This module is not currently running in 2024 to 2025.
This module offers a critical study of the origins, principles, concepts and practices of European Union criminal law and procedure from historical, constitutional, legal, political and social perspectives. It also addresses how national criminal law and procedure (especially that in the United Kingdom) are being shaped by developments at EU level, and explores the emergence of a distinct EU criminal process.
Total contact hours: 20
Private study hours: 180
Total study hours: 200
All law postgraduate programmes. Available to postgraduate students from other schools at the convenors discretion.
Main assessment methods
Essay, no more than 5000 words (100%)
Reassessment methods
Reassessment Instrument: 100% coursework
E. Herlin-Karnell The Constitutional Dimension of European Criminal Law (Oxford: Hart, 2012)
A. Klip European Criminal Law: an Integrative Approach (Cambridge: Intersentia, 2012)
S. Miettinen Criminal Law and Policy in the European Union (London: Routledge, 2013).
V. Mitsilegas EU Criminal Law (Oxford: Hart, 2009).
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
The intended subject specific learning outcomes.
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
1. Critique the origins, development and future of EU criminal law and procedure
2. Critically probe the forces driving and shaping the law-making, policy-making and implementation processes in EU criminal law and
procedure
3. Critique the law and practice on cross-border police, prosecution and judicial cooperation from constitutional and human rights
perspectives
4. Critically assess the role of select EU criminal law and procedure measures in shaping national and international responses to global crime
challenges
5. Appreciate and critique the emergence of a distinct EU criminal process
6. Critically debate the legal, constitutional, political and cultural tensions between domestic criminal processes and EU influences and how
they are mediated
7. Conduct independent critical research on EU criminal law and procedure issues, and present incisive perspectives on them.
The intended generic learning outcomes.
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
1. Research, interpret and apply complex material from across several disciplines, such as: law, criminal justice, politics, international
relations, history and philosophy
2. Research, interpret and apply primary and secondary legal materials from national, European and international sources
3. Demonstrate an understanding of the specificity of textual analysis
4. Demonstrate skills in making well-constructed argument
5. Demonstrate skills in the presentation of complex ideas and materials
6. Demonstrate critical and self-reflexive modes of thought and analysis
7. Demonstrate awareness of and capacity to debate the major social, political and legal issues of the day in national, European and
international affairs
8. Demonstrate the capacity for independent learning
9. Demonstrate the ability to formulate viable research questions
10. Demonstrate the capacity to undertake independent research on a specific topic
11. Present research findings within a critical theoretical framework
Stage 1
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