The conferral of a doctoral degree honoris causa by the University of Tours on October 7, 2010 on Mr. Malgorzata Szafnicka, co-director of the French School of Law in Lodz and the ranking of the Master Tours - Lodz in 4th place by a rating agency in 2010 provide an opportunity to focus on this Franco-Polish university cooperation.

Since 2003, Lodz, the third largest city in Poland, located 120 km from Warsaw, has hosted a School of French Law, wherein the generalist training in French and European Law was rounded out in 2008 by the “Master 2 Professionnel Juriste Européen” [Professional Master’s 2 - European Jurist]. Under the joint direction of Malgorzata Pyziak-Szafnicka, Dean of the School of Law and Administration of Lodz, and of Patrick Baleynaud, who in Tours is in charge of legal instruction in central and eastern Europe, the School today offers two cumulative curricula which are taught in French. They are directed at the body of 4th and 5th year law students at the Polish University, as well as to legal professionals. The graduates thus obtain two diplomas from the respective partner universities and, in addition, have various options to extend their studies for the Master 2.

The “Master 2 Professionnel”

In 2008, the university expanded its offering with the establishment of a “Master 2 Juriste Européen”, training for professionals in the field and which is directed in Tours by Professor A. Berramdane. The novelty of this approach is two-fold: to train jurists and high-level executives specialized in

the Law of the European Union who are likely to be recruited to work at the European level and, for students having already completed a cycle of studies in Polish law, to pursue courses on French law. In addition to the Master from Tours, a Master’s Degree [Diplôme Magisterium] in French law – specialty “Juriste Européen” is awarded by the University of Lodz.

A diversified and balanced partnership

Supported since its establishment by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this program benefits from, in addition to the important contributions of the partner universities, assistance based on decentralized cooperation.  As to the teaching of the Master itself, it is provided for more than half by Polish instructors in the French language.

Results and outlook

The initially very rigorous criteria for admission to the School explain the high rate of success and the significant number of cum laude degrees. From the standpoint of exchanges, this partnership

has energized transfers of instructors and Erasmus students which would be non-existent in the absence of this school. Several instructors from Lodz have thus taught at the University of Tours whereas their French counterparts have participated in several colloquia in Lodz.

On the subject of the degrees, meaningful improvements are to be noted from the example of the validation under reserve of the university conditions for the first year of training, in Master 1, of the duration of the training reduced to one year, instead of two, to make the Polish curriculum correspond to the French one, and of the integration of the French-language legal channel in the curriculum of the University of Lodz.

Information: patrick_baleynaud@yahoo.fr