FRANCESCO ZARRILLI

Course Information – Academic Year 2025/2026
The classes for the academic year 2025/2026 will begin on October 10, 2025, and will take place on Thursdays from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. in Room 101, and on Fridays from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in Room 202 of the "Marco Polo" Building (RM021).

Course Objectives
The aim of the course is to enable students to acquire an understanding of the institutional system of the European Union, its sources of law, the role of the main EU institutions, and, in particular, the competence and case-law of the Court of Justice in the field of the protection of rights.
The programme (in summary) will cover the following topics:

1. The European Union: origins and development
2. The political institutions
3. The judicial institutions
4. The boundaries of EU law
5. The legislative competences of the Union
6. The system of sources of law
7. The relationship between EU law and Italian law
8. The Union’s external relations
9. Analysis and study of judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union

Examination
The final examination consists of an oral test. It will take the form of a discussion on the topics addressed during lectures and further explored through the study of the reference textbook, with particular focus on the judgments and case-law examined in class.
The purpose of the examination is to assess the student’s level of knowledge, as well as their capacity for understanding, synthesis, and clear legal expression.

Recommended Reading
Giorgio Gaja, Adelina Adinolfi, Introduzione al diritto dell’Unione europea, Laterza, 2025.
(Any other updated textbook on European Union law may also be used.)

Students are also required to study the judgments of the Court of Justice, available at the following Google Classroom link:
https://classroom.google.com/c/ODExODM4NTI4Mzc5?cjc=emyogupp

Please note: there is no difference in the syllabus between attending and non-attending students.

• “World peace cannot be safeguarded without the making of creative efforts proportionate to the dangers which threaten it.”
• “Europe will not be made all at once, or according to a single plan; it will be built through concrete achievements which first create a de facto solidarity.”
• “The merging of coal and steel production... will change the destiny of those regions which for so long have been devoted to the manufacture of war materials of which they have been the most constant victims.”