Exams in nL

October 27, 2009

Not exciting, but it's my Life these weeks:

Monday, I had an exam in Organized Crime. Since the law degree in the Netherlands is actually an undergraduate degree, the workload for these Bachelor's classes has been quite light. We don't read cases, but articles - and about 15 for the entire semester. We had great lectures on the Russian and Italian mafias, and unique discussions about conflict diamonds and eco-crime (specifically, conflict timber). Not bad compared to four-hour fact-pattern exams back home - a two-hour, short answer exam. Glad that's done.

Tuesday. This morning I had the most difficult exam - Human Rights and Criminal Law. This is a Master's Level course (we are permitted to enroll in these as American law students, maybe because they know the American program is equivalent to a graduate rather than bachelor's program). The workload for this class was intense - a casebook, "reader" with articles and other literature, international standards and treaties, and a textbook. With the exception of the textbook, we were assigned EVERYTHING cover to cover (and the Prof really only spared us a few chapters in the textbook). It took forever to digest, but the material was extremely interesting (wiretapping, torture, military tribunals, presumption of innocence, death penalty, conditions of imprisonment, habeas corpus). The exam was two hours, four essay questions, and comprises 50% of our grade (other 50% are essays written throughout the quarter). I found the exam to be pretty difficult, and am sort of concerned because the Instructions page included instructions on how to retake the exam should you fail (a score between a 4.0 and 5.5 ; scale is 1-10). But. . . it's over for now, and the re-take option will be considered on November 6 when we get our results. (Fingers crossed).

Now: two papers - one on the origins of the Italian Mafia in America from 1890-1920's (Organized Crime class), and one on the differences in Trust Law in common and civil law countries (specifically America and the Netherlands, which follows the Hague Trust Convention) for Dutch Law class. In addition, Friday morning, the Dutch Law take-home exam will become available online. All three of these must be submitted on Monday.

Come Tuesday, SNOOZE, then booze. Wish me luck. PS, this is what it looks like to take an exam in the Uithof Campus.

the building is called the Educatorium (fun to say)

really neat corridor at the top of the steps by the theatre

the rooms are not numbers, but greek letters. the theatre is theta.

a classroom in the Educatorium; probably the room where I had my Org Crime exam, gamma

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