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Had heard people saying EU Law was hard...

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I have an ingrained hatred of Craig and DeBurca after not being able to find it when I was studying consti law and having to spend the evening working to a stupid hour. As a result, I never opened a copy since. You could well be right :smile:

though saying that craig is a total lad! A literal silver fox rockstar of an academic! He lectures exactly as his textbook read! i hear his voice whenever i open the book.... :colondollar:

Reply 21

marrythenight

Original post by LiveFastDieYoung

though saying that craig is a total lad! A literal silver fox rockstar of an academic! He lectures exactly as his textbook read! i hear his voice whenever i open the book.... :colondollar:

Very jealous! I hated the textbook my university chose for us (Chalmers). I kept De Burca as a big secret around revision time and hid the copies because it was so good :biggrin:

I felt like I didn't want anyone else to find out about how good it was, particularly on the more complicated areas such as incidental effect of Directives. That said, it is a little dated as there has been much new case law in that area - Viking, Laval, Kucukdeveci... And it's annoying to have to read ''Article 36 Huh?! Ohh, this is before Lisbon..''

Reply 22

LiveFastDieYoung

Original post by marrythenight

Very jealous! I hated the textbook my university chose for us (Chalmers). I kept De Burca as a big secret around revision time and hid the copies because it was so good :biggrin:

ahh yes craigs demolishing of the ratti/marshall reasoning brings a tear to my eye! literally dont need any other academic commentary! just recite that chapter vertabim and you are guaranteed a 1st :biggrin:

#

when is the next edition out? chalmers was fun enough on the airy fairy theory such as the democratic deficit, patterns of integration etc but craig just nails the substantive stuff so well!

Reply 23

iamorgan

I found EU law much easier than both land and equity/trusts, which is what we do in 2nd year, along with jurisprudence (which is still my favourite law module of all time). EU law was taught really well at my Uni, which helped immensely. It was also structured logically.

I studied EU PRE-Lisbon, and used Craig & De Burca to start with. I found that book a bit too large, and I actually preferred Weatherill, which I found had a good balance of text and useful commentary. Craig & De Burca did bits of the course really well, but in others, I found it a bit TOO black letter and not enough 'policy' or analysis.

I don't think it's hard: I just think some of the concepts are different. IE the principle of proportionality sneaks in everywhere -our lecturers spent a long time emphasising the normative foundations of the EU (i.e what the EU is there for, and what the courts see their role as), and that helped. Once you've got to grips with concepts such as subsidiarity, proportionality, the monet-schuman plan (and all the historical developments), you'll kind of see where the EU is going and why certain decisions of the ECJ seem odd.

Don't panic about it -but also don't neglect it. It won't go away, and is a very important module.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 24

Katharos703

Original post by tisjofish

EU law is a massive subject which is why i think people tend to think its difficult to grasp. Also, the recent alteration to the treaty can cause confusion because the treaty article numbers have changed and if you read a pre lisbon treaty book it will give you out of date article numbers. In short, whatever you read make sure it is post lisbon so that you avoid any confusion.

Be careful to make sure you get the basics first otherwise the substance will make little sense. For the basics i started with Unlocking EU law which isnt something i would normally recommend (its an A level book) and then moved on to EU Law (Steiner & Woods). My copy of this book had both pre and post lisbon article numbers (10th ed). For the substance, my bible was The Substantive Law of The EU - the four freedoms - 3rd ed -Catherine Barnard which is post Lisbon. I dont think i would have survived without this book.

Hope that helps