Comparative Legal Research: ECJ, ECtHR, and the SCOTUS: USF St Pete - ULIM Research Cooperation: First Joint Meeting!

Our first joint meeting was to take place on February 23rd, but we pushed it back one week due to the USF students' mid-term exam (and exam review).

The next day (February 24th), Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine.

For our research partners in Moldova, missile strikes can be heard in the distance. More than 230,000 refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine have crossed Moldova's borders. Russian strikes against nuclear plants instill fear of nuclear contamination that will spread to Moldova (and throughout Europe). The scope of the horror is too great to capture here in this post.

As I type this update, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Moldova meeting with President Maia Sandu. (See https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-and-moldovan-president-maia-sandu-at-a-joint-press-availability/)

But I mention this now, as our cooperation with students and faculty at ULIM in Chisinau is taking place in an entirely different context than the one we envisioned when our planning began last year.

We at USF very much hope that our work on this project can provide students at ULIM with some sense of normalcy -- and that we can be a source of support and solidarity during these tremendously challenging times.

We may need to adjust our expectations in light of changing conditions, but, for now, we are full speed ahead on our research partnership and collaboration.

The students have been broken into 7 research groups (see blog post about research groups) that each have 3 USF and 2 ULIM students working together.

On March 2nd, we all met together in a joint class meeting for the first time.

Students were welcomed by Vice Rector for International Cooperation VALENTINA CIUMACENCO, Director of ULIM's Library LARISA PATLIS, and Law Professor ELENA MARGINEANU.

Professor McLauchlan provided an overview of the assignment, and then we broke into the 7 groups.

All students joined in the Blackboard Collaborate platform (even those who were in the USF classroom), so that each student could have a camera and microphone.

We had a few tech issues -- but -- eventually-- all of the students were able to meet their partners and get the project officially underway.

Next up: Research Proposals and Preliminary Bibliographies due before Spring Break.