Home now.

I'm finally home, but the jet lag is killing me right now. Will post later on diverse topics such as how awesome the first two weeks have been, how much more difficult it is to fly out of Warsaw than to fly into Warsaw, why you shouldn't arrive more than 2 hours before your flight, and recaps of various highlights during the first two weeks.

It is also worth noting that I took the Michigan Flyer bus home to East Lansing from Detroit airport. There's a certain Bialystok travel agent that desperately needs to see what a 'highly comfortable' bus actually looks like.

Best to all,

DDB

Tykocin

Not very far outside Bialystok (I believe there's a bus) lies the town of Tykocin, best known for the still-operating Jewish synagogue and the site of a significant Nazi pogrom against Polish Jews. (Wikipedia entry for the Tykocin pogrom ). I have seen the synagogue -- which is reportedly operated by groups of Israeli Jews who make something of a pilgrimage here several times a year to keep it open and to run an associated museum. More information is available here: David Dickerson's Jewish Culture and History Web Page .

Kiermusy Resort

After arriving in Bialystok, Dr. Krasnicka provided a brief tour of the town and Branicki Palace for Mrs. Prof. B, and then we and Dr. Krasnicka's graduate student went to dinner at a delightful resort outside town called Kiermusy. (Kiermusy Website in English) The resort is modeled on an 18th / 19th century Polish manor and is one of the most relaxing places I've been. The rooms in the building we are staying at are late 19th century in furnishings, while other buildings are decorated in 17th or even 15th century furnishings. If your goal in vacations is to step outside of the daily grind and not worry about anything for a couple days while you indulge in great food, a very good spa, walks or biking through the countryside, this place is worth it. We might try to get a group out here during the program for dinner.

 The restaurant is a marvel, and is presented as a traditional 18th/19th century Polish country home dining room.

The food is amazing. If you have the chance in Poland to try podpiwek, it is worth it. Podpiwek is a brewed drink in which, as best I can figure, they leave the yeast in for only 2 days. This gives the drink carbonation without an alcohol content. It is spiced lightly and contains a very nice slightly bitter aftertaste. As summer drinks go, it is excellent.

Polish legal institution visits and other stuff

Arrived in Bialystok yesterday and worked with Dr. Krasnicka to finalize parts of the program. We currently have scheduled two visits to or presentations on Polish judicial institutions. One will be a presentation on the structure of the Polish judicial system by the president of the Polish Supreme Court. The other will be an actual visit to a Polish trial. While the trial itself will be conducted in Polish, the presentation afterward will be in English, as will the tour of Bialystok's courts. Thanks to the generosity of the EU, the Bialystok court facilities are the newest and best courts in Poland. Thanks to the foresight of the chief judge of the Bialystok courts, they are also some of the most advanced anywhere in terms of using technology to facilitate the efficient administration of justice.

We have also almost finalized housing arrangements. I can't say that everyone got their preference regarding singles or doubles but we came close.

Dr. Krasnicka's class on Friday, June 17 will be rescheduled for Monday, June 27 at the same time. Those of us going to Krakow/Auschwitz will be leaving immediately after the morning class. Those staying in Bialystok will have free time, although Dr. Krasnicka and the Polish students will be staying in Bialystok.

The language classes are scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of Week 1. We have scheduled these as 90 minute sessions, and they are totally optional.

Polish Alcohol

I'm sure the Polish participants in the program will be happy to introduce the Americans to the Polish wodkas. I'm not so worried about those since grain spirits are pretty much the same everywhere, and I assume that the Americans know their own limits. Please, for my sake, don't do something stupid and try to uphold your national pride on the basis of your capacity for alcoholic consumption.

The beer ("piwo") is what might creep up on Americans not used to travel. Polish beers tend toward the domestic macrobrews - a few large brands such as Zywiec, Tyskie, Lech, Warka, Zubr. These are mostly strong lagers, comparable to a heinekin (but much better tasting in my opinion). Alcohol content is about 5.5%-6%, and the serving size is either .3L (10oz) or .5L (17oz). The price difference between them usually means that the .5L is the better deal, and it looks like a pint. Just be aware that it's bigger than a pint and that the alcohol content is slightly higher than the American norm for domestic macrobrew lagers (3.5%-4.5%). 4 of these equals a 2 liter soda pop bottle full of moderately strong beer.

That concludes my alcohol safety tip for the day.

Changing money

My experience so far has been that I'm getting about 2.65PLN to $1.00 using my credit card. Mrs. Prof. B brought a bunch of cash and has been getting about the same from the Kantors, provided she shops around a little. We looked this morning and found one selling dollars at 2.86PLN to the dollar. Inside the shop, however, his buying rate was only 2.36PLN to the dollar, about what you would get inside the Warsaw airport. 100 feet away, another Kantor was buying USD at 2.65.

My ATM from MSUFCU works fine here, but the rate varies a lot. I'm averaging about 2.55 PLN to $1.00 on withdrawals, which is ok. I end up using my credit card a lot.

