EU customs legislation

In this course, our intention overall is to impart an understanding of EU customs legislation, which is a very large and complex body of law. We explain:

• Customs law in the global and in the national context; 
• The hierarchy - which law takes precedence in certain situations;
• How to research certain legal provisions;
• How to interpret the wording of law. 

The course is one of the modules of the extensive Customs clearance and trade compliance in the EU training (see brochure).

Lessons

The course cosists of four video lessons:

1. The nature and structure of customs law. Get the basic understanding of how customs law works;
2. Researching legal provisions. Let's research together legal provisions and find out what the customs law is on certain issues;
3. Making an accurate interpretation. Interpreting legislation requires practice and care. It is easy to take a single legal provision and conclude that that is the law on this issue. You will learn that quite often you need to dig deeper and you need at times to look closely at the wording of legislation to be sure you are interpreting it correctly;
4. The importance of case law. Let's have a discussion on the role of the courts in interpreting the legislation - courts can at times amend, override or change it.

Tasks are provided in the videos - you will be asked to stop the video and do a certain task. There are quizzes at the end of each lesson. In addition, do the readings (the list in Resources) - after purchasing the course, you will be given access to the articles on the platform.   

Outcome

At the end of the course, you should understand:

• How customs law works in the global and the national context, and the hierarchy of law;
• What is 'hard' and 'soft' law;
• Consequences of violation of customs law;
• How interpretation of customs law works and what challenges it poses; 
• The role of the Court of Justice of the EU and the national courts;
• When legal research is required and how to do it.

After successfully completing all the quizzes (more than 60% of the answers should be correct), you will receive a certificate of completion.

Time

Please plan around 4 hours to complete this module.

First thing you need to know is that 'customs law’ consists of rules of unequal importance. The legal force of these rules is based on the principle that there is a hierarchy of norms. This means that when applying a law, we must make sure that a given rule doesn’t contradict a superior one.

Anouck Biernaux

Let’s have a look where the topic is systematically placed in the Union Customs Code.

Annette Reiser

There are many reasons for researching customs law. The most common one is to establish the conditions that apply to importation of specific products.

Anthony Buckley

Customs Knowledge Institute: 🔗 Customs Knowledge Institute is an Irish not-for-profit organisation whose mission is to bring together passionate customs practitioners for the purpose of enhancing customs knowledge. 📧 CKI@customsknowledgeinstitute.org  

CustomsClear: we are the customs and trade compliance knowledge marketplace and our goal is to connect knowledge seekers with industry-related experts. Check other available 🔗 courses.