Norwegian and international legal institutions (BRV200)

Content

The course deals with important topics and issues of constitutional law, international public law and EU / EEA law, and highlights a number of important correlations between these areas of law. Constitutional law deals with the basic legal rules on the state and judicial system within Norway and its relationship with the international community. International public law deals with the relationship between states, and states and international organizations. The connection between the subjects is partly due to the fact that obligations under international law are largely based on decisions made pursuant to rules of the national constitution, and that the international obligations are of great importance in national law in various ways. The Constitutional Law and the EEA law interact with each other in several ways. Among other things, the constitutional rules on supranational co-operation shed light on the relationship between international law agreements, such as the EEA agreement, and supranational legal organs, which raise major constitutional problems. Another example is the lex superior-principle, which is central to constitutional law, and is related to the special ranking introduced by section 2 of the EEA Act (and section 3 of the Human Rights Act). The connection between international public law and EEA law is particularly close. Through decisions in the EEA bodies, EU law can be made obligatory under international law for Norway. EEA law has been transformed into internal law through legislation. The course also has several connections to several other subject areas. The Norwegian legal method has its basis in the constitution, but must be supplemented with the method that is based on international law and EEA law. Furthermore, an understanding of the constitutional law is in many ways a prerequisite for placing the legal rules in (especially) administrative law in the right professional context. At the same time, international law and EEA law set limits for administrative law in certain respects.

Learning outcome

After completing the course, students are expected to have acquired the following knowledge and skills.

Knowledge:

In constitutional law, the student must have good knowledge of:

- the sources of Law, interpretation of constitutional rules and the relationship between constitutional rules and basic ideological requirements for the state government

- the rules on the organization, procedure and competence of the highest state bodies

- the position of international law in Norwegian law and constitutional rules on international cooperation.

Within international law, the candidate must have good knowledge of:

- what characterizes international law as a legal system

- the sources of law in international law and the method of international law, including the interpretation of treaties

- how rules of international law are created and changed, including the rules on the conclusion of treaties

- subjects of international law

- what characterizes a state and the rules of state territory and jurisdiction

- the rules on state use of force and intervention

- key actors in international law, with special emphasis on the UN, the purposes and principles on which the UN is based, and the competence of the Security Council

In EU / EEA law, the candidate must have good knowledge of:

- legal Method og EU/EEA law

- the main features of the EEA agreement, and the tasks and competences of the central EU and EEA institutions

- the main features of the legislative process in the EU, and the rules for new legal acts in EEA law

- implementation and significance of EU/EEA legal acts in national law

- the main features of the prohibitions of obstacles to the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital across national borders

Skills

In all subject areas, the candidate should be able to:

- identify, analyze, discuss and take a position on practical and theoretical legal issues based on recognized legal method

- analyze the legal argumentation in court decisions in the light of the recognized method in the relevant area of ​​law

- convey independent legal work both in writing and orally, and interact with others professionally

Required prerequisite knowledge

None

Recommended prerequisites

BRV105 Public administrative law I, BRV120 Legal method I, SVEXFAC Introduction to law

Exam

Coursework requirements

Obligatorisk oppgave, Obligatorisk oppgave 2

Mandatory assignment 1 is a group assignment. Mandatory assignment 2 is an individual assignment.

Further information about the assignments will be provided on Canvas. Deadlines are set at the start of the course.

Course teacher(s)

Course teacher:

Eivind Furuseth

Course coordinator:

Lana Bubalo

Course teacher:

Ola Johan Settem

Study Program Director:

Lana Bubalo

Method of work

The language of instruction is English. And the assignment and exam must be written and answered in English.

Lectures, seminar participation and two compulsory assignments.

Below is a indicatice workload divided into the activity types. Note that this is only informative, and that it will be individual how many hours you want to spend and how you want to distribute the time between different activities.

Total expected workload: 415 hours distributed as follows:

Lectures 50 hours (including preparation and after lesson work)

Seminars 30 hours (including preparation and after seminar work)

Mandatory assignments 30 hours (divided into two assignments)

Self-study 300 hours (literature review, study case law, study of previous exam assignments, etc.)

Various administrative work 10 hours (follow on Canvas, participate in discussions online, Ask questions on Canvas etc.)

Open for

Course assessment

There must be an early dialogue between the course coordinator, the student representative and the students. The purpose is feedback from the students for changes and adjustments in the course for the current semester.In addition, a digital course evaluation must be carried out at least every three years. Its purpose is to gather the students experiences with the course.

Literature