This Master’s level course addresses issues relating to the challenges and implication of European integration. Since the end of the Second World War, the sub-continent of Europe has experienced sustained and expanding degrees of supranational integration in the fields of law, economics and politics. Some analysts see in this process a model for regional integration the world over; others argue that the EU is unique and that this pattern of integration cannot – and should not – be repeated elsewhere.

This course will critically examine European integration from historical, applied and theoretical perspectives. By examining case-studies in the fields of law and regulation, human rights, trade and the environment, common policing and security policy and immigration, students will gain interdisciplinary insights to the process of regional integration and thus be equipped to make comparative analysis, engaging with questions such as:

• Can the European model of integration help us predict the possibility of and paths towards integration in other parts of the world, such as Asia?
• What are the external implications of European regionalism?
• Is regional integration effective and desirable?
• How integrated, by comparison, are federal entities such as Australia?