The Colloquium on European Constitutional Law and Politics (EUCLAP) will be a brand new type of course that will foster a thorough and interdisciplinary discussion on the pressing issues on the intersection of constitutional law and politics of the European Union (EU). EU constitutional law and EU politics are in tension with one another, since law purports to be general and principled, while politics is often highly particular and shaped by interests and power. To explore this tension and its ramifications, the EUCLAP will feature speakers both from political science and from law, who will, from different disciplinary and paradigmatic perspectives, examine how institutions and law reflect, and alter, the availability of information, interests of relevant actors, and policy outcomes.
EUCLAP will consist of a series of workshops on the hot issues in EU constitutional law and politics. Generally, students and module teachers meet and discuss a recent paper by a leading authority one week before the presentation of the invited scholar. The next week they meet with the author, along with other visiting faculty members and invited guests, for a workshop about the paper. The following week, reactions to the workshop are reviewed, and then, with the next topic, the whole process begins again.
The rationales of EUCLAP are to foster the development of the new teaching method, to bring policy-makers, judges and other stakeholders and their insights to the academic debate, and to stimulate argumentation skills, research skills and presentation skills of students.
The major activities, apart from teaching EUCLAP, include a roundtable with stakeholders and two law review articles on European constitutional law and politics. EUCLAP module will also result in EUCLAP website, EUCLAP virtual platform (interactive course synopsis) and a Handbook in European Constitutional Law and Politics (both in printed and electronic versions).

Publications