This module is not currently running in 2024 to 2025.
This module focuses on citizens of the EU and their family members who have chosen to exercise free movement and residence rights and thereby seek to rely on their 'rights' as EU citizens in the territory of another Member State. Students will investigate the idea of free movement and citizenship of the EU, including the foundational rules, principles, doctrines and their scope, through the prism of Clinical Legal Practice. The Clinical Option provides an opportunity for students to develop their knowledge of this contested and rapidly developing area of law by conducting, under the supervision of a Kent Law Clinic solicitor, a ‘real’ case where the law or rules said to derive from EU law are the subject of ‘live’ as opposed to ‘academic’ dispute/contestation. Each student will be allocated a case where a Clinic client is seeking to rely on free movement or citizenship rights in an appeal against a decision by the Department for Work and Pensions, the UK Border Agency or a local authority that s/he does not have a right to reside in the UK under EU law.
Contact hours: 18
Private study hours: 182
Total study hours: 200
LLM in (Specialisation), LLM in Law, PG Dip in (Specialisation) and PG Cert in Law
Main assessment methods
Continuous in-module case conduct ('casework') (20%)
Essay, 4000 words (80%)
Reassessment methods
Like for Like
• Barnard C and Peers S, (eds) (2014) EU Law (OUP).
• Carrera S, and Atger AF, (2009) Implementation of Directive 2004/38 in the context of EU Enlargement: A proliferation of different forms of citizenship? (Centre for European Policy Studies Special Reports).
• Craig P and De B?rca G, (2011) EU Law: Text, Cases, and Materials, 5th ed. (OUP).
• De B?rca G, (ed) (2005) EU Law and the Welfare State (OUP).
• Guild E, Peers S, and Tomkin J, (2014) The EU Citizenship Directive: A Commentary (OUP).
• Habermas J, (1990) 'Citizenship and National Identity' Annex 2 in Between Facts and Norms (Polity Press 1996).
• Marshall TH, (1950) Citizenship and Social Class, and Other Essays (CUP).
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
The intended subject specific learning outcomes.
On successfully completing the module students will have:
1. A comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the concepts of EU free movement and citizenship.
2. A thorough understanding of the law and procedures relevant to EU free movement and citizenship, including case law at a CJEU and
domestic law level; with particular focus on access to social security and social assistance.
3. The ability to critically reflect upon the operation of the law in practice and, by drawing upon original research, the ability to assess the
application and effects of specific laws, principles and procedures, situating them in their wider context, and critically evaluating them
against intrinsic aims and external criteria, for example, doctrinal coherence, certainty and finality, and certain conceptions of social justice
and economic efficiency.
4. The ability to advance coherent legal argument directed at securing vindication of an individual client's desired outcome.
5. The ability to understand and analyse intricate factual situations in legal terms, identifying the relevant points and issues arising from the
clients' cases requiring further research with the aim of gaining an overview of the different and disparate aspects of a specific legal
problem.
6. The ability to comment upon and test current legal instruments, case law and scholarship in the context of the factual and legal issues
arising from the client's case; recognise the different positions arising in the materials surveyed and critically analyse the different
positions.
7. Taken responsibility for the conduct of a client's case.
The intended generic learning outcomes.
On successfully completing the module students be able to:
1. Conduct advanced research, making proper use of the library resources by way of law reports, articles, monographs and textbooks,
demonstrating the ability to retrieve up-to-date information quickly.
2. Identify and evaluate complex legal and policy problems according to their historical, political and legal context; identify relevant economic,
political and/or social implications of legal forms and institutions.
3. Develop and test in practice hypotheses and strategies appropriate to unstructured situations of fact; to suggest alternative strategies and
solutions to problems raised; to assess relative probabilities and outcomes in changing situations; to relate a situation or problem to wider
contexts.
4. Produce a creative, critical and analytical essay on the basis of independent research; writing in a clear and accessible way an argument
or hypothesis and to set out a reasoned conclusion; having demonstrated the ability to utilise good footnoting, bibliographic, citation and
reference systems, and careful and accurate use of the English language and legal terminology.
Stage 1
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