China EU Trade Relations in Legal Perspective

About

China and the European Union are two of the biggest traders in the world. Currently, China is the EU's 2nd trading partner and the EU is China's biggest trading partner. China and EU now trade more than €1 billion a day which amounts to the second largest economic cooperation in the world. This trade cooperation does not happen in a legal vacuum but functions in a complex legal framework including the rules regarding inter alia the access to the EU’s single market, anti-defense measures which can be imposed on Chinese products and the rules concerning the functioning of the WTO’s dispute settlement.

This course takes a legal approach to the study of the relationship between the EU and third countries and underlying values and approaches, with a specific focus on the EU’s trade policy and law with China. The course aims at enabling students to critically understand the EU as an international organization and analyses the legal developments surrounding trade relationships between the EU and China.

The first part of the course will start with an introduction to the EU, its institutional structure, judicial powers and legal principles and regulatory approaches that are necessary to understand the functioning of the EU as an international organization. This forms the basis for next discussing the external powers of the EU and the different legal ways in which it engages in relations with third countries.

In the second part of the course, attention will be paid specifically to the particular trading rules of the EU which shape its trade relation with China. Specific topics include the construct and principles of the EU’s single market; EU Common Commercial Policy; EU trade defence measures; EU competition rules and access to justice in the EU.

Course leader

Prof. dr. Linda Senden and Dr. Urszula Zaremba (Utrecht University)

Target group

Students of law, business, social and political sciences, at senior undergraduate level with an interest in law, society and politics. A wide range of interests will help, but no specific expertise or law background is required.

Fee info