Maybe you can identify with this. You are at the socially acceptable retirement age. Very few people, especially in your age group, understand why you are still working. “Are you retired yet?” “Oh, I’m sorry.” “You can’t take it with you!” “Before long, it will be gone, gone, gone!”
Why do I still work? I often ask the question. Perhaps I don’t have enough hobbies. Perhaps the alternative pursued by many of my friends of golf and sun is unappealing. Perhaps I just like to work.
I must concede that the social pressure to retire got to me a year ago. What if I did die at my desk? Would I have missed out? I concluded that taking a year off might be the answer. That way I could test the water. I gradually reduced my workload. Everything was going according to plan.
Then, just as my last case came to an end, panic set in. Was I going to be bored? What was I going to do with my time?
I quickly realized that golf, tennis, sun and beaches were not for me. I thought about my bucket list—the things that I had thought would be interesting to do if I just had time. There was the usual travel option, but I wanted something momentous and purposeful, such as learning or volunteering. My mind unavoidably strayed to law.
It has always bothered me that the U.S. often (not always, but often) exhibits a resistance to human rights conventions. If we sign them, we frequently shy away from ratification. I often hear, “It will never work in the USA.” I have heard the many reasons/excuses. But I wondered how valid are they? How is it that other nations seem to embrace them, and we do not? So I decided to go to Europe to find out.
Within a month of my decision, I was in the Republic of Ireland at University College Cork enrolled in an academic yearlong postgraduate course on child rights and family law. I practice domestic and international family law in Washington, so that was a reasonable choice. But the course on hild rights went well beyond family law into criminal and environmental law.
I admit that being the oldest person on campus was, at first, a little intimidating. It was not made easier by the occasional question: “Are you a student here?” None the less, I was there and determined, despite discomfort, to remain!
For anyone thinking about a similar endeavor, I would suggest securing your housing well ahead of time, especially if you are moving to a university town and even more so if it has a general housing shortage, like Cork. My problem was that I only decided to enroll at the last minute.
By that time, all—and I mean all—the student housing was taken. I could not find anywhere to lease, even outside the student housing. I spent the first semester essentially homeless, going from very temporary vacation rentals to hotels. I stayed in some bizarre places. In retrospect, I am glad that I have stories to tell folks over a drink, but at the time, it was pretty awful.
After the first semester, I got a lead on a studio apartment in the postgraduate housing that had suddenly become vacant. It was right in the heart of downtown. I grabbed it. Once I had housing sorted out, I loved the experience. Cork is beautiful, and the trail along the River Lee, where I used to run, is one of the loveliest trails I have ever seen.
But I did not go to Cork for the river. I went to learn, and learn I did! One of the first things that struck me was my fellow students. I had expected that I would be somewhat unusual, being a person from a foreign country learning at a university in Cork. But I was far from unusual—the students came from all over the world.
The next thing that I noticed was how at ease the other students were about their countries operating under the various conventions. I do not recall a single conversation questioning whether a given convention was unreasonable or unworkable in any country. There were conversations about whether countries lived up to commitments and how they might improve, but that is a different matter. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child featured prominently. The U.S. has signed but not ratified this convention. For this, as in many areas of human rights conventions, I heard the words “except the United States.” For me, this felt somewhat awkward, but I was there to learn and to take information back home, so I just gritted my teeth and listened.
At first, I was reluctant to study criminal and environmental law as I am a family lawyer. But the study was not only fascinating but has given me a deeper understanding of human rights conventions in general. After all, these conventions do not just affect family law. If one wants to counter the excuses made for US hesitancy, one needs knowledge across practices.
I now think that I have sufficient knowledge to engage in a deep and practical conversation as to the potential effects of human rights conventions on America. That was my goal in going to Ireland. That, I believe, I have achieved.
What I did not anticipate learning was a new critique of our own domestic (as opposed to international) family law in the U.S. Naturally, as the course took place in Ireland, Irish family law was discussed. As this was a postgraduate course, we not only discussed what the law was but how it might be changed.
For this, we studied the laws of other countries. This was an eye-opening experience for me. I realized that when one works within a set of laws and practices for a long time, one has the impression that this is the way things should be done; everything new is seen within that familiar bias. But after practicing family law for some 30 years, I now question whether we should make some changes.
I think that my experience has greatly enriched not just my professional life as a lawyer but my life as a world citizen. I have expanded my mind with new knowledge and the ability to see things from new perspectives. That is a good thing at any age. I have also earned a new diploma!
What I did not do was tour Ireland. The reality was that the studies were so intense that there was no time. So my travel around Ireland will have to wait for another trip—a trip that I shall be taking next year for an international family law conference. I shall visit the law school too—I have been invited back as a guest speaker! I cannot wait to return.
Marguerite (Maggie) Smith practices family law in Washington. She is a member of the Washington, Minnesota and Washington, D.C., bars and the Bar of England and Wales. She is also admitted to practice before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. She can be reached at [email protected].
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