in the press that can be related to the Course). During the course students will be challegend with questions and asked systematically to give their view on developments and identified problems.
Every course lesson can be followed on a “handout” distributed to students, which states the purpose of the course, its structure and gives a short summary of the topics touched upon in class. It also indicates the reading materials, it proposes some questions to the course and the materials, and it ends with a short list of optional reading materials (These are ‘optional’ and do not have to be studied). Students are expected to take notes during the course, as the course handouts are not sufficient. Moreover, they are requested to study also directly relying on legal materials such as the Treaties, Court’s judgments and legal instruments contained in the European and International Criminal Code. There is also mandatory literature to every course relevant to the subject of the course. The lecturer will briefly discusses these articles and contributions that have to be studied by students at home.
After the course, students should have thorough knowledge of the most important features of international and European criminal law (objectives, principles, institutional frameworks and decision-making mechanisms, with particular focus on the important innovations brought by the Treaty of Lisbon, and most pertinent challenges) and should be familiar with core substantive areas of international and European criminal law (extradition and mutual recognition, judicial and police cooperation in criminal matters, development of substantive European and International Criminal law, both on areas of crimes and on procedural matters, and the problems related to harmonized European criminal law, and universal criminal law) and eventually also with the functioning of bodies and mechanism entrusted with task of ensuring the enforcement of European and International criminal law.
Students can independently understand and analyse judgements regarding criminal law by European and international tribunals and courts.
Students can independently understand treaty developments at the international level and legal developments at the EU level. Thety can link these developments with domestic law and are able in their professional life to recognize international and European law dimensions 'behind' domestic arrangements.
Students have an attitude that could be labelled as 'transnational' and understand that sovereignty is shared in the global world and purely national solutions will no longer be succesful under all circumstances
The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Oral Exam determines 100% of the final mark.
Within the Oral Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:
The students will be evaluated on the basis of an oral exam. They will be asked questions (3 to 5) about the course notes taken in class and the reading materials. The exam can be prepared using the model questions to every course contained in the Handouts. The first question will be taken out of this list and serve as a point of departure
The reading materials have to be understood, even when not touched upon wholly in class. Questions could be asked about the vision of author, the main message, and the arguments used in the article, while not going into details as far as the specific content of each article is concerned. A minimal requirement is that students recognize the name of the author.
The exam will test
-the ability of the student to use the terminology
-insight and understanding of the course materials
-the ability of the student to reflect critically about the course materials based on the discussions in class
This offer is part of the following study plans:
Master of International and European Law: Standaard traject