Dear ACA Members,

I am writing this report on the joint ACA-European Circuit conference in Brussels as Chloe and I return on the flight home from Europe. ACA's London member Gerard McDermott was in charge of the conference and he did an outstanding job.

The conference started Thursday evening, October 16, with a reception at the residence of the British ambassador to the European Union. Very elegant.

Friday morning involved a trip to the Palais de Justice, the main courthouse for Belgium. The gigantic building - our guide said it was in the Babylonian style-houses all of Brussels' main trial and appellate courts. We observed a proceeding entirely in French for an hour. (In some courtrooms the proceedings are in Flemish.) It was a motion on which the lawyers had already submitted briefs. The oral argument struck me as a set piece. Each lawyer spoke from a text for 30 minutes, with no questions from the judge or objections from the opponent. We were told afterward that many judges are silent during argument because they do not want their impartiality to be questioned. We then went to the family courtroom, where opponents - both lawyers and pro ses - came up to the bench of three judges and, leaning on the bench, engaged in filling out forms and resolving contested cases right there in front of the judges.

Most of the trial judges we observed appeared to be in their 30s. We were told that law students choose a judge track or a lawyer track in school. We also observed that none of the courtrooms had a place for witnesses. That is because most cases in Belgium are resolved by written statements and documentary evidence and not by examination of witnesses. We briefly sat in an oral argument on an appeal. There the chief judge did interrupt one of the lawyers who was beating around the bush. (You don't need to speak French fluently to know when a lawyer is doing that.) All the lawyers, by the way, wear a black robe with a few bits of fur, but blue jeans underneath are perfectly acceptable.

All in all, the Belgium legal system seems at first glance to be quite efficient; whether it is fairer than ours I can't say.

Friday afternoon and Saturday morning were taken up with seminars given by members of the ACA and the London and Brussels Bars, and well attended by lawyers from London, Brussels and elsewhere in Europe, including ACA member Jeremy Scudamore from Madrid.

The keynote speech was given by Eleanor Sharpston, QC, who is the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice. Her role is somewhat similar to that of the Solicitor General of the United States. She reviewed in impressive depth how the European Union's highest court is becoming more and more like the U.S. Supreme Court as it issues rulings affirming or reversing decisions of tribunals of the 27 European member states (which means almost all of Europe) on subjects outside the economic areas that were initially thought to be the limits of its jurisdiction.

After her speech, ACA's New York member, Buddy Menton, participated in a panel on class actions in securities and antitrust cases that contrasted European and American philosophies. ACA's Cincinnati member, Barbara Howard, then participated in a panel on the enforcement of family orders, especially on child custody, across national boundaries. On Saturday ACA's D.C. member, Pam Bresnahan, and I participated in a panel on European and American attitudes about publicity before, during and after litigation. Finally, a panel of European lawyers spoke about recent developments in European and American extradition laws.

The Friday night dinner was attended by 40-50 lawyers and guests and several of us took a train on Saturday afternoon to Bruges, a most beautiful city, as those of you who saw the recent movie "In Bruges" know. (No, we didn't climb the fatal tower; funny, there were no long lines in the movie.)

ACA greatly raised its visibility in Brussels and I expect some additional European lawyers will be shortly applying to join our association. Gerard is busy thinking up a recommendation for our next joint international conference. I found this one very informative - and fun. Do come next time. And thank you, Gerard!

Wes

Wesley W. Horton, President

American Counsel Association