Dr Pablo Ibanez Colomo NAB5.16

This course is available on the MSc in EU Politics, MSc in Regulation, Master of Laws and Master of Laws (extended part-time study). This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course will be relevant to the following LLM specialisms: Competition, Innovation and Trade; Corporate and/or Commercial Law; European Law; International Business Law.

This course is capped at 30 students. Students must apply through Graduate Course Choice on LSEforYou.

Member States of the EU are not free to award subsidies to companies or to support them in a comparable way (by, inter alia, granting them loans at favourable rates or by providing unlimited guarantees). In the wake of the recent financial crisis, for instance, bailout measures adopted across the EU had to be cleared by the European Commission in accordance with Articles 107 and 108 TFEU. The first part of the course explores the economic rationale underpinning the principle whereby State aid is incompatible with the EU internal market (the reasons why similar regimes are not implemented at the national level in federal countries facing similar issues, such as the United States, will also be explored). The second part is devoted to (i) the notion of State aid within the meaning of Article 107(1) TFEU (that is, the range of measures that are subject to ex ante control by the European Commission) and to (ii) the conditions under which such measures may be declared to be in the interest of the EU as a whole. The third part provides an overview of the application of the law in some sectors (including the energy or the communications sectors) or for some purposes (e.g. research and development, regional aid). The fourth part is devoted to the procedural aspects of the discipline and to the application of similar rules outside the EU (in particular in the context of the WTO and of the trade agreements concluded by the EU).

20 hours of seminars in the LT. 2 hours of seminars in the ST.

There will be a reading week in week 6. 

All students are expected to produce one 2,000 word formative essay during the course.

Quigley, European State Aid Law and Policy (3rd Edition, 2015); Jones and Sufrin, EU Competition Law (online Chapter, 6th E Edition, 2017); Bacon (ed), European Community Law of State Aid (2nd Edition, 2013).

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours, reading time: 15 minutes) in the main exam period.