LLM in European Private Law

Academic year 2018-2019

Professor Elise Poillot

Essay on Consumer Law

A Critical Note on a European Consumer Law Judgement
of the European Court of Justice
(Semester 3)

Commentary of the opinion of AG Szpunar 31st of May 2018 (ECLI:EU:C:2018:378)

and
judgement of the European Court of Justice 5th chamber of 4th of October 2018
on case C-105/17, Kamenova (ECLI:EU:C:2018:808).

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A preliminary remark:

This work ca be done in English or in French.

Deadline for submitting the essay: 7th of December 2018, 17:00. No late submission will
be accepted.

Instructions regarding the structure of the essay:

-   The 1st page must contain the name of programme, of the course and the name of the
Professor as well as the reference of the opinion and the case, your name(s) and family
name(s)
-   1 blank page.
-   1 table of content.
-   Your essay (please use page footnotes and not endnotes).
-   A list of courts’ judgements quoted.
-   A bibliography.
-   25000 words limit.

Instructions regarding the merit of your commentary:

What is expected from you:

ü   Clarity, de la conciseness, a personal and critical analysis of the AG opinion and

of the Court’s judgement.
ü   A clear structure allowing to understand at first glance how you will analyze the
decision.

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Your commentary must have an introduction where the facts, and the legal question(s) at stake
are exposed as well as a conclusion (in this part of the commentary you summarize your critical
analysis of the case and if possible expose the impact/consequences of the case (e. g. certain
issues were not clearly decided, some positions taken by the court will have positive/negative
effects on the economy, the protection of consumers etc.).

The different sections of your commentary must contain:

•   An analysis of the judgement: in this section, you are expected to demonstrate that
you understood the case (the legal question at stake, the answer, the reasoning of the
AG and the Court). Should the AG opinion differ from the approach taken by the Court
in its decision, then you are required to explain what are the differences of approach of
the AG and the Court.
•   An analysis of the impact/consequences of the Court’s judgement i. e. the legal
impact, to which further legal developments this decision could lead compared with that
which could have been that of a decision following the opinion of the AG, should the
Court’s judgement depart from it.
•   A critical appraisal of the Court’s judgement: You are expected to demonstrate your
capacity to formulate constructive critics. Such a critical analysis must rely on a good
knowledge of the jurisprudence related to the legal issue at stake (both national – if
existing and accessible – and European) and of the legal doctrine published by scholars
regarding the topic.

The objective of a commentary is to use all these elements to discuss the outcome of a
Court’s judgement from a critical prospective in order to understand the legal, social
and economic impact of a decision rendered by a Court. The AG opinion will be
extremely useful in this respect as they usually expose extensively those arguments
(please note that you should however also bring your own point of view and not
exclusively rely on his/her observations).

v   Please be reminded that the structure of your commentary may not necessary consist in a
three sections division based on the above-mentioned points (analysis of the judgement;
analysis of the impact/consequences of the Court’s judgement and its critical appraisal).
v   Please be also reminded that a commentary of an AG’s opinion and a Court’s judgement
does not consist in paraphrasing nor in a general and abstract discussion to the legal
question(s) at stake (mere descriptive and theoretical arguments).

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___________________________________________________________________________

Grading:

The essay will be graded out of 20 points.

1/ Clarity of expression, orthography: 3 points.

2/ Structure of the paper: 4 points.
3/ Critical analysis of the case: 13 points.

NB : Your essay must rely on academic articles from specialized textbooks, reviews and
Journals. The quoting of scientifically reliable blogs and websites (from renowned academics)
is welcome but not sufficient. Please be reminded that plagiarism is punished.
 
Warning:  
 
Your  essay  must  be  uploaded  on  the  dedicated  platform  on  Moodle.  No  sending  of  the  essay  
by  email  will  be  accepted.  No  late  submission  will  be  accepted.  
 
Plagiarism  (source https://www.plagiarism.org/article/what-is-plagiarism)  

All of the following are considered plagiarism:

•   turning in someone else's work as your own

•   copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit
•   failing to put a quotation in quotation marks
•   giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation
•   changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit
•   copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your
work, whether you give credit or not (see our section on "fair use" rules)

Most cases of plagiarism can be avoided, however, by citing sources. Simply acknowledging
that certain material has been borrowed and providing your audience with the information
necessary to find that source is usually enough to prevent plagiarism.

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