PEAK EVENT REPORT: CY Cergy-Paris Université Delegation

 

Hi to who is reading this! We’re Sabrina and Maeva from Cergy-Paris University in France. I (Maeva) am specialising in Private Law, and Sabrina is specialising in Health Law. We were part of the EUTopia project of this year (2023/24) about Connectedness in Legal History.

 

Why did you join?

On our very first day in Cergy-Paris University during a reunion about the master programs, Prof. Argyriadis-Kervegan presented the project to all of us, we were quite keen about the idea of contributing to a project in English, and meeting students from other EUTopia universities. We knew no one in this new school; we were both in different universities before. We saw this project as an opportunity to work in English, and as a way to challenge ourselves by talking in front of an (almost) unknown audience. With the Peak Event in mind, we were motivated to do a great job and very excited to go to Brussels for the first time!

 

What are you working on?

I (Sabrina) worked on the fight for abolition of the death penalty in France and Canada. I will now focus on the living conditions in prison at that time, especially in the panoptical prisons. Indeed, I think that this focus point can be interesting, as I made a part of my presentation about V. Hugo’s book The last day of a condemned (1829), which emphasized quite a lot about living conditions in prison. Poor living conditions in prison played a role in the abolition of death penalty, especially by touching the public opinion.

I chose this subject because I think that is it important to talk about it. Indeed, we should all understand the achievement that it is to have the death penalty abolished. I think that it represents a massive protection for each citizen’s life and that this is a fundamental humanist value. Also, not having the death penalty in our system anymore gives another meaning to our Justice system, changing the whole conception of justice and sentencing. My subject was quite anchored in the news, as Robert Badinter passed away at the beginning of this year, I wanted to honour his memory and his work that allows us to make a change on such an important and controversial topic. I think that we should continue talking about this subject, because it is still used in so many countries around the world.

I (Maeva) worked on the feminism movements in union organisation in France. I focused my presentation on a famous French case (The Couriau Affair). To pursue my research I might extend my topic to other counties, and develop my studies to other civil aspects of the incapacity of married women in the nineteenth century. Otherwise, I may work in common with another EUTopian, Lentl, a student from the VUB, who also works on feminism in Belgium. It was important for me to work on this subject to shed light on the different treatment between men and women in the work industry and union organisation in the nineteenth century. It also proves that these disparities still exist nowadays, through various evolutions. 

 

How have you been working until now? What is the added value of meeting at the peak event? What did you learn from the others?

As we both worked on a different project, we had meetings with our tutor, Miss Argyriadis-Kervegan. Meeting during the peak event has put meaning to our work, it all took shape during the peak event as we could have a constructive discussion about our presentations. It allowed us to think about how we could go forward on our research, and also adding new points of view from other students’ perspective and culture. Talking with the other students allowed us to learn about other countries habits, and of course meeting new people and staying in contact all together.

 

How was the interaction with lecturers/experts? Is this different from what you would do in the standard curriculum?

We were surprised by how Professor Dhondt was close to the students, we felt like it was a simple exchange between people, not the formal student/teacher discussion. All the other lecturers and experts were open to the discussion as well, it was really constructive, and it truly valued our student work. It was very different from the classes in France, where there is a distance between teachers and students, and even though we can discuss with them, there’s a focus on the courses only.

 

Do you see multilingualism as a benefit? If so, how would that play out in this specific case?

Speaking several languages is a wealth, and getting to improve speaking another language by speaking with other students was fun and productive. Multilingualism was practical in our case, as French is our first language, it was easy for us to understand the locals, but we could also speak to everyone in English. Multilingualism is a key to communicate and learn new things!

 

We wanted to thank all the persons who participated in the organisation of the event, we really had a great time!