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".