First David Edward Visiting Practitioner Fellow

We were delighted to welcome our inaugural David Edward Visiting Fellow Practitioner to Edinburgh this week.  Jonathan Tomkin, who works in the Legal Service of the European Commission in Brussels, visited the Law School over two days.

The flagship event was a ‘moot court hearing’ in the Citizenship in Europe LLM class at the Law School. Under the leadership of course organiser, Dr Timothy Jacob-Owens, and based on a problem that raised questions about the scope of Union competence to evaluate national citizenship laws, conceived by Europa Institute Associate Director, Dr Stephen Coutts, we were temporarily transported to the Court of Justice in Luxembourg.

‘Judge Tompkin’ heard extremely impressive, insightful, and thought-provoking arguments from the parties to the case – lead counsel Gargi Upmanyu assisted by co-counsel, representing the European Commission; lead counsel Anna Balboa assisted by co-counsel Anel Suyerbayeva, representing the fictitious EU Member State, the Iron Islands – and from Advocate General Sofia Theochari, assisted by référendaire Tabatha Somerset, before delivering his ruling.

The moot court event was followed by an opportunity to hear more about the work of the Commission Legal Service in discussion with our inaugural Visiting Practitioner Fellow.

Also in attendance was Professor Claire Kilpatrick, visiting the Law School over the same period as Dean’s Fellow; and Professor Sir David Edward himself, the esteemed Chair of the Edinburgh Europa Institute, and a Judge at both the (then) General Court (1989-1992) and European Court of Justice (1992-2004). Sir David praised the exceptional quality of the students’ arguments and offered his own reflections on – and top tips for! – pleading before the Luxembourg Courts as well as on the genesis and evolution of European Union citizenship, in which he played an important role during his time at the Court of Justice.

Further opportunities to exchange ideas and experiences were organised so that staff and students could meet Jonathan over his three-day visit to the Institute.