finished Lent Term...a new hope

Again a term has passed by...so quickly you didn't even realize it. The substantive part of the LLM has now come to an end. Easter Term is mainly for revisions, with only a pinch of lectures, and end of May to mid June is exam period. Every exam is fitted in to two weeks...checking out the past years schedule it is going to be a tight contest...in 2006 every following day there was an exam in the papers I'm taking this year, which I must say I'm not used to. During my undergrads 95% of the exams were oral and spread around a two month exam period, so this system is going to be a real challenge.

Last Saturday was the Barristers Fair down Lincoln's Inn in the City at Holborn, I took an early train and arrived 30 minutes before it opened, only to find a huge crowd waiting to get in. Luckily I had a pre registration, so after the gates opened I managed to enter with a quick pace. The fair covered some 42 Chambers and every hour there was a talk on the different areas of specialization. I attended the Criminal Bar, Public Bar and Accounting and Tax for Barristers presentations. The Hall's for the exhibition was packed, could hardly get around...still managed to see everything that was on offer, talked to a few representatives from different sets and picked up a load of material. Even met a few LLMerz and people from College. In the afternoon I made my way down to Greenwich to meet up with cousin Jay, and spent the rest of the day hanging around his place. On Sunday we planed on going down to Winchelsey, but due to the harsh weather we stayed put in London, and went skateboarding to Greenwich park (even Brody did some boarding - the bullterrier on the picture :).

To celebrate the end of this term, I've embarked on a four day trip to the continent organized by CELS (Centre for European Legal Studies) led by Mr. Steinfeld and Dr. Gehring, visiting the EU Institutions. This passed Tuesday we took of from Corpus Christi College and caught the EUROSTAR from St.Pancras-Kings Cross. The amazing journey to Brussels was just over two hours through the channel tunnel. After arriving we were taken to NATO HQ, just on the outscirts of the EU capital. This place was aweful, looked like a communist styled building complex circled by thick barbe wire and security: very crude military style. All electronic equipment had to be left on the bus, and an airport style security check was preceded when entering the compound. We were given two main presentations, one by a PR guy, who's political one hour talk was basically reasoning why NATO is so important, and after the head of the legal department gave us a verbal tour on the structure and operation of this "gunpowder" organization - as Francis, my Ugandan friend put it. The most surprising fact to me was that there is only four lawyers working for NATO, out of which two was just recently recruited: I think this talks for its self.

Finishing with our visit, we retired to Hotel Ibis, an the afternoon was free to us. Francisco, Francis and I hiked to the Grand Platze, where we met up with Kristof, Karolin's brother who's been living here for over four years now working for the Commission, who took us to a fine local Patessiere (Restaurant).

The next day we headed to Strasbourg for the European Court of Human Rights (a seven hour bus ride), where we had the joyful opportunity to talk to the UK and German Judge, and after have a look around the city, which was a really nice place. The controversy of this town that its a cross bread between French and German influence, which makes it wonder about. In the afternoon our destinantion was set at Luxembourg, where we spent the night. This little country was a surprise. I was anticipating a place like Lichtenstein, but it was nothing like it...actually it was nothing special. Everything was closed by 10pm, so we ended up having a pizza dinner. On Thursday the European Court of Justice (ECJ) was on the agenda.

The ECJ I really enjoyed. The highlight was the court session on case No. C-265/07, a procedure against the Italian state. The main language of litigation was Italian, with the five member Panel using German, French, Latvian, Greek and Slovenian. The English interpreter ladies did a good job, but after the session was ajourned we were left with open questions on the case. The core issue was something to do with the different deadlines for state and private bodies executing effective judgements in non-contested debt recovery cases (?). Anyway, I'm really looking forwrad reading the decided case online... Afterwards Advocate General Sharpston, the UK AG welcomed us for a hour discussion, to be followed by a fancy lunch. In the afternoon we strolled around in downtown Luxembourg, and then headed back to Brusseles, where we spent the night at Ibis Hotel again.

The final day on Friday, was dedicated to the Commission and the UK Permanent Representation (UKREP). We were almost an hour late, so pissed them of a bit, but in the end there was a professional briefing held by a UK lawyer working for the Commissions Legal Department, and then an Irish lady from EPSO on working for the Commission. Lunchtime was free, and then we concluded our trip at the UK Embassy to the EU, where legal and NATO issues were discussed. By 10pm we were back in Cambridge, which left me with just enough time to pack my belongings, get some 5 hours of sleep for the flight to Hungary the next morning.