All About Law | Training Contracts | Vacation Schemes | Law School | Law Careers

-Courses-

For the first seminar, the class was divided in little groups, and each group had to represent a country in order to simulate a debate around what should happen when a state disappears because of rising sea-levels. We had to find solutions, responses, the duties of the more polluting states etc.

I had another debate about sovereignty and the self-determination of a state. It was really hard because if there are rules inspired from cases which happened in the past in the period of decolonisation for instance, the context (political, social and economic) is never the same. So obviously, you cannot enforce exactly the same solution to a situation which is different. I confess I was impressed by the knowledge of my classmates!

About my classes of environmental Law, I really appreciate the fact we use newspapers as our main source of information. In my opinion, it concretely demonstrates how useful is environmental law in everyday life.

I learnt a lot about the various mechanisms of Environmental Law. On the first hand, there are the legal ones like the regulatory control, the economic instruments (taxation) and the civil liability. On the other hand, you have non-legal mechanisms like education initiatives or codes of practice launched by the governments. There is always the same problem; finding the balance between economic interests and environmental concerns.

Apart from that I noticed that the way of teaching EU Law was quite different in England and France. The lectures in France are more a theoretical analysis completed with illustrations (cases, Directives etc). Here, the course is organised around cases and Directives, and in a very precise way. That's more descriptive but more concrete, and I like this even if it's a little harder.

-Everyday life-

These last weeks’ made me realize how difficult it can be sometimes when you're not in your own country. For example, I had an awful raging toothache. First of all, in this kind of situation you have to find a dentist in a place you don't know very well yet. Second, it would have been great to find some medication to relieve the pain while waiting for an appointment. And thirdly, I had to try and understand a different health system. Obviously, in this case, thinking about all the procedure is the last thing you need...

-Activities-

During the last week, Sheffield was lively. First, there was the Guy Fawkes Day with a lot of fireworks everywhere. It was very nice! Moreover, there was an international market in the city centre with various types of European food. I enjoyed the smell of Spanish “churros” or French “crêpes”.

Then, I would like to find another activity to spend my free time in doing something else than working. Maybe I should think in volunteering. I would like to have a direct contact with English people, different from the one I already have with my classmates for example. I'm going to see that with the Union Society Volunteering. It could be a great experience!

Now, this is the “Reading Week”, which is supposed to consist in working on our courses. But I think that I'm going to make the most of the opportunity to do other things like travelling through the northern England and visit the cities around Sheffield. I really don't want to waist the time I have here, and so many things have to be seen!

Nevertheless, I have to work on my courses too because I have a few very important essays to prepare. They are going to count for the assessments ...so I'll try my best to find the happy medium.

It sounds like you’re having fun. I’m glad you’re enjoying it here!