Ines-Cristiana Cuțaru
Ines-Cristiana is currently pursing the Master of Law (LLM) ‘Technology Law and Innovation’ programme and, as she says in her letter, is passionate about innovation on the cutting edge of law, entrepreneurship, and technology. In her clear pitch, she cleverly translated her down-to-earth ideas on the challenges posed by Artificial Intelligence to society in general, and to the law in particular, into an argument for a gradual approach that will ultimately result in sound legal regulation. She was also able to give conclusive answers to the numerous questions that were fired at her after the pitch.
Ines-Cristiana has excellent study results. She combined her Bachelor’s degree programme (the Technology track within the ‘International and European Law’ programme) with the Honours Programme, which comprises 247 ECTS, finishing with an average mark of 8.3. Her average mark for the Master’s programme she is currently pursuing is 8.9. The jury wants to note that Ines-Cristiana is funding her studies herself, and managing to find a healthy balance between work, studying, and extracurricular activities. She has an impressive résumé of extracurricular activities. Having been a highly active secondary school student, she continued her extracurricular activities at university by joining the Groningen branch of the European Law Student Association (ELSA) in her first year. She became Vice-president of the board, responsible for professional development, before being made Secretary General of ELSA-Nederland. From within ELSA-International, she assisted the coordinator of the ‘World Intellectual Property Organization’ (WIPO, the UN agency that focuses on protecting intellectual property), and is now ‘Director of Welfare’ for ELSA-Nederland. As part of these ELSA activities, she has organized various meetings and conferences, and coordinated the ELSA traineeships. Ines-Cristiana was also active in the moot court competitions. In her first year, she took part in the national ELSA moot court on competition law, and in her second year, she took part in the Nexus Criminal Moot Court. Much more recently, she participated in the international Helga Pedersen Moot Court on human rights. The member of faculty staff who supervises her and a fellow student wrote a highly positive letter of recommendation, praising her (and another candidate) for her (their) motivation, commitment, and academic skills.
The jury was highly impressed by both Ines-Cristiana’s portfolio and her pitch.
