title: Johnny Got His Gun (film)

text: In early 2009, the 1971 film made its U.S. DVD debut, produced by Shout! Factory. The DVD included the film plus a 2005 documentary ("Dalton Trumbo: Rebel In Hollywood"), new cast interviews, an article about the film from American Cinematographer, Metallica's music video "One," behind-the-scenes footage with commentary by stars Timothy Bottoms and Jules Brenner, the 1940 radio adaptation starring James Cagney, and the original theatrical trailer. However, it contains some brief edits because a European print was used for the video source.


title: Tau

text: Tau (uppercase Τ, lowercase τ, or formula_1; ) is the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiceless dental or alveolar plosive . In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 300.


title: Tau

text: The name in English is pronounced or , but in Greek it is . This is because the pronunciation of the combination of Greek letters αυ can have the pronounciation of either , or , depending on what follows and if a diaeresis is present on the second vowel (see Greek orthography).


title: Tau

text: Tau was derived from the Phoenician letter taw (𐤕). Letters that arose from tau include Roman T and Cyrillic Te (Т, т).


title: Tau

text: The letter occupies the Unicode slots U+03C4 (lowercase) and U+03A4 (uppercase). In HTML, they can be produced with named entities (codice_1 and codice_2), decimal references (codice_3 and codice_4), or hexadecimal references (codice_5 and codice_6).


title: Tau

text: These characters are used only as mathematical symbols. Stylized Greek text should be encoded using the normal Greek letters, with markup and formatting to indicate text style.


title: Mise-en-scène

text: Mise-en-scène (; or "what is put into the scene") is the stage design and arrangement of actors in scenes for a theatre or film production, both in visual arts through storyboarding, visual theme, and cinematography, and in narrative storytelling through direction. The term is also commonly used to refer to single scenes that are representative of a film. "Mise-en-scène" has been called film criticism's "grand undefined term." It has been criticized for its focus on the theatrical or dramatic design aspects rather than the plot itself, as those who utilize "Mise-en-scène" tend to look at what is "put before the camera," rather than the story. The use of "mise-en-scène" is significant as it allows the director to convey messages to the viewer through what is placed in the scene, not just the content of the scene.


title: Mise-en-scène

text: When applied to the cinema, "mise-en-scène" refers to everything that appears before the camera and its arrangement—composition, sets, props, actors, costumes, and lighting. The various elements of design help express a film's vision by generating a sense of time and space, as well as setting a mood, and sometimes suggesting a character's state of mind. "Mise-en-scène" also includes the composition, which consists of the positioning and movement of actors, as well as objects, in the shot. These are all the areas overseen by the director. One of the most important people that collaborates with the director is the production designer. These two work closely to perfect all of the aspects of the "mise-en-scène" a considerable amount of time before the actual photography even begins. The production designer is generally responsible for the look of the movie, leading various departments that are in charge of individual sets, locations, props, and costumes, among other things. André Bazin, a French film critic and film theorist, describes the "mise-en-scène" aesthetic as emphasizing choreographed movement within the scene rather than through editing.


title: Mise-en-scène

text: Because of its relationship to shot blocking, "mise-en-scène" is also a term sometimes used among professional screenwriters to indicate descriptive (action) paragraphs between the dialog.


title: Kielbasa

text: Kielbasa (, ; from Polish ) is any type of meat sausage from Poland and a staple of Polish cuisine. In American English the word typically refers to a coarse, U-shaped smoked sausage of any kind of meat, which closely resembles the "Wiejska" "sausage" (typically pork only).


title: Kielbasa

text: The word entered English directly from the Polish ' and Czech klobása, meaning "sausage". Etymological sources state that originally, the word comes from Turkic "kol basa", literally "hand-pressed", or "kül basa", literally "ash-pressed" (cognate with modern Turkish dish '), or possibly from the Hebrew "kol basar" (), literally meaning "all kinds of meat;" however, other origins are also possible.


title: Kielbasa

text: The terms entered English simultaneously from different sources, which accounts for the different spellings. Usage varies between cultural groups and countries, but overall there is a distinction between American and Canadian usage. In New Jersey, Pennsylvania and most areas of Greater New York City, a plural Polish transitional form is used, "" (). Canadians also use the word "kolbassa" or "kubasa" ( or ), an Anglicization of the Ukrainian "kovbasa" (), and Albertans even abbreviate it as "kubie" to refer to the sausage eaten on a hot dog bun.


