BACKUP: Facilities PSIML

The Law Library

The library of the Faculty of Law hosts an extensive collection of legal journals and books in numerous languages, covering all aspects of Belgian law, EU law, international law, and the law of the most important European countries as well as the United States. Many of them are in English. All major official documents of the European Union are available, such as the Official Journal and the Reports of the Court of Justice.

There is free access to the internet and to a wide variety of online and scientific databases used all over the university. Those databases include European Law, International Law and national law of Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The library is open from 8.30 a.m. until 11.00 p.m. during weekdays (9.00 p.m. on Fridays), and from 10.00 a.m. until 6.00 p.m. on Saturdays.

Another library of the K.U.Leuven, the Library for Official Publications, hosts all official documents of the European Community, the Council of Europe, and the United Nations and its affiliated organisations. This library is located on the ground floor of the Central Library , very close to the law library.

All libraries in Leuven can be consulted by means of a library information system developed at the K.U.Leuven. This LIBIS system enables readers to search for author names, book titles, and publishers in several languages. The results of this search can be printed at a small cost. Journals or books that are not available in any of the K.U.Leuven libraries can be ordered from a connecting library in Belgium or abroad by interlibrary loan. Normally it takes between 1 and 3 weeks to receive the publications required.

The proximity of the EC headquarters also provides LL.M. students with access to the official library of the European Union and other documentation centres in Brussels.

> General info for prospective students at the law faculty

K.U.Leuven facilities for foreign students

The K.U.Leuven is host to around 5000 foreign students each year, from all over the world, for whom a wide network of services has been established.

• International Office provides all necessary information about obtaining visas or other administrative documents.
• The Housing Service deals with aspects of accommodation in Leuven, including temporary housing, while the Social Service can help with all social issues of student life at the K.U.Leuven, such as employment, and legal and medical services. li>
• The International Contact Club organises meetings for foreign students and operates a rental service of furniture and a second-hand shop of clothes and other useful articles.
• The Centre for Living Languages and the Institute for Living Languages enable foreign students to learn one or more of the following languages: Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Turkish. Most languages can be taken during the academic year; some are also taught during the summer.
• A few minutes out of town, near the new student campus of Heverlee, the K.U.Leuven has superb sporting facilities. About 40 different sports, from basketball to tennis and karate to archery, can be practised at a minimum cost. Many of these sports are under the guidance of official coaches.

For more information on Living, studying and working in Leuven, please visit http://www.kuleuven.be/english/living.html .

The country of Belgium

Belgium is a small kingdom centrally located in the European Union between the Netherlands, Germany, France and the North Sea. Next to the coastal plains, it has a pleasant rolling countryside that is very densely populated, with steeper hills and more isolated wooded areas in the southeast (the Ardennes).

In its present form, Belgium was created after the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars as part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in a buffer zone between Germany, France and the United Kingdom. In 1830 it seceded from the Netherlands as an independent country. Because of its central location, Belgium has long been a battlefield for the major powers in Europe. The battlefields of Waterloo, Ypres and the Battle of the Bulge, silent witnesses to a less peaceful past, are well known all over the world.

With a surface area of 30.507 square km and a population of around 10 million, Belgium is divided into several parts. Approximately 60% of its population are Dutch-speaking Flemish who live in the north, 30% are French-speaking Walloons who live in the south, and 10% of the population lives in the capital area of Brussels in the heart of the country. The capital is legally bilingual but in fact predominantly French-speaking. German is the third official language, spoken by about 60.000 people in a small area along the German border.

The town of Leuven

Leuven itself is a modern, bustling city of nearly 90.000 inhabitants that has managed to maintain its traditional style. It developed as the capital of the Duchy of Brabant, and as a textile and trading centre on the road to Germany. Brewing beer became an art and presently Leuven possesses the largest brewery in Belgium. Moreover, it hosts a wonderful collection of historic buildings, from the early Romanesque period to the last century. The masterpiece is undoubtedly the 15th century Gothic Town Hall. Subsequent to Belgian constitutional reforms, Leuven resumed its role as the capital of the newly created province of Flemish Brabant (Vlaams Brabant) on January 1, 1995.

Leuven is located about 25 kilometres from Brussels, the capital of Belgium. Brussels is an area of intense economic and political activity. It is not only the centre of the European Community and of NATO, but also home to the European headquarters of many multinational businesses and organisations. Paris, Amsterdam, Cologne, Bonn and Luxembourg are all within a three-hour drive from Brussels. London can be reached after a 45-minute flight across the Channel or a two-hour ride by train through the Chunnel.