From May 2019, 30 Chinese CESL students from the Master of European and International Law took classes at the University of Strasbourg in France. The elective course at the University of Strasbourg follows the Consumer Protection Act. It is taught by three professors from France, Spain and Hungary.
Many EU institutions are located in Strasbourg, and in the second week of the course the School arranged for a visit to both the European Parliament and the Council of Europe. During the visit to the European Parliament, the presenter not only showed the internal structure of the European Parliament, but also introduced students to the European Parliament's operating procedures. Since the European Parliament's general election was held on May 23-25, 2019, the interpreter explained in detail the relevant electoral knowledge of the European Parliament. European Commission officials also gave a speech to everyone. In the course of the speech, there were not only a variety of graphics, but also various interactive links that were interesting.
The student’s found the University of Strasbourg campus to be calm, quiet and elegant. With students all around, studying hard and preparing for exams, the learning atmosphere is very strong. The architecture of certain buildings also stood out as impressive, including one building on campus with Ivy growing along walls.
Chinese Text by Gao Ya, Li Xin and Pan Shuying (China-EU School of Law double master’s students)
Translated and edited contribution by: Monty Silley.
1. Strasbourg is located in the northeast of France, across the river Rhine from Germany, and is known as the “moonlight border”. Founded in 1538 and with a history of more than 480 years, the University of Strasbourg is not only one of the top universities in Europe and one of the world's top 100 academic universities, but also a pioneer of modern higher education in France.
2. The European Parliament is an important legislative body of the European Union. It is located in Strasbourg, France and Brussels, Belgium. This means parliamentarians often need to shuttle back and forth between the two locations. Although Strasbourg is the main conference hall, the parliament only holds regular meetings and final voting in Strasbourg every month for four days. The legislative preparations and parliamentary committee meetings related to it are held in Brussels.
3.The members of the European Parliament are from various member states, but each member has different seats: Germany (96 seats) and France (76 seats) have the largest proportion, and the smallest one is Luxembourg (with only 6 seats). Once elected as a Member of the European Parliament, parliamentarians should be independent of their member states and need to express their opinions and exercise their right to vote from the perspective of the EU.
