Classes

For some strange reason, people other than my parents have complained that I don't talk enough about what classes are like. For starters, they are not taught via the Socratic Method like at home (which is calling on a random student and quizzing them about a particular case for up to half an hour). It is strictly lecture. Kind of like undergrad, but to a certain extent even worse. There is no discussion. When a lecturer ends a class, they usually shout out "any questions?" But everyone is packing up and dialing the mobile phones at that point. For the most part I am in large lecture halls with 50-100 other students. Most are law students but some are "commerce."

And it's perfectly acceptable to text someone in the middle of class. No one makes any effort to hide it. And while they don't take cell phone calls in class, almost every lecture is interrupted at least once by a cell phone ringing. The person silences it, but still at home you'd likely get a snide comment from a professor, and probably a talking to if it happened more than once.

Strangely, classes are scheduled from the beginning of an hour to the end, with no breaks in between. So for example, on Thursday I have Irish Constitutional Law II from 4 to 5 and Entertainment Law from 5 to 6. The trade-off is that they never start on time. Between 5 and 10 minutes after is the norm. But they almost always keep you until the end. Also, there is no pattern to when a class meets. Like European Community Law II meets Monday at 5pm and Thursday at 10am, in different rooms of different buildings.

European Community (EC) Law II I like quite a bit. It is one of two classes I have where the law I learn would be no different if I took it at home. The idea is to try and understand how the implementation of the EC treaties works, inasmuch as they are supposed to guarantee the free movement of goods, services, people and capital between member states. It's somewhat analogous to the way the states interact with each other and the federal government, although that's a gross oversimplification. The guy who teaches it is from France, and his accent reminds me a bit of Inspector Clouseau. The Irish students complain that he is hard to understand, but I have to admit I find him easier than many of the Irish accents. Probably because I am so used to the French Canadian accent, eh?

He is very dry with his wit, and you can easily miss his jokes if you are not paying attention. He was explaining this part of the treaty that doesn't allow member states to restrict the importation of goods that are produced domestically.

(Try to imagine the thick Inspector Clouseau accent) "I have chosen for you to review, on this point, the inflatable luuv dolls case. I see that you are confused by my accent, so let me rephrase. They were sex toys. The British government did not allow importation of German-produced luuv dolls, even toe, the U.K. was producing tem. So, what was the British argument? I'm not gonna even tell you, because it was quite stupid, eh? The Germans were able to successfully argue to the Court of Justeece, that there was no difference between the British and German luuv dolls, except for some are better looking."

The other class I have where the law will be directly applicable is Law of the Sea. This is taught by a middle aged Irish guy who reminds you of one of your friend's dads that you liked growing up. He's always smirking like he's about to tell a joke, and although he rarely does, he just has a manner that puts you at ease. Early in the semester I went up and introduced myself to him, mostly to find out if there were any pre-requisites that he expected me to have, but also to be a kiss-up. This partly worked and partly backfired.

On the day after the Barrister's Ball, I showed up late. Law of the Sea meets for two hours with a break at the half. I came in at the half and went up front to get the day's handout and also apologize for being late. Law Ball, I explained. Huge grin breaks across his face.

"Tell me all about it! Where was it this year? How were the speeches? Many people? Good craic? Oh tremendous, sounds like you had a grand time!"

It was almost like I was getting congratulated on being late. Strange. The backfire part goes like this: we'll be talking about the USA wanting to fly over other countries' airspace, including that over their seas, to get to Libya to drop bombs.

"Where's Pat from USA sitting today? Oh, there you are. Pat help me out, what year was that?"

Or, we talk about international treaties that the USA never ratifies. "And Pat, tell everyone why that is, what's the States' take on that?"

You get the idea. No dozing off in that class.

I also have Entertainment Law, Irish Constitutional Law II, and Industrial and Intellectual Property Law, but I can't think of a good anecdote from them. I'll work on it.