EU Competition Law

Advisory: if (a) you have not studied before the law of the European Union AND (b) you are not fully conversant with one of the official languages of the European Union this course is not advised. The course proceeds on direct study of primary official EU texts. The institutional structures of the EU will not be taught. 

The purpose of this module is to use European Competition law as a vehicle for understanding how primary EU Treaty texts work, how they are to be analysed, and the particular nature of European Competition Law and some of its substance. The student will focus directly on the EU sources such as Treaty Articles, Regulations and Directives, and extending to official European Commission expositions such as Notices  Vade Mecum. In consequence there is little time to focus on academic commentary and decisions of the European Commission and Court of Justice on particular issues. A few decisions will be looked at in depth for illustrative purposes of the nature of EU law and Competition law. The module does not engage in economic analysis. The foci are these. First, acquaintance with the subject matter. Second, skills training in the reading and analysis of primary materials, such as the Treaties and Regulation 1/2003. The course proceeds from instrument to instrument, not thematically. Third, the development of independent critical and scholarly argument and exposition based on the primary materials. Substantively EU competition law Articles 101-106 (TFEU) are considered but Mergers, State Aids, and detailed procedural law before the European Commission (currently under legislative review). In consequence the Course is suitable to those with experience of EU competition law as well as those with none. Students from outside Europe with no acquaintance of the EU institutional and treaty framework may take the course without notable disadvantage, provided they do some primer reading in the first two weeks which will be advised. However students whose first language is not English should consider their own suitability noting that the focus in this course is peculiarly on text and therefore legal English and primary texts and is therefore significantly more linguistically challenging than most other courses. 

Learning Outcomes:

On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:

• Describe and summarize the primary materials on competition law published by the EU, of which the module manual is composed, such as Treaty Articles, Regulations, Directives and official Notices;
• Analyse, breakdown, and interpret those primary materials;
• Create and illustrate independent authoritative argument and exposition on the basis of those materials and break any hold of assumptions of secondary literature and narrative.

Assessment: 

• Two x 3,000 word essay

Back to LL.M module table