In real terms, this means that a decent .5L beer (17oz - slightly larger than a pint) at a cafe or restaurant usually runs about 8PLN ($3), pierogi with meat run about 12-14PLN ($4.60 - $5.40), a large greek salad with feta etc. is abou 16PLN ($6.15), a large kebab plate or sandwich is 16 PLN ($6.15). Mrs. Prof. B and I have been eating out at nice restaurants for an average of about 65PLN for our big meal for the day. I typically have a .5L beer (when I'm traveling, I usually drink beer just to avoid stomach issues) and she has a uniquely Polish cocktail called a tatanka, appetizer, soup (for her), two entres and a desert - this runs about 65PLN or $25 for a nice dinner for two. In the US, these dinners would run us at least $50-$65 US for the quality of food and dining experience we're getting. Also remember that we're staying and eating in the heart of Krakow at the height of tourist season. It's not as good as 2 years ago when the exchange rate was 3.50PLN to $1, but prices are very reasonable.

At the grocery around the corner from my hotel, I'm buying a loaf of bread that lasts me three days for 2PLN, prepackaged lunchmeat and cheese sufficient for 5-6 sandwiches for 10PLN, and if I wanted beer at the grocery .5L of a good beer would cost 3-4PLN per individual can. Basically, I could eat reasonably well on about $10 / day or less.

More on the Cloth Hall

My post yesterday about the Rynek Underground museum lacked context because it's kind of hard to describe the market square in Krakow. Basically, there has been a market here in some form or another for potentially 3000 years. Most of that was as a primitive village, so it probably doesn't count, but Krakow itself is more than 1000 years old as a city. The Rynek and a nearby church were what the city was built around. The Cloth Hall was a major center of trade for the entire region. Here is a picture with some perspective from the southeast corner near a small romanesque church that sits incongruously out in the middle of things:

And another from a different angle...

Inside the lower level under the arches are restaurants. Within the Cloth Hall are merchant stalls, generally dealing with varying degrees of tourist goods. There is some nice amber inside, but the better deals are supposed to be down in the Jewish Quarter or even just up the street. From an American perspective it is slightly surreal because the stall owners are generally content to let throngs of people wander past their wares without a single sales pitch. 

Rynek and the mysterious "Underground Tourist Route"

I'm in Krakow right now and loving it even more than the last time I spent a week here. Yesterday, we visited the Rynek (again), which is the largest market square in Europe. I found out what the Cracow-itinerary for the June 17-19 trip is referring to as the "Underground Tourist Route."

Described in more detail here: Rynek Underground review , the Underground Tourist Route refers to a new museum underneath the Cloth Hall at the center of the square. Quite simply, it is one of the best museum experiences I have ever seen. I say this as someone who will quite happily turn off the highway in South Dakota to visit the Corn Palace, or in Aberdeen, Kansas to visit the Greyhound Racing Museum, or drive 4.5 hours on a whim to take my kids to the Cleveland Natural History Museum and Art Museum (don't laugh -- all the Cleveland museums are endowed with monster trusts from the oil barons, etc.).

Not large, the museum under the Rynek is mostly an archeological and ethnographical exploration of Polish culture and history based upon archeological digs under the Cloth Hall that were only completed in 2010. The museum is a technological marvel, including complete explanations of all exhibits in English and numerous interactive touch-screen displays to explore the exhibits more fully. Exhibits include explanations of the archeology underlying the market square (a rich source of material since it included a graveyard (which also includes six vampire burials that are a curious mixture between Baltic and northern European vampire-killing and disposing techniques), markets, trash heaps, and paved structures. There are even a few artifacts from a Mongol raid on Krakow in the 1200s.

The museum is so good it kind of spoiled me for the Ethnographic Museum that my wife and I visited later in the Jewish Quarter. Those exhibits were also excellent, but more in the style of a local museum with placards and occasional explanations in English.

There's an App for that....

I don’t know much about Android apps, so you’re on your own for that. But iTunes has some great Polish language apps for the iPod Touch and iPhone that have already helped me order another beer correctly.

So far, I have found the following four apps really helpful in order of usefulness:

1.     1. 123 Learn Polish – Everyday Polish by RosMedia. I like this app a lot. It has an audio track that will read a list of words in Polish so you know the pronunciation. The audio track is only a single track for about 30 words per subject matter, so finding a particular word is difficult, but it’s still really helpful.

2.    2.  Polish Language Dictionary & Translator by BitKnights LLC – very good basic dictionary that is searchable in both English and Polish.

3.    3.  BidBox Vocabulary Trainer: English – Polish by BidBox. Useful only if you really want to start learning Polish. Very good for basic vocabulary, but if you don’t have pronunciation of the different letters down then it won’t help much.

4.     4. Learn Polish Vocabulary – WordPower by Innovative Language Learning LLC. I like this concept a lot and will be working with it more over the next few days. Basically, it hammers 10 vocabulary words into you per day so that you gradually build a working vocabulary in Polish. Pedagogically, this is a great way to get a foundation from which to learn the language better. Contractually, I had some problems when I attempted to sign up for a subscription to the associated website. Their customer service was cool, though, so I am giving them another chance. When you first start this app, though, it will suggest opening a free account at the associated website. Resist the urge to do so. I’ll be happy to let you look at my account when you get here if you want, but the “$5/month – cancel at any time” subscription offer does not mean what you might think it means.

We will be providing three days worth of Polish language introductory classes. My number one recommendation is that you learn how to pronounce Polish letters before you get here. It’s not as hard as it looks, and except for one exception involving a few consonants preceding the letter “I” it is absolutely regular. And the accent always goes on the second to last syllable.

