EU law training in English language: blended and integrated content and language training for European notaries and judges

On 24 and 25 June 2020 the sixth (being the second Italian and the last overall) seminar of the Project EuLawInEN on the subject of "Succession and Family law in practice” was, as the previous one, held via streaming online using the ZOOM platform, due, once more, to the Covid19 international emergency. 

The seminar was opened with the welcoming address of the President of the Fondazione Italiana del Notariato, the Notary Antonio Areniello and the Member of the Steering Committee of the Scuola Superiore della Magistratura, the Professor Claudio Consolo. 

While the first day was dedicated to an overview of the three EU Regulations (650/2012, 1103/2016, 1104/2016) undertaken by the three ToT experts (the civil law notary Daniele Muritano, the lawyer Charlotte Oliver and Prof. Elena Ioriatti), during the morning of the second day, two notaries (Gabor Hodosi and Pepa Tsakova) and two judges (Andrea Mohos and Verginia Micheva) from Bulgaria and Hungary, who were trained at the "Train of Trainers Course” held in Rome from 18 to 22 March 2019  and who were already speakers during the 2019 seminars, delivered training sessions supported by the three ToT experts.

 

At the beginning of the afternoon session on the second day, anticipating some activities, the project website, the video shot for the seminar of Plovdiv (Bulgaria) and the e-learning products (e-learning course, serious game and sit-coms) realized under the Project were also presented by the Senior Project Manager Alessandra Bianca as to further disseminate the results of the Project as well as to allow for the audience to test new training modalities online in real time.

The afternoon session of the second day provided the audience with a workshop on several practical cases previously selected and published on the Project website that the audience was invited to consult before the discussion as to contribute to their solution. Moreover, three Italian notaries (Alessandro Taddei and Giulia Proietti who also attended the ToT, and Ugo Friedman) and one judge (Dario Cavallari), who provided their availability during the second Bulgarian seminar to be involved as speakers in the last event, delivered scheduled interventions focusing on specific practical cases and few new elements of attention. Thus notaries and judges had the opportunity to improve their scientific knowledge and linguistic skills testing themselves before various credible scenarios covering three EU Regulations. 

The serious practical game undertaken at the start of every training event was presented and explained in detail at the end of the seminar instead, in line with the practical approach to be delivered and also considering that it was not possible to undertake the game in presence. Lastly, the representatives of all Project partners provided their closing remarks on the success of the two-year Project and the related activities undertaken together, as well as on the positive spirit that characterized the partnership which has been enlarged into a real network of professionals connected through different countries in Europe and willing to exchange on a regular basis on legal issues pertaining to EU law on succession and family issues, with new confidence and trust in each other.

The C.L.I.L. (Content and Language Integrated Learning) methodology was applied also at the sixth seminar in fact, granting EU law and English language learning at the same time. Similar to the other 2020 seminars, the approach used was more practical than theoretical. The ToT experts dedicated large space to the discussion of several practical cases, not only during the Q/A session and the workshop, but also during other moments of the event. The audience was directly involved both via oral questions and a written chat online, especially during the workshop and the scheduled interventions. The best practices exchange was lively and, thanks to the use of the ZOOM platform, also relatively easy to manage with the "raise your hand” tool. 

The seminar reached about 56 participating legal professionals as direct target group, divided into notaries and judges, among other attendees. At the end of the event, the audience provided particularly good feedback on the high quality of the presentations and discussions held, as well as on the materials displayed during the seminar and the excellent management of the seminar through the online modality. The Project itself and the related EC support were also praised as good example of added value, hoping the have the opportunity to further invest in such interesting and useful initiatives also in the future.