Module description
A major challenge for a supranational legal order such as that of the EC is presented by the problem of ensuring effective
implementation and enforcement of its rules in the context of large-scale reliance on national agencies and procedures for this
purpose. In essence, therefore, this module is concerned with the methods of rule-application used in a regulatory system, in a
situation which necessarily requires the setting up of a framework of co-operation between different kinds of legal order
(national and supranational) and the construction of a body of principles to govern such a system of co-operative
implementation and enforcement. Following a general introduction to the basic features of the Community legal order, the
subject is explored through an examination of these issues in the context of four areas of policy:

(a) protection of the environment;

(b) the common agricultural policy;

(c) the control of fraud and other irregularities affecting the Community's financial interests;

(d) competition policy.

Each of these areas gives rise to rather different problems of implementation and enforcement, as regards the kind of
Community legislation employed to give effect to policy, the types of agency involved, the degree of reliance on Member State
rules and bodies, and the methods of enforcement used at national level. For example, the area of competition policy is
especially distinctive in this respect since it involves an exceptional system of 'Community-own' enforcement concentrated in
the hands of the EC Commission. Different models of enforcement will be considered critically, taking into account differing
national and Community interests and also recent moves to import a greater degree of subsidiarity into the operation of the
Community system.

Objectives
The module seeks to build upon a basic knowledge of the European Community legal system by exploring critically and in
detail the methods used to achieve implementation and enforcement of Community rules and policies. Study of the subject is
constructed around four 'case studies' relating to particular areas of implementation and enforcement, and in this way it is
intended to provide a general understanding of the operation and management of a supranational system of social and
economic regulation. From this study, general lessons may be drawn concerning the problems encountered by regulatory
systems in the field of business and commercial activities.

Syllabus
1. Introduction to the institutional structure of the European Union and the law-making process within the European
Community; the relationship between the Community and Member State legal systems; basic doctrines of the Community legal
order; the role and jurisdiction of the European Courts of Justice and First Instance (Seminars 1-3).

2. Problems of implementation and enforcement in relation to Community rules for the protection of the environment (Seminars
4 and 5).

3. Agriculture: Issues of subsidiarity in the implementation and enforcement of a common policy.

4. Methods of controlling fraud and other irregularities affecting the financial interests of the Community : Community and
national measures (Seminars 8 and 9).

5. Enforcement of the Community rules on competition (Seminars 10 and 11).