 I stand here now as a representative of the Faculty of Law but I think I need to establish my credentials as an EU lawyer. As a private international lawyer of course inevitably and inescapably most of my subject is now at least for the time being regulated by EU law. I should however come clean as many of you will know those who ply my trade are habitually severely critical of those EU regulations and of the decisions of the Court of Justice. I would like to put on record however that none of my colleagues who I speak to would actually wish those regulations to disappear however critical we might be of them. I wanted to do two things in my concluding remarks. First of all I wanted to offer some thanks. Thanks on behalf of the faculty. I wanted to thank Albertina for her hard work on this and I also wanted to thank Felicity for her hard work on this. I wanted to thank all of our speakers and moderators in the course of today but I also wanted to thank everyone who has given up their day to be at this wonderful and interesting event. The second thing that I wanted to do was to put the evolution of cells in a wider context, a context which serves to highlight its importance in the history of this faculty and I hope that will lead inevitably to me expressing optimism about the future of cells and its work. It's clear I think the foundation of cells 25 years ago came at a defining moment in the history of this faculty and it must be seen in the context of parallel trends. It coincided not exactly but approximately with other important changes in the faculty. First of all and I'm inclined to put this top of the list myself, the move to this wonderful building which has transformed our lives and our view of ourselves. Secondly round about the same time as the foundation of cells or at least round about the same time that it got into its stride a decision was made in this faculty to expand dramatically our LLM programme in terms of student numbers and also the courses on offer. I'm also bound to say of course that the foundation or the early years of cells coincided with the in retrospect rather obvious decision at the time it seemed more radical to appoint a dedicated specialist professor of European law. It was the move to this building that gave cells although it existed before its home and as it were turbocharged its activities as a result. It was the growth in the LLM with its raft of courses and its eager new students many of whom came from other EU states and the appointment of a specialist professor which with the advent of cells kick started this faculty's rise to prominence in the area of EU law. It's now hard to imagine that at the time of its foundation cells was the only centre in the faculty of law so central no pun intended was cells to the faculty in its early days and indeed to this building that at one time the lettering on the glass by the door indicated that this building housed three institutions the faculty of law the squire law library and the centre for European legal studies all these historic developments not least the founding of cells came at a time of real transition in the evolution of this faculty this was truly a transformative moment of watershed for those of us who were young academics at the time all these things together created a brave new world our view of where we were and what we were doing simply transformed up until that point the faculty had of course seen itself as a great national law school a national institution that focused primarily not exclusively but primarily on English law our competitors not that we would at that time ever have seen things in such Darwinian terms our competitors were in the UK indeed they were in England our curriculum like our old buildings was venerable but a little faded the mood board in the faculty was I think shabby chic yes we taught and published in international law comparative law even EC law as it was but these activities were regarded as speciality interests not central to what we did how much has changed now our worldview is different we see ourselves as one of the world's great law schools we see ourselves in a global context we judge ourselves against the best in the world we compete internationally for students especially postgraduate students central to this vision however is our role as a European law school and I adopt here the broad sense in which Kenneth uses that expression a European law school in the European tradition the outward invisible sign of that of course is cells it's worth by way of a footnote just considering some facts and figures to put this into perspective around 20% of the academic staff of this faculty are from EU states other than the UK as were just shy of 50% of our LLM students last year a single optional course in as it was EC law has given way to the extraordinary buffet of courses that we now offer which are entirely or partly devoted to EU law including I should add my own this is not of course because of cells or entirely because of cells but cells has I think set the tone and has in turn drawn oxygen from our change in culture as this suggests cells has always been central to this faculty since its inception central to its work and to how we see ourselves clearly the last 20 years have seen cells develop into one of the premier centres for the study of EU law in the world in doing so if I might as chair of the faculty shamelessly steal the limelight it has made this faculty one of the one of the premier centres for the study of EU law in the world it would be foolish especially in the light of Catherine's moving remarks to deny that there are challenges ahead I suppose I'm paid to be an optimist although I think I am by nature but I must say to me a challenge is just an opportunity by another name I'm confident that cells and all those associated with EU law in this faculty have a distinctive role and an important voice especially in the near future indeed for all the travails associated with brexit there is a real opportunity for cells to continue to shape the debate there is also I should say an opportunity for this faculty to be a leader in teaching and research in this new landscape certainly from an institutional point of view our commitment is to be on the front foot and to take the lead in this certainly I can assure you that in uncertain times the Cambridge law faculty is dedicated to maintaining its position its position as an international centre of excellence in teaching and research as a preeminent centre for work in EU law and as a great European law school rooted in the culture and the values of the wider European legal tradition so I think it is entirely appropriate for me not merely to congratulate cells on its 25th birthday but with confidence to wish it well for a long and distinguished future