International Training. Ongoing projects

The Barcelona Bar Association is part of the Young European Lawyers Contest project. It is a project lead by the Academy of European Law (ERA), with the suport of the CCBE and co-funded by the Justice Programme of the European Commission.

The contest will bring together young and newly-qualified lawyers to spotlight the importance of European law for their future legal practice.

In teams composed of contestants from different European countries, they will be challenged to apply their knowledge of European law in practical role-play scenarios. Under the watchful eye of a jury of leading European law practitioners, they will learn to work with peers from other legal cultures to build strong cases in areas as diverse as fundamental rights and the rule of law, access to justice, economic law, cross-border cooperation in civil and commercial matters, and criminal justice. The contestants will be judged both on their knowledge of European law and on their advocacy skills in drafting written arguments, conducting negotiations and pleading before a judge. The contest is an opportunity for national and regional Bars to encourage their young lawyers to get excited about European law and to learn how to use it to improve their day-to-day practice.

The contest will be composed of 3 semi-finals and one final.

Semi-finals

The semi-finals organised in Warsaw, Bratislava and Barcelona will consist of the preparation by the teams of a written report on a question of EU law with a practical relevance for the daily professional practice, and the oral presentation of it. The written report will be prepared ahead of the face-to-face semi-finals.

Final

The best two teams from each semi-final will take part in a three-day final held at ERA’s premises in Trier and at the General Court of the European Union in Luxembourg. The final will include training on “how to litigate before the Court of Justice” and negotiation exercise. It will close with the organisation of a moot court at the General Court of the European Union where the two winning teams of the previous exercise will contest in front of a jury composed of high-profile representatives from legal practice, and judges from the CJEU.

You will find all the information on the project website: www.younglawyerscontest.eu