The School of Law has honoured its patron, Saint Raymond of Penyafort, in an event
where awards were also presented to professors, students, and companies in
different categories. The dean, Alfonso
Martínez-Echevarría, opened the event and stated that "study is the meeting place of teachers and
students. This definition serves us to direct our gaze and attention to the
three elements that make up the university: the school, the teachers, and the
students."
But what unites those
of us who form it? "The activity of
study is what unites us as professors, students, and all legal professionals."
In his words, "a jurist or lawyer
never stops studying throughout their professional career to educate students,
while students do so to obtain a degree. This study by both parties has made
our students very competent, with a solid knowledge of the law." The
dean also emphasised that a great appeal of our graduates is that they seek to
be integral individuals, good people, and professionals, "a distinctive trait of the student model of
the School of Law and CEU."
Masterclass
During the event, the
professor of Theory and Philosophy of Law, Elio
Gallego, offered the masterclass 'Power, imposition, and law. From Saint
Raymond of Penyafort to our days', in which he related the patron to his
historical context of the Middle Ages.
A period that, although
remembered with much darkness, was a period of gestation: "Europe, the West, our culture, is about to
be born, it is the legal century par excellence, hospitals are created, a
germination of urban life. The flourishing of fairs, markets, trade routes..."
Within this blooming are the university and parliaments, courts, and the
beginning of representative parliamentary institutions.
In this last aspect,
the professor recalled that "the
principles on which political freedom was based during the time of Saint
Raymond of Peñafort were very clear thanks to the mediation of parliaments:
First, no one can take anything from another what is theirs, not even the king,
without their consent or that of their representative. Second, the
representative does not identify in any case with power but exercises their representation precisely
against the power in order to negotiate how much and how their contribution
should be." However, he emphasised that Modernity brings about a
change of model in which Parliament represents power, not the people.
The student of the
double degree in Law and Business Administration and Management, Ismael El Rez Pérez, received the first
prize of the XVIII Edition of the San
Raymond of Penyafort Rhetoric Competition for his articles 'Law and
Artificial Intelligence'. He gave a speech about this reality that is now upon
us, which in his opinion, "can never
replace humans, as it can never feel as humans do."
Closing
The Rector, Rosa Visiedo, closed the event by
recalling that "once again it is
time to renew our commitment, to reaffirm ourselves in the search for
excellence, to compete with ourselves to bring out the best in each and every
one of us and in our institution to serve society through Legal Sciences."
She also reminded those
present that the university must be a protective space, a community of
accompaniment and support for students in their growth and in their personal,
intellectual, and professional development. "A place to build authentic and meaningful relationships with those we
educate and care for. Because educating is caring." While caring
encompasses numerous values, the rector wanted to emphasise that educating is
also sharing, both inside and outside the school, returning the trust that
students and families place in the university. Moreover, it involves
reciprocating and giving back to society well-formed individuals, giving
meaning to the world, through a worldview founded on Christian principles.
Education must go hand in hand with humanisation, and building the future.
"Creating a new choreography that
places all the people we relate to at the centre and baptising it as the
strategy of care".