EUROPEAN INSTITUTIONS

Elective subject in the LAW program. Centro Universitario Villanueva International Programs
Students from different countries in their international semester
2.5 ECTS credits
20 teaching hours
30 individual work hours

GOALS
The European Union is not a federation like the USA, nor is it a cooperation organization formed by governments like the United Nations. The member states of the European Union are all independent sovereign nations who agree to share their sovereignty in order to become stronger and more influential than they could ever be separately on a global scale.
Shared sovereignty implies that each member state has to delegate some of its decision-making powers on the common institutions for the latter to make decisions on specific matters of common interest from a European point of view.
This subject is an introduction to the main European institutions; the “institutional triangle” (the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, and the European Commission ) the Court of Justice , the Court of Auditors and several organizations that deal with specialized areas ( European Central Bank, European Ombudsman, etc.), their mission and functioning.

METHODOLOGY
Each session will introduce a UE institution, its mission and functioning through the analysis of specific current cases.
Students will be asked to do a class presentation on one of the cases discussed and prepare a comparative study with similar institutions in the USA.

ASSESSMENT
Attendance and active class participation will be assessed along with a final written examination at the end of the course.