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Examiners report 2016 EU
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Examiners’ reports 2016Examiners’ reports 2016
LA3024 EU law – Zone A
Introduction
The examination paper
The examination paper for Zones A and B adopted the standard format consisting
of a mixture of essays questions and problems questions. The content reflected the
syllabus based on the subject guide, the study pack and on the recommended
readings. It is to be noted that this is the first examination taken by students after
the fully revised EU law guide has been in use for some time. I was happy that
although at the time of writing this Examiners’ report the final statistics are not
available, results have been generally better with a good number of very high
distinctions. It seems to me that the choice to focus more on the substantive
aspects of the syllabus was favoured by students. In particular, I was pleased that
this year there were virtually no papers with answers completely unrelated to the
questions, papers with no bearings on the issues raised by the exam paper. True,
we still had some very bad fails where the candidate basically did not even attempt
an answer but, on the whole, I felt that the marks were higher and the quality
superior. There was an improvement in how students dealt with essays questions
with some excellent answers especially on questions dealing with some topical
issues. For instance, most students displayed a considerable command of the very
recent case law on data protection (Facebook case/the right to be forgotten) that
was used very effectively to deal with the question on the relevance of human rights
protection in the EU. These answers also showed that students were able to apply
a wider reading to the issues raised by the questions.
I would also like to raise a usual problem: time management. Many candidates have
struggled to answer the four questions evenly. Quite clearly, some students spent
too much time answering two or three questions and had to resort to either
excessively short answers or, in some cases, just a skeleton answer. It should be
reiterated that the assessment of the exam is on four answers and students should
always be encouraged to learn how to manage time effectively, devoting equal time
and attention to each of the questions.
Note that errors in the extracts below were present in the originals.
Comments on specific questions
Question 1
‘The Charter may never achieve in Europe the level of popular awareness
enjoyed by the Bill of Rights in the United States. But the collection in a
single place of so comprehensive a range of rights will prompt European
1
, lawyers, judges and students to read them, to become familiar with them and
to apply them.’
Discuss this assessment of the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
General remarks
The question required an assessment of the impact of the Charter on EU law.
Students needed to discuss the status of the Charter after the Lisbon Treaty and
the use made by the European Court of Justice. In particular, they should have
discussed the use of fundamental rights before and after the Charter.
Law cases, reports and other references the examiners would expect you to use
Case C-260/89 ERT [1991] ECR I-2925.
C-36/02 Omega [2004] ECR I-9609.
Case C-13/94 P v S and Cornwall County Council [1996] ECR I-2143.
C-236/09 Association belge des Consommateurs Test-Achats ASBL and Others v
Conseil des ministres, judgment of the 1 of March 2011.
C-617/10 Fransson, 26 Feb 2013.
Case C-131/12 Google Spain SL, 13 May 2014
Case Safe Harbour 2015.
Opinion 1/1/3 on ECHR accession.
Common errors
A failure to provide some specific examples. Some answers were excessively
vague discussing the importance of human rights protection in the contemporary
world. Others failed to address why the Charter is now so important.
A good answer to this question would…
discuss the Charter of Fundamental rights legal status and in particular whether the
fact that the Charter is now legally binding has had any impact. In particular,
differentiate from the ‘old’ case law that relied on human rights just as a general
principle of interpretation, now the ECJ uses the rights protected in the Charter as a
benchmark of legality for EU law. Cases such as Google Spain (right to be
forgotten) or the so-called Safe Harbour (privacy) that attracted considerable media
attention are perfect examples to be discussed. The ambiguous case law on the
application of the Charter to national law (Fransson) and Article 51 of the Charter
can be discussed as well. Finally, a mention of Opinion 1/13 on accession to the
ECHR could also be included to show some of the ambiguities in the Court’s
approach.
Poor answers to this question…
discussed the doctrine of direct effect in this context. Although a mention could be
actually relevant as it shows the attention devoted to individual rights, a full
discussion is not relevant. Others failed to understand the difference between
human rights as a general principle of EU law and the Charter’s legally binding
status.
Student extract
After the introduction of the Charter the Court approach has changed. As in
Article 1 of the Charter upheld the human dignity (Greeenpeace 2011) The
Article 15 and 16 of the Charter upheld the Freedom to choose an occupation
and the freedom to conduct a business. As in the case of Test-Achat the
Court upheld the gender equality as provide in article 5 (2) of the Charter.
This decision was welcomed as it reaffirms gender equality. However the
Conservative Party of the UK stated that the Charter was going too far. Now
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