Arriving at Warszawa Chopin Airport

With apologies for the poor quality of the pictures (I had to take them in a hurry), here is a guide to the Warszawa Chopin Airport arrival areas that you will enter from the baggage claims.  There are two baggage claim areas in the airport, connected to each other. The one that you go to will depend in part on whether you are flying in from an EU / Shengen Agreement country or from outside the EU. If your flight comes from inside the EU, you will probably end up at the large baggage claim area. If you are arriving on an international flight, you will probably end up at the smaller baggage claim area. To get to the smaller baggage claim area, as you come off the escalator / stairs, etc. in baggage claim, go right.

After you get your baggage, you’ll exit the baggage claim area. If you exit from the large baggage claim that you encountered first and look to your right, it will look something like this:

 If you go through the smaller baggage claim area for international arrivals / customs, when you exit you will see this:

And this little coffee shop / diner:

I believe it’s called the Flying Circus, but I’ll check again next Thursday when I’m back in the airport. The easy way to tell if you are in the main arrival area or the smaller arrival area is that the doors out of the airport have blue signs in the main arrival area and reddish signs in the smaller arrival area. It is not a large airport, so if you find yourself in the main arrival area, walk in the direction I’m looking in the first photo, keeping the convenience stores on your right. You’ll come to this sign at the beginning of the corridor connecting the two arrival areas:

Walk through the doors and stay right. You will see this corridor, hopefully slightly less blurry:

At the end of the corridor, it will look like this:

Where that guy is sitting  is one end of a row of truly uncomfortable metal benches/seats. Walk along it to the right and you’ll see the Flying Circus or whatever it is coffee shop.

We will plan to meet you right outside the Flying whatever restaurant / coffee shop pictured above. If no one is there (highly unlikely, but possible), just go in, order a cappucino, and hang out for a little bit. We will find you. If you’re getting really desperate, my cell phone is 48 514 692 188 (dialed in Poland), Dr. Krasnicka’s cell phone is: 48 606 556 228 (dialed from inside Poland), and you can contact our two liasons at: Ewelina Gruszewska:  +48 508 456 368 (dialed in Poland) / Magda Majewska:  +48 692 526 611 (dialed in Poland).

There are two ways to get to Bialystok – bus from the airport and train from downtown. Taxi fares from the airport to downtown run about $25 USD, less if there’s no traffic. The train station is a monstrosity of communist central architectural planning, and the customer service handbook was probably written by Benito Musolini. The train station itself is far more difficult and confusing to navigate than Spain, England, Austria, and even the United States. One of our adjunct professors who just taught in Lodz with me last week described it as a post-apocalyptic vision of Penn Central Station in NYC. Getting on the train involves a mob-rush to extraordinarily narrow doors, a fight for seating and luggage space, and no certainty that you will have a seat at the end of the day. We plan to send you by bus.

Again, you should not need this information at all. Unless you are arriving at an hour when we literally cannot get anyone from Bialystok out to Warsaw or you failed to provide us with your itinerary on this handy form: http://studyabroad.law.msu.edu/poland/contact.php , someone will be at the arrival area to meet you. They will have a sign with your name on it.

DO NOT TALK TO TAXI DRIVERS INSIDE THE AIRPORT TERMINAL. There is a regular taxi stand outside the doors with legitimate taxis or you may go to the taxi kiosk that you can see from the international arrivals baggage claim gate. The policja are very good at keeping the unlicensed cab drivers out of the airport but some inevitably get through.

If you really really need it, the way to get from the international arrival lobby to the bus terminal is to first stop at the ATMs (“bankomats”) that are behind the row of metal chairs at the international arrival baggage claim gate and get some cash. I don’t know what their exchange rate is. I do know that the further you get from the airport, the better the exchange rate – in the airport the Kantors will give you 230 zloty for $100 USD. In Krakow, my wife is getting 275 zloty per $100USD. You will need cash for the bus.

Next, stop at the information kiosk immediately in front of the international arrivals baggage claim gate. They speak English. Ask them to confirm how to get to the bus terminal and to explain to you how to buy a bus ticket to Bialystok. (I will do this myself next Thursday and give you a complete explanation).

To get to the bus terminal, exit by this door:

Looking right immediately, it will look like this:

 Walk down to where the woman is in the picture, turn left and it will look like this:

Walk past the construction that you see there and you will see the bus terminal:

The bus schedule is posted on a stand at the end of the fence.

You want the Podlasie Express bus to Bialystok. We’ll also make arrangements to meet you in Bialystok.

Cell Phones in Poland

After writing this response to one student's email (thanks for the question!) I realized that it might be of interest generally for those who really want a cell phone in Poland.

For a cell phone, first call your cell phone provider and find out if your phone can work in Poland. Ask very carefully and make sure you speak to the international services department -- the national sales person I called first said "of course your phone will work, just let me connect you to the international sales rep who can fill you in on plans and rates." The international sales rep ridiculed the national sales rep and informed me that my phone can't ever work in Poland.

If that fails, and you really want one now, you can rent one for about $100 total for the 4 weeks from www.cellhire.com.  The rates are not very cheap, but you will have a working number and phone in your pocket when you leave the U.S. This is the company the MSU OSA recommended to me.

