Phillippe Cocatre-Zilgien Legal studies are being reformed, for one thing. France is trying to align itself with a semester-based, rather than year-based, academic system. This should allowgreater mobility to European students. And there is more. New historical courses of study, with a more broadly European focus, are currently being offered. For example, a new required course has been put in place for first-year law students, called “An historical introduction to the study of law”. Every university and every professor is free to determine the exact content of this course. Those who have an interest in comparative history will have an opportunity to draw their students’ attention to the roots which many European legal systems have in common. As for myself, when I teach this course, I have the intention to give it a comparative focus (whether that will be well done is another question ...). For more advanced students (those in the 3rd or 4th year, as we still say, to refer to students who have 6 or 8 semesters of classwork behind them), several universities offer an optional course on the “Comparative historv of European institutions” (the exact title can vary). These courses only reach a small number of students, but are rather popular among them. Finally, a few years ago (the administration took some time to accept this), French academic positions were opened up to foreign (but only European ...) applicants. We can only hope that the arrival of a certain number of foreigners will bring a breath of fresh air to our rather stuffy academic atmosphere. I do not believe they will be made to feel unwelcome by the students. On the contrary, students are always interested when one discusses foreign institutions with them. I am convinced that European professors will receive an equally warmwelcome fromtheir French colleagues. 252
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