European Union Human Rights: Law & Polic

The European Union (EU) has a deep and broad commitment to the respect and promotion of human rights, both in its internal and its external policies. However, it often faces difficulties in living up to this commitment. In this course we will study the EU’s commitment to human rights as outlined in its founding Treaties, the role of its institutional actors in following up on this commitment, and the EU’s internal and external actions and policies in this respect. For the EU’s internal policies we will focus in particular on its non-discrimination policies as well as its migration policy. In the area of the EU’s external relations we will explore the role of human rights in the EU’s development cooperation, trade policy and humanitarian aid, as well as in the EU’s multilateral relations with other international organizations, both global (e.g. the United Nations) and regional (e.g. Organization of American States; African Union; Council of Europe; OSCE).