Essay paper:
Describe the levels of political and economic integration, read Ch 15( Book name: International Business law and its environment) on E.U. and compare U.S. to E.U. with 1 or more case summary to illustrate the similarities and differences between the economic and political aspects of the United States and the European Union. This paper should be 2-3 pages single spaced. You may submit your edited paper as a Word document and/or in Write Submission here. There are good cases where you can use your knowledge of the U.S. legal system (from Chapter 3 and your knowledge) and compare it to your knowledge of the EU legal and political system. I think the beer cases most show how the EU deals with "intermember" disagreements just as the U.S. deals with "interstate" disagreements. U.S. has the Commerce Clause in the U.S. Constitution which you should also describe. EU interests may outweigh individual member interests just as U.S. federal interests may outweigh individual state interests. Does the EU have a constitution with a Commerce Clause?
Compare and contrast 1. the political structures, 2. how the legal systems deal with conflict between members/states and between member/state and central government using caselaw and positive enacted law, and 3. legal/regulatory systems.
Do this as well as you can making paragraphs, editing grammar, making clear points. My slides on the EU may help since there is one that shows U.S. govt next to EU govt.
Two issues for your paper which you're trying to write
1. Question: Where is the beer case?
Answer: It's actually a spirits case Cassis de Dijon and can be found in Chapter 15 Questions and Case Problems #1 on page 498. There is also a 1987 Commission v. Germany case appearing on Wikipedia concerning marketing of beer with additives in Germany. There is also a 1980 Commission v. France case appearing in Wikipedia concerning spirits. Finally, the Italian chocolate case is okay and it's on pages 482-484. They are similar to U.S. cases involving the "dormant" commerce clause where a state would enact a law that interfered with the free flow of interstate commerce. Courts in both US and EU seem to agree on the primacy of free commerce over local "protectionism" laws. In BA18 I lecture on similar US cases that involve the dormant commerce clause concept. One of them is the mud flaps case (Bibb v. Navajo Freight Lines). Another is the Alabama hazardous waste case (Chemical Waste Management v. Hunt). Another is the Maine bait fish case (Maine v. Taylor) where the US Supreme Court reached a different result!
2. There is also a section in the chapter that talks about EU statutes being regulations or directives or recommendations. US law doesn't have these variations in its system. When you compare them you see how much better US regulatory law might be if we had regulations and directives instead of just statutes and rules. Case problem #6 on page 499 asks you to explain what they are in the EU and then I ask you to compare them to what we have in the US. In the US the federal government does have directives to tell states to change their laws to comply with the national standard. This lack makes for a clumsy system whereby the federal government uses threats of withholding federal funds to coerce the nonconforming states to fix their laws. The feds did this with changing the speed limit, changing the drinking age, and recently with states wanting to be sanctuaries for aliens. Highway funds seem to be popular ones used in the threats.