Erasmus Year – Part 7

Erasmus Year – Part 7

After submitting my International Law of the Sea essay I had less than two weeks to revise Human Rights in the EU. We were told that assessment would be on the textbook and case materials only. I hadn’t done anything for human rights since mid-October (just before the Russia trip) and at that point I only read a few chapters of the textbook. I had not read anything in the case materials as yet (in fact I only printed off the case materials when I went back to the UK because I was not willing to foot the bill for printing an entire tree!!!).

The case materials spanned 440 pages, which seemed an Everest of a task when I started. After four or five days of hard work I was able to condense these 440 pages into 12 pages of summary notes. This was exhausting work but I was nowhere near finishing.

After this I frantically made revision cards. I organised and summarised the cases to their most minimum. This took another day or two, leaving another two days left to read and learn them. I had the cards to take in with me (we were allowed notes) but I didn’t want to spend most of my time reading at them. I knew I would maximise my marks by talking with the least notes as possible. Still it was nice to have the safety net of the notes right in front of me.

On the day of the Oral exam (7th December 2009) I woke up early and got ready. When I got to the centre it was at 10am and the oral exams started at 12:30pm so I went to Subway for something to eat and rehearsed my cases in my head.

I then decided to check where the room was. In order to get to the building I had to pass some of the ‘Hopenhagen’ campaigners and attractions, which were to celebrate the global talks on climate change being in Copenhagen.

Five people turned up (including me) for the exam. I remembered at the start of the course there were at least fifteen of us. I found it funny how week by week people disappeared due to the quality of the lecturing we received. I didn’t mind that these people left though because as my initials are NW I was always going to be last. At least with less people I wouldn’t have to wait as long. However, these four people still collectively represented at least two hours of my life in this waiting room.

I walked into the waiting area in my suit and looked around the room. Everyone else were in jeans and t-shirts! I felt conscious about it for a few moments but I passed with the thought that it may help make a good first impression with the examiner I didn’t know.

So after a moment I took a seat. It was like a doctors waiting room with whispers and the odd cough. Everyone was either writing notes or avoiding people’s eyes. When the door opened everyone looked up at once hoping it was his or her turn. There was a poster with different kinds of lamps on the wall (what a dull idea for a poster). Whilst I was waiting at least I found out what kind of lamp I had (an Olympen lamp if you wondered).

At one point a girl was heard crying from one of the rooms. Something to come for me? Unlikely. I doubt it was my tutor. He couldn’t make an infant cry if he wanted to.

As the last one I heard what the others scored one by one. The scores went as follows (in Denmark’s weird 7 point system): 10, 7, 12, 7 and then it was my turn!

Armed only with a bottle of water and my revision cards, I walked in with a smile and was asked to sit down. I answered two questions:

1. the relationship between the ECHR and the EU
2. UN measures and the ECJ.

I forgot to mention Article 53 of the Charter in the first question, which states EU Charter will not affect the Convention’s status… oops it was right in front of me in my notes!!!

In the second question I mentioned the relevant cases after a moments pause and was able to answer it completely even adding an additional point the examiners didn’t envisage.

In the end I achieved another 12, which I feel I really deserved due to all the work I put in during the last week or two.

So that concluded the academic side of my first semester at the University of Copenhagen. It was hard work in the end (not the holiday I envisioned), but I feel I got a lot out of the experience so far.