If that fails, you can buy a pay-as-you-go cell phone once you land in Poland. I'll get recommendations on how best to do this when you arrive.

Ex Post Facto Rules and The Rule of Law

Lon Fuller described the Rule of Law in terms of a series of errors made by a fictitious sovereign, King Rex. The eight failures by which Rex failed to conform to the Rule of Law are:

1. Attempting to decide all disputed matters in his kingdom on an ad hoc basis;
2. Failing to publish laws;
3. Using retroactive rules, principles, and legislation to decide legal disputes;
4. Adopting impossibly complex rules and codes;
5. Adopting rules and codes that imposed contradictory obligations upon citizens, thus rendering conformity with the law impossible.
6. Adopting rules that citizens could not possibly satisfy;
7. Making frequent and substantial changes to the law that interfered with its stability; and
8. Failing to administer the law in conformity with its published text.

Over the weekend, I discovered that my own allegiance to the principles of the Rule of Law only goes so far. My youngest daughter, L, is terrible about keeping track of her stuff and picking up after herself. Upon seeing that L had failed to pick up her plate and glass at the table after lunch, I called her down and informed her that there would be a new rule from now on -- every time she failed to pick up her place at the table, I would fine her $1.00. No problem so far, but then I directed her to bring me a dollar from her bank as a fine for the dishes she had left out before I made the rule.

As a parent, I have no problem with punishments laid down after the fact. (Rules are a different matter and we do our best to keep them to a minimum and to keep them simple and clear).

But as a lawyer and a Rule of Law scholar, I experienced this weird pang of guilt at inventing this new punishment on the spot that L could not have anticipated. State-based law does not distinguish between rules and punishment -- creating an ex post facto rule to render previously permissible conduct impermissible is just as bad as increasing the punishment for particular misconduct after the miscreant has engaged in the misconduct.

On the other hand, L picked up her dishes at the next meal, so I must be doing something right.

Travel Advisory Re: OBL

This was sent as an email but it's also worth posting here.  

       Dear Student:

 

You are receiving this message because our records indicate that you are enrolled in a Michigan State University study abroad programthat begins over the summer. Some of you may be leaving this month, others may not leave until June or July. Regardless, we want to make sure that you are all equally informed. Throughout the summer, please remember to check the OSA Homepage for any updates related to this message. Also, as this is the time of year when flights are delayed or cancelled due to severe thunderstorms, makes sure you review our guidelines regarding severe weather delays.

 

By now you are aware that Osama bin Laden was killed on Sunday in Pakistan by U.S. forces. Shortly following this announcement, the U.S. Department of State issued a Worldwide Travel Alert, which references the possibility of terrorist attacks against Americans or American interests abroad to avenge bin Laden’s death. However, at this time there is no specific, credible information about potential targets in the U.S. or abroad. As a result, no program changes for summer semester are anticipated. The Worldwide Travel Alert is scheduled to expire August 1, 2011.

 

As per our usual procedures when such announcements are made by State Department, we have posted the link to our homepage. Once abroad, we strongly encourage you to avoid mass gatherings and demonstrations that may be cause for anti-American violence. And, for the time being, we also ask that you refrain from congregating in bars, restaurants or other establishments known to be frequented by American citizens.

 

Since OSA registers all study abroad programs with the U.S. Department of State, there is no need for you to complete the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) discussed in the Alert. Instead, we are writing to remind you to take the Alert seriously and once abroad, to follow the security advice of your program leader(s), host institution/organization, or internship provider. It is also very important that throughout the program you stay in regular contact with your loved ones at home, who may experience additional anxiety about your safety due to widespread media reports of the Alert. 

 

Remember that a Travel Alert is not the same as a Travel Warning. Travel Alerts are considered mid-level advisories and are most often issued to describe temporary threats, including potential risks related to elections, major sporting events, civil unrest related to political or economic issues facing the country, outbreaks of widespread disease (such as H1N1), a break-down of infrastructure following a natural disaster, or in this case, a potential terrorist threat. Travel Warnings are the highest level of advisory, noting long-term, systemic, dangerous conditions tied to political, social, economic or environmental conditions.  

 

Should you have any questions or concerns about your safety, please contact your program leaders(s), resident director, or internship supervisor on-site. In an emergency, you may also call our 24/7 hotline at 517-353-3784.

On the Rule of Law, Hobbes, and the Law of Nations

The finals-induced fog has lifted, and I'm back. I'll be uploading a lot of content over the next few days regarding the trip to Krakow, including the itinerary (Leave Friday, June 17, Saturday June 18 in Krakow, including tours of Wawel Castle, the Old Town, and the Jewish Quarter; Sunday morning tour of Auschwitz and return to Bialystok -- 650PLN per person), the trip to Warsaw, updates on housing, etc.

In the meantime, the death of Osama bin Laden provides a teachable moment on the relationship between the rule of law and the law of nations. Despite that the official story on how bin Laden was killed is still changing on a more or less daily basis, critics are already coming forward to complain that the killing was illegal.

Realistically, this claim is absurd on many levels.

