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| Students in the final lecture |
When you take a law course at Utrecht University, you are also
required to take the so-called “capita selecta” during the third period of
studies. In a nutshell, the capitas are short but intensive courses which last
normally up to three weeks and are focused on a very specific area of the study
field. My classmates and I had the
chance and pleasure to follow a very interesting and well-built capita, called
enforcing EU law by EU agencies. For three weeks we were taught and mentored by
Dr. Miroslava Scholten in order to enrich our understanding on one of the most
important developments of EU law and governance, namely agencification. I’m not
going to explain in details what this very complex term means, but for all of
you interested in the subject, you can follow Mira’s blog here.
This, by the way, is also going to be a blog about blogs and
you’re going to find out more in a blink. So, during our time in the capita we
were divided into groups and asked to choose one of the EU’s agencies in order
to complete a research about its structure, powers, accountability and problems
that might (or not) arise in such spectrum. Besides building great teamwork
skills, the course also taught us not to be afraid of presentations, which is
an important ability to have in today’s times. Thus, after having lectures and
guest lectures (by Michele Simonato, Marloes van Rijsbergen and Laura Wissink),
the floor was for us, the students, to present each week a little bit of our findings.
The course was finalised with a research paper of each group
and the creation of a blog on the main topic, including results of our team
investigations. The idea of creating a blog might even sound out of the place
in a law course, but believe me, it is one of the best ways to quickly and massively
spread the message of your research. In the modern times it is hard to find
someone that reads lengthy and complicated papers, unless it is indeed required
for work or study. Most of the people instead prefer easy and absorbable news,
thus the blogging becomes a practical solution. Moreover, the number of people
you reach out is unimaginable. Therefore, I would strongly suggest to everyone:
create a blog on the topic that you’re researching. It is a good idea to put into
test your findings and the process of simplifying your research even helps you as
a writer to really understand what’s going on there.
To conclude, our capita was quite successful and the student
teams created five blogs. Nerea and Senta worked on EPPO, Juliette and Michael
on EASA, Eline, Laura and Babette on ECN, Anka, Agustine, Hans and Hidde on
Frontex+ and finally, the cherry on top of the pie, Janneke, Elissavet and
myself on ESMA.
Hint: the
ESMA team will definitely keep up with the blog, since our master thesis topic
are as well on this agency, so see you there!
