Document Type

Article

Disciplines

International Law

Abstract

When Professor Mark W. Janis of the University of Connecticut School of Law contacted me with a kind invitation to join a panel dealing with practical matters (or matters of practice) in lawyering on either side of the Atlantic, my first thought was that of any practicing lawyer: re-cycle one or two short pieces that I had written over the years containing certain ruminations on some of the essential differences between the common law, as practiced in the United States where I was educated and learned the skills of the trade, and the civil law, as practiced in Spain where I have spent most of my career.

But then I realized that the large part of today's audience was likely to consist of civil lawyers. Lawyers who knew much more about civil law than I ever will. Lawyers who have a good foundation in common law as well, in large part of course due precisely to their LL.M. studies at American law schools such as the University of Connecticut School of Law.

My second thought was to re-direct my comments, leaving the civil law largely aside, and address instead differences between American and English practice. This second thought had a shorter shelf-life than the first, for the good reason that my knowledge of English law and practice is actually quite limited. While I am qualified as an English solicitor and have been involved in many transactions and several contentious matters involving English law, unlike some of my colleagues on today's panel, I have never practiced in the United Kingdom or with an English firm.

My final thought took me back to my first. In the end, I will re-cycle some previously expressed comparative reflections on common law versus civil law practice as I have experienced them over the course of my career. To the extent that members of the audience find any of my remarks to be over-simplifications of the issues, I beg your apologies from the outset. And a word of warning: while I have lived and practice for a great many years now in Continental Europe and have become formally admitted to practice in two civilian jurisdictions (France and Spain), I am not and never will be fully fluent in civil law and civil law practice. I will always speak with an accent, to use a helpful metaphor.

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