Fundamentally, the rule of law is a statement of the relationship between the individual and the state. It represents a consent by the sovereign to restrict the sovereign's activities to those governed by law. For instance, the English Magna Carta represented a compact between the English barons and King John under which King John was forced to promise not to use his sovereign authority in ways that violated the fundamental rights of the barons (and later English (and eventually UK) subjects in general). Likewise, Polish kings were subject to customary law restrictions regarding what they could and could not do vis a vis the Polish nobility. The US and Polish constitutions (I hope the Polish readers of this blog will accept my belated good wishes for Constitution Day) theoretically restricts what the governments may do to control the lives of U.S. and Polish citizens.

But the rule of law cannot apply in every situation. In international relations, for instance, "law" as a restriction on international relations is an absurdity. Nation states have no obligation other than habit or self-interest to respect international customs or agreements. Thomas Hobbes, in fact, described international relations as an example of the state of nature in which all were in a state of war against all.

There is another situation in which, at least according to Hobbesian thought, the rule of law cannot apply in dealings between individuals and the state in which the individual has removed himself or herself from the social compact in which the state is obligated to protect the life of the individual. In this case, the individual has reentered the state of nature as against the state and all members of the state. Similarly, individuals who are not part of the social compact under the sovereign's control are likewise not within the rule of law but rather are subject to the "law" of nations.

In the case of bin Laden, besides that he was a foreign national and therefore already in a state of nature (and an actual state of war) with the US, his mass murder of US non-combatants was the type of act that Hobbes would see as removing a person from the social compact and placing them in a state of nature vis a vis the sovereign. Thus, while international "law" might assert that the killing was illegal because it violated Pakistani sovereignty, the reality is that nation states abide by international law only while it is convenient and in their self interest. In the matter of whether the killing comported with the values of the rule of law, it is difficult to see how bin Laden's death affects those issues at all.

Or maybe not -- can a case be made that the rule of law applies equally between nation states as between individuals and their sovereigns? Discuss.

Getting ready for study abroad - travel and health

I just attended a safety and preparedness seminar for MSU program leaders over at the Office of Study Abroad. Unlike most meetings, this was extremely helpful. I know you're inundated with studying so I'll just pass along two links for now.

The first is the link for the student handbook for study abroad: HERE. It contains answers to virtually every question you would want to know about the infrastructure of study abroad. Notably, MSU has one of the largest study abroad programs in the country - nearly 2500 students per year. All of that expertise is distilled into digestible tidbits in the student handbook.

The other is the link to the CDC medical sheet for Poland: HERE. This link outlines the health issues particularly related to travel in Poland.

I will post additional information from OSA as we get through the finals period.

More on housing

I've received the following additional confirmation on housing prices:

Based on recent conversations between our extraordinary liason, Ewelina, and the Bialystok University dorm manager, the housing cost for the program period (June 11-July 10) will be about 350PLN but no more than 400PLN (for one person sharing a double room). Ewelina further reports: "Still there is extra fee for the access to the Internet. Simultaneously the manager pointed out that we will discuss all the details while we know the final number of rooms required."

Consequently, now that the program application period has closed, please complete your housing, roommate, and course preference form as soon as possible. 

Exchange rates today put 400PLN at $145USD.

Housing, roommates, and courses

My secretary, Sue Nelson, has volunteered to become the administrative secretary for the Poland Program, and you should have received an email from her yesterday regarding housing, roommates, and course selection. 

As to housing, the estimates prices are still the $120 (the last number I received was 350PLN) posted on the school website -- these may change based on exchange rates, increases in university housing prices, etc., but the final price should not be significantly different than what we've already been told. We are also attempting to see if we can get all of our housing in a single block so that you all are near each other, but the University students will still be in finals and an entire block may not be possible. The rate for a single will be roughly twice the rate of the double because the university housing only has one size room. When you get the single, you are paying for the empty bunk.

Selection between single and double rooms is based on availability. I will do everything I can to get you your housing choice. It's probably a good idea to select a roommate even if you put in for a single room. 

Also take a look at course selection -- we presume you are signing up for all five courses. You may sign up for just four instead, but I strongly recommend you take all five.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email or stop by.

Courses -- Comparative Environmental Law

Poland and Comparative Environmental Law

Few countries rival Poland when it comes to the study of  comparative environmental law.  Communism left the country in a state of deep ecological crisis marked by widespread air and water pollution--among the worst in Europe.  The construction of massive steel mills in the vicinity of Krakow, the only major Polish city to survive World War II intact, contributed by the 1980s to the City’s official designation as an “ecological disaster area.”  Acid rain and other forms of air pollution threatened the health of Krakow’s residents, and damaged its centuries-old monuments.  Today Krakow’s air quality is much improved, as you will be able to see for yourself during your visit to the city.  In Krakow, and elsewhere in Poland, there has been a drastic reduction in levels of air pollutants, most notably particulates, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, as a result of a fundamental restructuring of energy and industrial practices during the 1990s.  Nonetheless, air pollution remains a significant problem. Full compliance with European Union (EU) directives on environmental policy, a precondition of Poland’s accession to the EU in 2004, is yet to be achieved.  The European Commission has repeatedly taken Poland to the European Court of Justice over various environmental violations, most recently in February of this year. 

Using Poland as a point of departure and recurrent reference, the course will explore two key issues in comparative environmental law.  The first explores the roots of cross-national differences in regulatory responses to environmental risks.  Our emphasis in this connection would be on the comparison between the United States and the European Union.  The second will concentrate on the spread of American-modeled environmental citizen suits in countries worldwide, and the potential and limitations of this legal instrument.  Through focused on environmental law and policy, the course is designed convey comparative perspectives and conceptual tools that will be applicable across a wide range of comparative legal fields.

