A.    List of essay questions 

Students must choose to answer one of the following essay questions: 

1.  Critically assess the significance of Court of Justice of the European Union’s approach in interpreting European Union law for the development of the Union’s legal order.

2. Critically assess whether the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union on the enforceability of EU directives by and against private persons is in need of reform.

3. ‘On a number of occasions, the Court [of Justice of the EU] has become the subject of criticism by academic commentators and politicians alike on the grounds that it assumes for itself powers which go beyond its judicial function’. (Tridimas, ‘The Court of Justice and judicial activism’ (1996) European Law Review 199)

Discuss to what extent the criticism referred to is justified.

4. To what extent is it accurate to assert that the Court of Justice of the European Union, under the auspices of the preliminary ruling procedure in Article 267 Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), has developed a hierarchical relationship between itself and the national courts of the member states of the European Union?

5. Critically assess the impact of the Court of Justice of the European Union’s judgment in Joined Cases C-267-8/91 Keck and Mithouard [1993] ECR I-6097 on the law of the European Union on the free movement of goods.