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| Utrecht University team in Paris |
Being a European law student is not
always easy, but it sure knows how to be rewarding. Among all the activities
offered by the master programme, I would say that there is no other who comes
close to the nerve-wrecking, race-against-the-time, enriching,
fun, cool, travelling and network creating experience offered by the European
Law Moot Court. I have felt honoured (and very challenged) to be a part of the team that represented Utrecht University in the Paris regional
rounds.
For all the freshers on moot
courts, this one is the most prestigious in the field of European Law. The
experience has started since last year in September, where we went through
rigorous selection processes carried out by tutors and mentors, who of course did a
wonderful job in hand picking what would be the greatest and funniest team in
Paris. After that, we went through the written phase pleadings, which took us a
greater number of preparation hours than any other imaginable course and
various consultations with professors and experts on the field (including a
trip to the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs). The case was extremely
complicated and everyone that we asked simply stood up with a thinking
countenance in their faces slowly saying... “but this makes no sense”... We can
call it whatever we want, but luck wasn’t on our side this year. Nevertheless I
should say that my teammates Nicole, Daphnie and Hans were the perfect mates
who made easy the process of crying on each other shoulders. And there it was,
after submitting our written pleadings, the announcement of the winning teams
was coming closer. We couldn’t believe we got through and as you can imagine,
the preparations intensified immensely so that we could be shining in Paris!
The journey was equally interesting,
beginning from the moment when Hans missed his train, to our feelings when we
entered the hotel lobby and saw the nerdy faces of our opponents. Tomorrow was our
pleading session and we had to be there since 8 in the morning. As you imagine,
life in Paris while you’re doing such an important thing gets pretty hectic,
although we would have loved a slow breakfast with hot chocolate and macarons.
The European Law Moot Court is very competitive and only one team from 12 would
go to the big final in Luxembourg. Even though we did our best and content wise
we were close to perfect, we didn’t go through the second round. The bad news
is that it was really disappointing, but the good news is that we were now
allowed to drink our sorrows away and to finally have some fun.
One of the best parts was our
culinary experience with the French cuisine. Starting from the little finger
food, in rich banquets, where nobody understood what in the world they were
eating (but only that it was delicious), coming to Quiche Lorraine, the beef
tartars, les terrines du lapin, the delicious omelettes and the incomparable
hot melted chocolate, everything was perfect and bubbly like the champagne.
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| First pleading round over! |
Looking back, I really miss the
days when we used to meet and discuss about the case and I feel that the same
happened as well to my teammates. Call it post-moot temporary depression stage.
In moot court competitions, you either make friends for life or enemies for
life and I am glad that we belong at the first category. That is also thanks to
the support of our coaches, Tony and Diane, who always made time for our
delayed draft submissions and always gave the best practical advice.
If somebody is also considering
joining the moot court competition, I’d say go for it and best of luck!
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