References:

Photograph: http://www.rp.pl/galeria/10,1,589045.html

John Clark and Daniel H. Cole, Environmental Protection in Transition:  Economic, Legal and Socio-Political Perspectives on Poland.  Ashgate (1998).

Halina Szejnwald Brown, “Transformation of the Environmental Regulatory System in Poland during the 1990s,” 19 Knowledge, Technology and Policy 26-43 (2007).

European Environment Agency, “Air Pollution (Poland),”  November 26, 2010. http://www.eea.europa.eu/soer/countries/pl/soertopic_view?topic=air%20pollution

“Commission asks Poland to comply with EU water quality legislation,” Europa: Press Release.  February 16,2011.  http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/11/174&format=HTML

Judges and the Myth of the Rule of Law

The remarkable thing about the rule of law is that it exists at all in the modern or post-modern cultures of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. In particular, I'm thinking about the role of judges and our faith in the legal system to provide predictable, stable, and coherent rulings that are consistent with existing rules.

While judges in civil law systems are generally respected by the bar and other consumers of legal decision making, in the U.S., judges are the aristocracy of the legal class. We accord them and their decisions extraordinary respect and accept the anti-majoritarian and anti-democratic rulings on civil, criminal, statutory, and constitutional matters as if those pronouncements are somehow gifted with extraordinary insight and finality. In some cases, the state and federal supreme courts may render final statements of the law that contradict deeply-held ethical and political beliefs of supermajorities of citizens affected by those opinions. Despite this, judicial impeachment proceedings or legislation defunding activities of the judicial branch are rare. Likewise, incumbent judges are almost never voted out of office.

While we may view judges as important bulwarks that preserve the rule of law, the reality is that most judges are political hacks who get appointed because of their political activities and support or elected because they have a judicial-sounding surname. (Professor Barnhizer the Elder recently wrote on the ability of even the most incompetent and/or corrupt judges to consistently win re-election because of name recognition HERE). While the legislative process is often analogized to the making of sausage, it's not really fair to say that the process of judging legal disputes is any better. Judges often make mistakes of law, base their decisions on partisan political considerations, engage in vote trading at the appellate level, and even when they attempt to act in good faith are still so overburdened with cases that they rarely can afford to give any dispute serious attention.

The result of all of this is that, despite the lip-service we give to judicial honor, integrity, wisdom, and discernment, in many cases judges are little better than handing disputes to a Magic 8-Ball or a similar black box device. So how, then, can these human beings dressed up in black mumus claim the legitimacy and authority accorded to them under the Rule of Law?

Passports, credit cards, and plane tickets

This is a banal and stupid post, but I'd rather make it than simply assume everyone has already thought through these issues:

First, passports. My passport is in really bad shape. I'm not terribly careful with it in the first place, I tried carrying it in one of those stupid inside-the-waistband money pouches one year, it fell out of my jacket pocket another year and got rained on and run over by a car before someone found it and got it back to me, and so on. Customs agents in every country I visit look at it and remark that it's seen better days. That said, I do have a valid US passport. If you don't already have yours, or if you haven't looked in a while and noticed it's out of date, now is the time to follow the expedited process for getting it renewed. While Poland doesn't require a visa, it does require a passport.

Second, credit cards. I recommend having at least two credit cards and an ATM card with you.You want to have one in your wallet and one with your passport.  ATM / debit cards are also mandatory for getting cash at a good exchange rate out of ATMs at airports and elsewhere. Don't bring traveler's checks - the transaction fees for exchanging traveler's checks into złoty are enormous. (In the Warsaw train station two years ago, the kiosk gave me only 200 złoty (pronounced "zwoty" and abbreviated PLN) for a $100 traveler's check when the actual exchange rate at an ATM would have given me 330PLN)

While you are thinking about it, call both of your credit card issuers and give them the dates you will be traveling in Poland. Unless you have American Express, an attempt to use your card outside of the US will be denied without this preauthorization. And you cannot authorize using your card outside the US once you are outside the US -- you need to do it from your home phone / cell here.

Also have your credit card issuers send you your pin number for the credit card (if you don't remember it) so that in an emergency you can use it to get cash.

Third, plane tickets. I have no idea what oil is doing or going to do to airfare. Mrs. Prof. B got a ticket for $1096 base price a few weeks ago, although it is cheap partly because she can leave Poland on a Thursday. Current prices seem to run between $1250 and $1450 base price.

Also plan for checked bag fees. On my return trip last year, I got charged $100 by Lot Airlines for an extra bag for the Warsaw to Chicago leg and then another $50 by Delta for Chicago to Lansing.

I know no one really needed this post, but I'd feel terrible if I'm wrong about that.

Introductions: Dr. Izabela Krasnicka

As we approach the start of classes in Poland (only about 2 months away now), I hope to offer introductions and observations by each of the major contributors to the program. First up is Dr. Izabela Krasnicka, the program director at the Law Faculty of the University of Bialystok. 

Iza said...

Can I go first?

My name is Izabela Krasnicka and I am directing the summer program from the Polish side.
I am both excited and honored we will host this program at our school and I do hope those 4 weeks will bring unique experience to all of us!

