Why Maastricht University?

Introduction to Law

Introduction to Law takes place in a quite small room in the presence of me, 14 other students and a tutor. It must be said that although I study in the Netherlands, there aren‘t 14 Dutchmen with me in the room. Contrarily, there is Magdalena from Bulgaria, Pietro from Italy, Valer from Slovakia, Alex from Moldavia, Mathilde from the Wallonian region of Belgium, Maxime from the Flemish region of Belgium, Martins from Latvia, also Tereza from the Czech Republic and many others. The tutor herself is from Ireland, who, after studying law at the National University of Ireland, Galway, got her PhD. at Maastricht University and then decided to share her knowledge with students.

As the name of the subject tells you, its goal is to introduce us novices into the world of law. We therefore begin with the foundations and gradually get to know contract law, criminal law, administrative law, etc. and in the end we get acquainted with the difficult chapter of Philosophy of Law. The lesson is based on a discussion between the tutor and students. We talk about what we learned from the book, how can our knowledge be used in contemporary law, if need be what we did not understand.

Skills: Legal Research and Reasoning

The next subject on the list is a Skills course: Legal Research and Reasoning. This time there are around 20 students in the classroom, except for me there is for example Begüm from Germany, Alex from Sweden, Marnie from the Netherlands, Susanne from Finland or Juliette from Belgium. Our tutor is then half Italian and half British and studied law at UCL. He is now finishing his Ph.D. here in Maastricht.

The aim of this practical subject is to learn how to search in a number of legal databases and works that are available to students and, to cope with the right use of the acquired information. A part of the subject is thus an essay on any legal topic, but also a debate competition – practice in both written and spoken language.

Comparative contract law

The true ‘European Law‘ however starts with this subject. We no longer look at law as a whole, but rather compare it as single jurisdictions. The group of students is naturally diverse like in previous cases, worth mentioning are classmates from India, Hong Kong or Croatia. The omnipresent international environment is completed by a British tutor.

As I have outlined earlier, we focus on chosen European contract law systems, in this case on the German, French, English, Dutch, but also the European one. This comparative form is the basis of the whole course I study. And the contract law course has introduced me into this kind of form of study very successfully. I learned to efficiently find the similarities and differences and to apply them in various cases we discussed in our lessons. For example, when is the contract binding in the English system and when in the German one? When it’s being written, sent, received or when it’s being read by the addressee?

Comparative Government

The true European Law continues with another comparative subject – Comparative Government. Among my classmates there are students from Nigeria, Brazil, Greece or Great Britain. The tutor is a ‘student trainee‘, which means she is a student of the third year of the law bachelor and additionally teaches this subject.

The main idea of Comparative Government is to compare the constitutional systems of Germany, France, Great Britain, The Netherlands, the EU and the USA. With such a range it is not surprising that the majority of students finds this subject extremely difficult. The lessons are dedicated to a lively discussion about how the election system works in Germany, what powers are possessed by the Queen in Great Britain or how can judicial review function in the Netherlands. Every problem is applied to a real-life example and this way we are taught to put the gained information into connection and context.

Legal History

The fifth subject I had during my first semester is Legal History. It is needless to mention the diversity of the class, nevertheless let me state a few words about the tutor. He is an Italian student of the Master’s programme Tax Law, also a ‘student trainee‘.

In this subject we return to law as a whole. Initially, we explore the Roman law as the supreme legal system of its time. Then we shift to medieval law and the period of codification. All features of these stretches of time are presented to us through then cases, which we subsequently need to talk about and solve.

Maastricht University shows its excellence in many ways. Nevertheless, I decided to present it to the readers from my perspective and hence to present it on the entirely ordinary part of a student’s life, tutorials. I aimed to demonstrate the extraordinary qualities of this university through their description and summary of their common features.

The tutorials take place in small groups of 15 to 20 students only. Thus everyone has the opportunity to engage in the discussion, which is predominantly led by the students and just partly corrected by the tutor. The students are, without any exaggeration, from every part of the world and such an international surroundings is just amazing and inspiring. Especially the exchange of opinions is interesting and incredibly enriching – everyone is from a different country, from a different environment and so the views on things differ greatly. Simply put, diversity opens eyes.

The inspiring environs is fully completed by the tutors. Even though you can find a lot Dutchmen amongst them already, I am still astonished by where all the others come from. They are Europeans, Africans, Asians, students, professors, doctors, but all of them share their enthusiasm for given subject and their detachment and open-mindedness with which they deliver it.

However, it is not only the form of the tutorials but also their content, which contributes to the quality of education of the local law students. The lessons are based on the problem-based learning, hence the curriculum is directly applied to real-life cases. Simultaneously, each of the subjects gives the unique opportunity to look at law from a different angle. While Introduction to Law, Skills and Legal History illustrate this field as a whole, Comparative Contract Law and Comparative Government demonstrate it as single jurisdictions. It is mainly this comparative system that makes Maastricht University so modern and successful. Comparative law is a clear reminder for us to realize that we live in a European community and hence we, as ‘European citizens‘, have to take in account legal systems of other countries but also the European one as such. This whole system then effectively prepares students for the right kind of law in Europe.

It is these qualities, so essential for the contemporary society, which make Maastricht University one of the most modern, international and best ‘young‘ educational institutions in the world and me a proud student.