I began life in Europe as an LL.M student at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in 2001, days before 9/11 in the USA, witnessing a New Year of the Euro dawn in a spirit of hope and peace in the union of European states. Lectured by the Commissioners and practitioners themselves, the LL.M in EU and Comparative Law introduced subjects such as state aid, enlargement and EU treaty freedoms of movement with Prof Jonathan Faull, the author of the only textbook on EU competition law lecturing us on the subject. This unique programme selected one lawyer per nation annually and this was the best embedded participatory field experience.

 

I gained an education in multilingual and multicultural friendship and collaboration within a group. Members were young lawyers, many on their first visit to Europe from Moldova to Vietnam to Mexico, Finland to South Africa and Guatemala to Russia to name a few. I became fluent in quotidian French and one of the singular achievements was being the first non-French speaking country of origin candidate, on record, to pass the driving license theory exam in French successfully on first attempt. I was a researcher for a limited time at the Centre for European Policy Studies, when the Sri Lankan ceasefire compelled me to re-engage with the former war-affected communities from Europe. The Katholieke Universiteit Leuven where I had enrolled in a doctoral programme in international remedial justice supported this unique opportunity, saying you can always do a PhD later, but this is a once-in-a-lifetime initiative to work on peace education during what we had hoped would be, a lasting ceasefire.