The Annual General Meeting of the Association took place on 23 June 2021, at 15:00 hours CET. The event, which for the second year in a row has been held electronically due to the pandemic restrictions in force, combined the general assembly and elements of the traditional ELFA conference.
After a brief presentation by President Marek Grzybowski, the keynote speech, “Courts as Guardians of Cardinal Constitutional Values (The Truth, Good, Justice and Beauty)”, was given by Dr. Małgorzata Gersdorf, Professor at the Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Warsaw and former President of the Supreme Court of Poland.
Following the announcement of the the 2020 ELFA PhD Award winners (see complete information here), the Annual General Meeting proceeded to the business on the agenda. The 2019-2020 annual report of activities, 2020 financial account and 2021 budget were presented and approved. The participating members also approved the place and time of the next AGM and Conference: Warsaw from 20 to 22 April 2022 (put the date in your diaries!), and agreed to extend the term of the members of the board of directors until then, due to the current exceptional situation. The business part of the AGM ended at 16:15 hours CET, without any other business arising, and the vote tallies to be announced 1.5hr later.
Afterwards, the attending members could enjoy two interesting contributions, both focused on the new needs and trends in legal education. First, Prof. Dr. Vasco Pereira da Silva (University of Lisbon) delivered his presentation, “Some new challenges for law teaching (and researching) in times of pandemic”, based on the results of his teaching experience. Next, Professors Greta Bosch, Nigel Duncan, Stuart MacLennan and Mary Catherine Lucey, members of the editorial board of the European Journal of Legal Education, presented the latest developments related to this online publication promoted by ELFA. The presentation was followed by an EJLE panel discussion titled “Developments in Legal Education” chaired by Professor Greta Bosch and with the participation of Professors Mareike Fröhlich, Elise Poillot, Dovilė Gailiūtė-Janušonė, Nigel Duncan and Stuart MacLennan. You can access the video of the session of the EJLE panel discussion below.
While the presentations and debate were in progress, members were marking their votes. The votes were then tallied and the results were read out by President Marek Grzybowski, whereupon the meeting was brought to a close. The President extended an invitation to all members of the Association to join the next AGM and Conference in person, which will hopefully take place in Warsaw in April 2022.
Vasco Pereira da Silva, Full Professor at the School of Law of Universidade de Lisboa
