Interview with Alumnus Paul Nihoul (Fulbright Visiting Scholar 2010 - 2011)

What do you value most about your time at WCL?
In one word, I would say: the liberty that was granted to me. I was given the freedom to follow the courses I wanted to – and I did so; I attended, among others, courses on food law, which is one of the areas which I consider essential for the future of our planet. The presence at WCL also gave me the access necessary to all possible bibliographical resources – a real treasure on earth. The interaction with the academic personnel, and guests coming from conferences, have been a constant source of intellectual and emotional stimulation. The attention of the administrative staff was just magnificent. The “feel at home” atmosphere that was created was conducive to us creating strong links with one another, and being just happy doing what we were doing.

How has WCL impacted your career?
WCL made everything possible to relieve me of all sort of possible of duties, and to have valuable time to think. This allowed me to dig deep into the experience I had gathered as an academic and produce, in one year, each with a co-author, two books that have been seminal in the years that would follow. The first book helped me understand how markets are and should be regulated, in such a rapidly evolving environment as electronic communications. The second introduced me to a sphere that was totally new to me, that of the relationships between institutions at EU level.

My feeling is that these two publications provided a fantastic preparation to become a Judge at the Court of justice if the European Union (General Court). The court in which I sit is indeed devoted, mainly, to economic matters – but to deal with the cases pending before us, we need to understand who does what in the institutional framework. In these two books, I gathered everything needed to function properly in my current mission.