Europe

The British Council’s European Young Lawyers Scheme has been running for over 30 years in London and for 27 years in Edinburgh. Under the scheme, young legal practitioners from all over Europe have the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the Scottish or English legal system. The candidates, between 25 and 35 years of age, are fully qualified lawyers in their own jurisdictions.

Besides providing an insight into the theory and practice of the legal systems in the UK, the scheme aims to enable participants to make professional and personal contacts all over Europe. Indeed, socialising within the group and with British people is an important part of the programme. The contacts are carried on beyond the period of the scheme through the European Lawyers Association which holds annual meetings in different countries and thus maintains these business and social links.

This year 8 women and 4 men from all over Europe, originating from Greece to Finland, are participating in the Edinburgh scheme. If you would like to know more about the group you are welcome to have a look at our website (http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/legalconnexion/research/eylmain.htm) which we have just set up. The scheme started with a five week academic period, i.e. we have been given lectures at Edinburgh University Law Faculty at Old College on all the main areas of Scots law. Currently we are doing placements with different firms of solicitors and public bodies until Easter. After a second academic period of two weeks in April, we will be attached to advocates until the end of the scheme at the beginning of July.

The motives for choosing the scheme in Edinburgh and not in London were different for each of us. Not everyone was keen to spend hours and fortunes in London every morning and evening just to get from home to the university/office and back. Besides, having spent this period in Edinburgh rather than London might give to our cvs a more distinctive touch than “everyone’s London”. However, Edinburgh itself offers a lot of attractive features, legal as well as others. Apart from being a very appealing city, it provided the quite unique opportunity to be involved in the legal business taking place in the shadow of a recently set up parliament and thus promised a vivid legal and constitutional scenery.

And indeed, it is the supremacy of Parliament, not just in Scotland, but the parliamentary tradition in the UK in general, that has struck us quite strongly. Many of us, coming from countries with effective constitutional guarantees and individual freedoms were quite amazed by an - until recently - almost unlimited power of Parliament. However, there were less fundamental features of the Scottish legal system which seemed strange to us, such as the Prosecution and Defence sitting at the same table in court and whispering to each other. Finally, one thing we came in touch with at the very beginning of the university lectures: the widely uncodified and even very little consolidated law which was another peculiarity of Scots and UK law in general which we had to cope with.

Anyway, our stay here won’t make us specialists in Scots law; however, this is not its aim. It does though give us the opportunity to exercise work in comparative law and benefit from the opportunity it provides us to have a better understanding of our own legal systems. So, it stimulates to go back to the broad principles of law which are widely neglected in the daily work in favour of tiny points of doctrine.

These legal matters, although occupying a supreme place in our stay, are not the only ones shaping our lives here. Many things in daily life were at least as new for us as some points of the law. For instance, the first week after arrival in January brought a good deal of administrative stuff to deal with: there were application forms piling up almost to the height of Arthurs Seat. In order to open a bank account or to get a lease we were asked for references nearly going back to the blood type of our grandfather’s aunt. But at last we managed to open a bank account without having a permanent Edinburgh address, or vice versa, to get settled in a flat before producing the details of our UK bank account. Having overcome these initial obstacles we dived quite quickly into the Scottish social life, be it by attending ceilidh classes at the university or practising our freshly learned steps at a glamorous Burns Supper in Prestonfield House.

All of us live within 5 minutes walk of each other in the nice area of Marchmont in Edinburgh and we keep up a vibrant exchange in our group which has thus almost become like a big family.

So, the stay in Scotland will leave us not only more aware of legal issues, but richer by many personal experiences, new impressions and, dare we say it, richer by a few friends. We would like to end by saying a sincere thank you to everyone involved in the scheme, for their advice and practical help, be it Joëlle Godard, our lecturers at Edinburgh University, the organisational staff from the British Council and the law firms which provided the opportunities for our placements.