Methodology
The learning
object forms part of the Faculty of Law's course "Protection of Human Rights under
EU Law" and is addressed to undergraduate and
graduate students from the University of Tartu and other European Universities.
The aim of the
learning object is to facilitate advanced work with the core human rights case
law of the Court of Justice of the European Union. For that aim, the learning
object helps to prepare for seminars and for revision for the final examination
(consisting of multiple choice test, or essay, subject to the student's choice).
The learning object has been built up systematically, the materials are
organized from general issues towards specific problems. If used correctly, the
learning object teaches step-by-step use of the case law of the Court of
Justice of the European Union. The learning object does not offer the right
answers to the questions, but rather provokes the student to think, because the
aim of the learning object is preparation of the student for the seminars and
other forms of control. As e-learning does not enable discussion comparable to think-provoking
living discussion in a classroom, it does not contain exercises with given
answers, but contains references to the case law of the Court of Justice of the
European Union, and indicates the points and problems the student should concentrate
on while reading a concrete case.
Selection of
the case law bases on the books: Norbert Reich, Understanding EU Law (Hart Publishing, 2005); P. Birkinshaw, M. Varney (eds.), The European Union Legal Order after
Lisbon (Austin, Boston, Chicago, New York, The Netherlands: Kluwer Law
International, 2010) (esp. articles: C. Kombos (2010) „The Esoteric Dimension of
Constitutional Pluralism: EU's Internal Constitutional Sub-units and the
Non-symbolic Cumulative Constitution"; G. Anthony (2010) „EU Law's Fundamental
Rights Regime and Post-national Constitutionalism: Kadi's Global Setting"); P.
Alston et al (eds.), The EU and Human Rights (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1999) (esp. articles D. Spielmann (1999) „Human Rights Case
Law in the Strasbourg and Luxembourg Courts: Conflicts, Inconsistencies, and
Complementarities"; B. De Witte (1999), „The Past and Future Role of the
European Court of Justice in the Protection of Human Rights"), and articles
published in scientific journals: J. Donnelly (2007), „The Relative
Universality of Human Rights" 2 Human
Rights Quarterly, 281-306; S. Carruthers (2009), „The Treaty of Lisbon and
the reformed jurisdictional powers of the European Court of Justice in the
field of justice and home affairs" 6 European Human Rights Law Review,
784-804; and S. Douglas-Scott (2006), „A Tale of Two Courts: Luxembourg,
Strasbourg and the Growing European Human Rights acquis" 43 Common
Market Law Review, 629-665; T. Eilmansberger (2004), „The Relationship
Between Rights and Remedies in EC Law: in Search of the Missing Link" 41 Common
Market Law Review, 1199-1246; A. Von Bogdandy (2000), "The European Union
as a Human Rights Organisation? Human Rights and the Core of the European
Union" 6 Common Market Law Review, 1307-1338. The idea of the model of
the learning object lies in the Teaching
Materials composed by Joseph H. H. Weiler available at the New York School of
Law website at http://centers.law.nyu.edu/jeanmonnet/eu/Units/documents/UNIT7-EU-2004-05.pdf, some layout ideas belong to the Central and
Eastern European Internet Directory for Human Rights (CEEHR) belonging to the European University Viadrina in
Frankfurt (Oder), Germany and available at http://www.rewi.euv-frankfurt-o.de/de/profil/Projekte/ceehr/index.html
It is assumed
that before using the learning object, the student already has acquired some
basic knowledge about human rights, and has read the articles on protection of
human rights in Europe indicated in the Syllabus of the Course. The learning object
still foresees some work with
theoretical materials.
It is also
assumed that universities offer courses on EU law databases. But since
attendance of the course on EU law databases is not an obligatory precondition
for attending the course „Protection of Human Rights under EU Law",
and consequently, the level of knowledge of the students attending the named
human rights course may differ, one aim of the learning object is to introduce
to the student the official EUR-Lex case law database, as well as the case law
database at the CJEU‘s website, because the EUR-Lex database does not contain
all the cases available at the database at the CJEU's website. In addition,
cases of the CJEU may be directly acceded from the case law task list available
as part of the learning object. The student is expected to find the case law of the Court of
Justice of the European Union, and work with the selected case law of the Court
of Justice of the European Union.
The study outcomes connected with the learning object are:
(1) the student independently finds case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union from the EUR-Lex database; and from
the relevant search systems of
the Court of Justice of the European Union; (2) the student works with the
case law - the learning object gives questions for analysing the case law; (3)
the student is able to present a presentation about a case solved by the Court
of Justice of the European Union that contains pre-determined differentiable parts.
Achievement
of the study outcomes will be controlled during the seminars for which the student is expected to study the cases
referred in the Syllabus of the Course. The student is asked questions about
the cases during the seminars, and is expected to prepare a 10 minutes long
presentation about a freely selected judgment of the Court of Justice of
the European Union that should include the following parts: (a) the facts of
the case; (b) why was the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union
referred to in the case; (c) has the Court of Justice of the European Union based
its judgment on an Article in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European
Union. The questions are connected with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of
the EU, because that way, an introduction to the Charter that is one of the
main topics of the general course, is already possible, and the learning object
places naturally into the general course, being more comprehensively linked to
the general course. The student is expected to present the case in the auditorium, and also to upload
the presentation to the e-learning environment of the course. That way will be
possible to grade the work with the case law of the Court of Justice of the
European Union. The activities that will be graded are: (a) the student has actively
participated in seminars, having answered at least two personally addressed questions
about the case law referred in the Syllabus of the Course; (b) the student has presented
a judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union; (c) the judgment presented
refers to an Article of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European
Union, and the context of that Article; (d) the student has uploaded the text
of his / her presentation to the e-learning environment.
As the aims of the multiple choice test in the end of the course cannot be
achieved solely basing on this learning object, the achievements concerning
this learning object are graded separately, and the grade forms 20 % of the final
grade of the course. The
learning object cannot be used during the multiple choice test. But the
learning object assists achievement of the study outcomes of the course.
In future, the learning object could be developed toward an even more
comprehensive learning object, including direct control forms (exercises with
answers, tests with answers, etc.). At present, the learning object is a
preparation tool for seminar discussions and the final examination.