In the Classroom and the Courtroom
| Published date | 01 December 2013 |
| Date | 01 December 2013 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1023263X1302000401 |
| Author | Siniša Rodin |
| Subject Matter | Editorial |
20 MJ 4 (2013) 475
EDITORIAL
IN THE CLASSROOM AND THE COURTROOM
S R*
Et d’abondant la vache à notre femme
Nous a promis qu’elle ferait un veau:
Prenez le tout. Je ne veux nul s alaire,
Dit le pasteur; oblige r mon compère
Ce m’est assez, je te dirai comment .
Mon dessein est de re ndre Magdeleine
Jument le jour par art d’enchant ement,
Lui redonnant sur le soir forme hu maine.
Jean de la Fontaine , Contes et nouvelles en vers,
‘La Jument du compère Pierre’.
Being privileged to serve as a Judge at the Court of Justice of the European Union as
of July 1, 2013, and having been a professor of EU law for more than 20 years, it is my
true pleasure to have an opport unity to connect the two streams of my professional li fe
– my extensive classroom and my recent courtroom experience – in one of the leading
European law journal s.
I never understood teaching t he law of the European Union as a black letter exercise.
e choice was never between law in books a nd law in action. It has always been law in
action, based on problem solving and c ase analysis. As a fresh judge I quick ly discovered
how valuable that initial choice was. Years of involvement in case crunching and
deconstruction made the t ransition smooth. In that respect, work in t he courtroom was
not so very di erent. Training a student to articulate and argue his or her position, to
propose solutions to complex legal issues, to play the roles of a judge, a legal repres entative
or an advocate general and, ult imately, to get ahead, all ca me as close as it could have to
the reality.
inking about law and practising law is inextricable. While the nature and the
outcomes of the work of a legal scholar and a legal practitioner are di erent, they will
need to engage in a simila r set of intellectual operations i n order to reach them. Gradually
* e views express ed in this ar ticle are personal a nd do not represent the views of t he Court of Justice of
the European Union .
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