Every summer, the Center for Constitutional Studies and Democratic Development (CCSDD) and the Institute of Social Sciences in Belgrade organize a week-long European Union & Legal Reform (EULR) Summer School in Igalo, Montenegro.
Utpala Menon, a student pursuing the International Law concentration, who completed her first year of the Master of Arts (MA) at SAIS Europe, tells us about her experience.
Before attending Johns Hopkins SAIS, the Balkans was an unfamiliar place, both in terms of its geopolitical and cultural intricacies. Hence attending the EULR Summer School in Montenegro was more than just an academic exercise. The decision stemmed out of genuine curiosity about the region, fomented by the timing of the start of my journey at Johns Hopkins SAIS in 2016, a year marked by radical alterations in the EU project, and in attitudes towards populism politics and migration.
The Summer School’s lectures and round-table debates covered an array of subjects. We began the week discussing Brexit, especially through the lens of the UK's and other European countries' historical vision for the EU project. This was particularly interesting as students from the Region voiced a certain sense of unprecedented ‘Euro-skepticism’. The discussions exposed the full impact of Brexit, including its legal and economic implications on both Europe and the world.
We participated in a stimulating debate on whether candidate countries should express caution in their integration, asking questions like: "Are they ready for integration?" and "Is the EU ready for them?" In the wake of Brexit, this meant truly questioning the socio-economic consequences of EU integration for candidate and potential candidate countries, which include economies of the former Yugoslavia such as Montenegro, Serbia, and Albania as well as Eastern European economies like Ukraine.
We also learnt about the legal nature of preambles and more abstract concepts of identities. These nuanced lectures proved useful in understanding what motivates some countries to move towards greater integration and differing attitudes towards the migration crisis. What is more, the expertise and contributions of faculty such as Prof. Justin Frosini, Director of the CCSDD, and Marko Milenkovic, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at SAIS Europe, added depth and breadth to this already enriching experience.
The Summer School was a once in a lifetime experience for me. It brought together students from diverse backgrounds with intriguing and inspiring experiences as prosecutors, lawyers, and economists. It allowed us to make new friends and to take field trips around the coast of Montenegro and to Tito's villa. Above all, in an age of transforming political and economic landscapes, the insightful faculty presentations, round-table discussions, and challenging debates provided a unique and unforgettable opportunity to learn about different perspectives on the EU project and its future.
Utpala Menon
MA Student
SAIS Europe 2017
Utpala Menon, a student pursuing the International Law concentration, who completed her first year of the Master of Arts (MA) at SAIS Europe, tells us about her experience.
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| Utpala Menon |
The Summer School’s lectures and round-table debates covered an array of subjects. We began the week discussing Brexit, especially through the lens of the UK's and other European countries' historical vision for the EU project. This was particularly interesting as students from the Region voiced a certain sense of unprecedented ‘Euro-skepticism’. The discussions exposed the full impact of Brexit, including its legal and economic implications on both Europe and the world.
We participated in a stimulating debate on whether candidate countries should express caution in their integration, asking questions like: "Are they ready for integration?" and "Is the EU ready for them?" In the wake of Brexit, this meant truly questioning the socio-economic consequences of EU integration for candidate and potential candidate countries, which include economies of the former Yugoslavia such as Montenegro, Serbia, and Albania as well as Eastern European economies like Ukraine.
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| Utpala (third from left) and her classmates in Igalo, Montenegro |
The Summer School was a once in a lifetime experience for me. It brought together students from diverse backgrounds with intriguing and inspiring experiences as prosecutors, lawyers, and economists. It allowed us to make new friends and to take field trips around the coast of Montenegro and to Tito's villa. Above all, in an age of transforming political and economic landscapes, the insightful faculty presentations, round-table discussions, and challenging debates provided a unique and unforgettable opportunity to learn about different perspectives on the EU project and its future.
Utpala Menon
MA Student
SAIS Europe 2017
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