May 11, 2023

Professor Tracy Kaye guided law students from her EU Business Law course on a trip through the EU Institutions of Brussels and Luxembourg over Spring break in early March 2023. The trip was designed with the vision to provide an immersive learning experience and cultural exchange with the EU to enrich the U.S. legal perspective with an appreciation of the inner workings of European Institutions and their legal system.

“Many of the EU initiatives, such as the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) affect American companies doing business in the European Union. It is imperative that our students are made aware of these legislative initiatives and the Court cases that follow,” said Tracy Kaye, Professor of Law, specializing in Federal Income, International, and Comparative Tax Law.

Students attended briefings to discuss critical topics on corporate sustainability, cross-border loss relief, and Artificial Intelligence regulation given by European Commission lawyers. Speakers provided students with a deeper understanding of the European Commission’s function and its vision for the future. They spent an afternoon in Louvain-la-Neuve at the Catholic University of Louvain with whom the law school has an exchange program, with lectures on competition law and the proposed AI regulation as well as a lunch and tour of the campus with their students.

Our students were also briefed on the workings of the European Parliament and toured the Hemicycle, the main chamber of the European Parliament’s Brussels location. A visit to the Court of Justice of the European Union included a case briefing and a hearing. Judge C. Mac Eochaidh of the General Court of the European Union, shared his thoughts on some of the most important competition law cases.

A visit to Europe would not be complete without a trip to the Parlamentarium, and the many culinary delights of Belgium including moules-frites, Flemish chicken stew, Waterzooi, and true Belgian waffles!