I sure hope Polish students will join the blog and introduce themselves so when we all meet in June, it will be all much easier.

I'll be happy to answer any questions about the city, school, country or program. Just stay in touch!

Auschwitz, Nazis, and the Rule of Law

(image from http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/h-ausch-lib.htm)

The first weekend trip to Krakow will include a side excursion to the Auschwitz death camp located about 90 minutes outside Krakow.

Think about what it takes to construct and run not just one death camp, but, as the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum reports, a system of 20,000 separate camps. Approximately 20 of these were primarily dedicated to the wholesale, industrialized slaughter of Jews, Roms, and other human beings, while the remainder comprised prison camps and slave labor camps.

The question of how human beings could have done this to other human beings has been debated endlessly and goes to the heart of whether human beings are intrinsically good or intrinsically bad. But it seems that the question is asked too often on the individual level -- how could the individuals who were part of this system have continued to participate? Although it is certainly true that an evil regime tended to attract and promote evil people, social experiments such as the Zimbardo Prisoner/Guard Experiment at Stanford in 1971 (see, e.g., Stanford Prison Experiment website ) and Milgram's Obedience Experiments from the early 1960s (see, e.g., Milgram Obedience Experiment article) show that the temptation to abuse of power and cruelty is far more widespread than we'd like to think. The capacity for human cruelty and evil is practically unlimited.

But, this individual level question often misses the role that political, social, and legal inputs played in creating the system. Legally, the Nazis had a fixation on records and legality. Committed to the bureaucracy of death, they were scrupulous in making sure that their actions were backed by the force of law. In many cases, this involved even passing laws after proscriptions and property seizures had been completed in order to render those actions legal post hoc. In the case of the camps and the ghettos, consider the legal infrastructure required at every level of civilian and military society to build, staff, supply, and maintain them.

This raises one of the issues I plan to address in my Rule of Law class. In some "thin" and "formal" conceptions of the Rule of Law, there is no component of justice, equity, morality, or propriety in order for a system to qualify as operating under the Rule of Law. Merely the fact that a society uses law to govern, as opposed to individual fiat or some similar source of authority, is sufficient to qualify as a Rule of Law regime. In contrast, "thick" and "substantive" conceptions of the Rule of Law require the state to adhere to extralegal conceptions of morality and justice in order to operate under the Rule of Law.

The problem of whether the thin or the thick conception more accurately describes what we mean by "the Rule of Law" is more than academic since a major critique of the Nuremburg Trials is that they tried, convicted, and punished Nazis for engaging in acts permitted or even legally required under Nazi law. Does it follow that the Nuremburg Trials abandoned the Rule of Law in favor of some higher notion of justice?

What's coming down the pike?

Just as a heads up, we are in the process of finalizing schedules, housing, weekend trips, and other plans. Over the next few days I will post for the MSU participants a webform for selection of courses and housing arrangements.

1. Courses: We are offering five courses this year -- (1) Rule of Law Jurisprudence (Barnhizer); (2) Comparative Free Expression (Saunders); (3) Constitutional Law of the European Union (Krasnicka); (4) European Union Labor Law (Szymanski); and (5) Comparative Environmental Law (Morag-Levine). Each course is one credit and absent extenuating circumstances you should plan to take all five courses.

You do not need to sign up for these courses using the MSU course selection process -- we will take your preferences by web form after the applications period is closed (April 15), and manually enter you into these classes.

2. Housing: On the same webform, I will also take preferences for housing arrangements, including whether you have a preferred roommate(s).

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please email me or stop by my office (daniel.barnhizer at law.msu.edu).

Introduce yourself?

As one student suggested, if any of the participants -- whether from Poland, the US, or Belorus -- would like to send me a brief essay introducing themselves and describing why they are interested in the program, I will post them to the blog. I already have a expressions of interest, so let me know before the end of the semester if you want to contribute.

On the usefulness of knowing how to say yes.

The picture above is of an intersection in the city of Lodz, about 135 km west/southwest of Warsaw. It's generally unremarkable, but I keep it for the life lesson I learned there. On my way to Piotrkowska Street -- the longest pedestrian / commercial thoroughfare in Europe and home to some really good restaurants -- I was crossing here (coming towards the camera) alongside an elderly woman who looked to be in her 80s. We stopped in the center of the street because to the left of this camera we saw a white panel van and fast moving bmw sedan heading towards the crosswalk. The three college students (I suspect they were college students only because of their uniform looks of angst and ennui and their uniform black turtlenecks) who started running across the street did not, nearly causing an accident as the panel van slammed on its brakes and the beamer missed hitting the students only by inches.

The woman next to me was truly peeved, at least in part because one of the students had pushed by her to run out in the street. Shouting and waving her fist angrily at the students, she turned to me yelling and pointing at them. I caught the word "idiota" and that's about it. Drawing on my extraordinary language skills, I repeated the mantras "nie rozumiem populsku, nie mowie populsku" (which I'm pretty sure mean I don't understand Polish, I don't speak Polish). Didn't work. She was still yelling at them, looking at me, yelling at me, etc. Inspiration hit.

