Common Legal Area: Dresden University of Technology

Europe as a Common Legal Area - European Integration and Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe

Their LL.M. programme consists of lectures and other courses which have been developed especially for their students by experts. The courses deal with the fundamentals (political, economic and cultural issues, introductions to Germany and to the legal systems of certain countries in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, Comparative Law and its methods), general European Law (the institutions and policy fields of the EU and the EC, the Common Market, the Convention on Human Rights) as well as specific issues of integration (EU enlargement, new neighbourhood and the Europeanisation of private law; in-depth courses on problems of integration and transition in a particular field of law such as Commercial Law, Competition Law, Company Law, Intellectual Property Law, Labour and Social Security Law, or Environmental and Technology Law). An interdisciplinary approach is integrated into the legal education by means of co-operation with the Faculty of Economics and with the Institutes for Slavonic Studies, Politics and History. They also arrange guest lectures by persons working in the field of European Law as well as study trips.

Their LL.M. course differs from most other courses in European Law in that it focuses on questions of regional integration in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, both within and outside of the EU. Their programme of study therefore includes not only general courses on European Law but also courses on the methods and instruments of comparing, harmonising and standardising systems of law. Furthermore, they offer courses which deal with the legal, cultural, economic and political issues of EU enlargement and of EU relations with its old and new neighbouring countries. Participants in our programme therefore receive not just a sound academic education but also acquire knowledge which can be put into practice when dealing with a broad spectrum of legal problems in the context of the process of European integration and in legal dealings with the countries of Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. Many of their graduates now work for international law firms, in the courts and public authorities of their home countries, for the EU and for international organisations.

Successful completion of the course leads to the conferment of the academic title Master of Laws (LL.M.) by the Faculty of Law.