"Tak," I said. This slowed the flow of invective. I said it again. "Tak. Tak." The cursing stopped and she smiled. I'm sure she knew that I had absolutely no idea what she was saying, but she happily walked alongside of me the rest of the way to Piotrkowska now that at least someone was agreeing with her.

The book that started it all for me.

Polish history fascinates me. When I was 18, I picked up a copy of James Michner's historical fiction "Poland" -- Amazon.com link: James Michner, "Poland" (1984) -- and was permanently hooked. The book itself traces two families of Poles -- one nobility, one peasantry -- through a thousand years of Polish history up through the earliest days of Solidarity. If you're looking for a good book to read before getting there, this is it.

The one thing that comes out during any survey of Polish history is that the Poles as a nation are absolutely indomitable. Geographically, Poland for the most part is a relatively flat and fertile river plain situated between Germany, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. A small chunk of Russia sits at the northeaster corner of the country, with the rest of the great bear lurking just beyond Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine. Historically and militarily, this has proved a dangerous place to put a country since the other great powers of Europe have often sought to use Poland as a buffer state, a satellite state, or a road to get at each other. For much of its history, Poland has dealt with this problem simply by being stronger than its neighbors.

At other times, it has been controlled, partitioned, and destroyed in turn by the Russians, Prussians, Austrians, Germans, and the Soviets. As a general historical proposition, once a nation state or a people have been overrun like this even once, they don't get back up again. Poland, in contrast, despite being erased from map for 123 years after the Russians, Prussians, and Austrians decided they needed a buffer zone (1795-1918), and then turned into a German-occupied and Soviet-occupied nation from 1939 through 1990, got back up and rebuilt itself as a vibrant economic, political, and cultural entity that remains very distinctively and proudly Polish.

I'll blog more about this phenomenon from a Rule of Law perspective later, but in the meantime thinking about what it took to retain the Polish identity for eight generations of Russian, Soviet, and Prussian attempts to destroy the entire language and culture sometimes puts a lump in my throat.

Weekend Trips During the Study Abroad Program

We are in the process of finalizing the side excursions for the program, and I'll send a full description with costs to the program participants as soon as we have that information. But so you can get a better idea of what we have planned, here's the final schedule for the four program weekends:

Weekend 1: Arrival in Bialystok and settling in -- You should plan to arrive in Warsaw on Saturday June 11 or, at the latest, Sunday morning June 12. It's about 3 hours or so from Warsaw to Bialystok, so build in time to get to your housing and settle in. I will already be there (I'll be teaching a short class at another university and traveling to Krakow and an extraordinarily cool resort near Bialystok in the weeks before the program), and I will buy a cell phone and provide the program participants with my number after I get there.

Weekend 2: June 18-19 -- Krakow. Krakow could be described as the cultural heart of Poland. Palaces, museums, one of the largest central market squares in Europe, cathedrals, music, art, and really amazing food. I'll post some pics from my last trip there later in the blog, but this city is unforgettable. Time permitting, we are working on scheduling a side trip to Auschwitz, which is located a short drive outside of Krakow.


Weekend 3: June 25-26 -- Warsaw. The political capital of Poland, Warsaw is also the country's largest city and a major commercial center. Amazingly vibrant and cosmopolitan, the cultural, historic, artistic, and culinary opportunities are boundless. 


Weekend 4: July 2-3 - Druskienniki Resort & Water Park. The final weekend trip is intended to be more laid back. We will travel through the Podlaskie region of northeastern Poland to a popular resort located across the border in Lithuania. 


I'll post more information about the trips, itinerary, and costs as they become available.

Speaking Polish

One of the great things about Poland is that while it retains a deep and distinctive Polish culture, English is a relatively common second language. (Everyone associated with the Study Abroad Program speaks English fluently). That said, I rarely like to travel anywhere without having a basic set of useful and emergency phrases in the native language.

This is not to say that I'm any good at this effort. Oftentimes, my attempts to engage my hosts, more-or-less friendly public officials, waitstaff at restaurants, and particularly customer care specialists at various European and Chinese train stations merely engenders pity on the part of my listener. Many years ago in Spain, for example, my wife -- who is fluent in Spanish and has no accent -- asked for directions for the train to Segovia. The platform official rattled off directions in extremely fast Spanish and became frustrated when my wife asked him to repeat the directions a second time. At that point, my linguistic skills asserted themselves, and I asked him in an absolutely bland midwestern American accent, "donde esta el tren a segovia?" He looked at me and replied in perfect English that I needed to head over to platform 2 and the train would be along in 15 minutes.

So on to speaking Polish: "tak" means yes; "nie" means no.

How useful is this? It depends. If you understand Polish well enough to know what you're affirming or negating, then you already knew what tak and nie meant. If you're still working on your pronunciation of "nie rozumiem Populsku" (I don't understand Polish), my strong recommendation is that you avoid these two incredibly dangerous words at all costs.

If you're really interested in getting started, I've posted a link to a Useful Polish Phrases website. Importantly, the website not only provides phrases and interpretations, but also flashplayer links so you can actually hear each phrase spoken.

Welcome!!

Hi! And welcome to the MSU College of Law Poland Study Abroad Program Blog. The point of my stepping into the surreal wonderland of blogging and, eventually, facebooking is to provide some background, commentary, insights, and updates regarding the Law College's new program in association with the Law Faculty at the University of Białystok. I am truly excited about this opportunity!