title: Kielbasa

text: Sausage is a staple of Polish cuisine and comes in dozens of varieties, smoked or fresh, made with pork, beef, turkey, lamb, chicken or veal with every region having its own speciality. Of these, the "kiełbasa lisiecka", produced in Małopolskie, "kiełbasa biała parzona wielkopolska" and "kiełbasa piaszczańska" are Protected Geographical Indications in the EU and the UK. Furthermore, "Kabanosy staropolskie", "Kiełbasa jałowcowa staropolska", "Kiełbasa krakowska sucha staropolska" and "Kiełbasa myśliwska staropolska" are Traditional Specialities Guaranteed in the UK and EU as well.


title: Kielbasa

text: There are official Polish government guides and classifications of sausages based on size, meat, ready-to-eat or uncooked varieties.


title: Kielbasa

text: Originally made at home in rural areas, there are a wide variety of recipes for kielbasa preparation at home and for holidays. Kielbasa is also one of the most traditional foods served at Polish weddings. Popular varieties include:


title: Kielbasa

text: The most popular kiełbasa is also called "Kiełbasa Polska" ("Polish Sausage") or "Kiełbasa Starowiejska" ("Old Countryside Sausage").


title: Kielbasa

text: In Poland, kiełbasa is often served garnished with fried onions, and – in the form of cut pieces – smoked kiełbasa can be served cold, hot, boiled, baked or grilled. It can be cooked in soups such as "żurek" (sour rye soup), "kapuśniak" (cabbage soup), or "grochówka" (pea soup), baked or cooked with sauerkraut, or added to bean dishes and stews (notably "bigos", a Polish national dish). Kiełbasa is also very popular served cold as cold cuts on a platter, usually for an appetizer at traditional Polish parties. It is also a common snack ("zagrycha") served with beer or plain vodka.


title: Kielbasa

text: A less widely encountered but equally popular variety of kiełbasa is the White Fresh ("biała" - i.e. "white"). It is mainly used as a soup meat, and is therefore sold uncooked and unsmoked. When used, it is prepared by boiling, frying or boiling in soup in place of raw meat. This kiełbasa's taste is similar to a white Thuringian sausage. Traditionally served with "barszcz biały".


title: Kielbasa

text: In Ukraine, "kielbasa" is called "kovbasa". It is a general term that refers to a variety of sausages, including "domashnia" (homemade kovbasa), "pechinky" (liver kovbasa), and "vudzhena" (smoked kovbasa).


title: Kielbasa

text: It is served in a variety of ways such as fried with onions atop varenyky, sliced on rye bread, eaten with an egg and mustard sauce and lastly in "Yayeshnia z kovbasoyu i yarynoyu" a dish meaning fried sausage with bell pepper and scrambled eggs. In Ukraine kovbasa may be roasted in an oven on both sides and stored in ceramic pots with lard. The sausage is often made at home however has become increasingly brought at markets and even supermarkets. Kovbasa also tends to accompany "pysanka" (dyed and decorated eggs) as well as the Orthodox Easter bread, paska, in baskets which is blessed by the Ukrainian Orthodox priests with holy water before being consumed.


title: Kielbasa

text: The most generic forms of Ukrainian kovbasa include garlic. Those in the Ukrainian SSR of the late Soviet Union who prioritised welfare and economic issues over the 'national question' (independence) were often referred to as having a 'kovbasa mentality'.


title: Kielbasa

text: Kolbász is the Hungarian word for sausage. Hungarian cuisine produces a vast number of types of sausages. The most common smoked Hungarian sausages are Gyulai Kolbász, Csabai Kolbász, Csemege Kolbász, Házi Kolbász, Cserkész Kolbász, lightly smoked, like Debreceni Kolbász (or Debreciner) and Lecsókolbász, a spicy sausage made specifically for serving as part of the dish Lecsó, a vegetable stew with peppers and tomatoes. Hungarian boiled sausage types are called "hurka": either liver sausage, "májas", or blood sausage, "véres". The main ingredient is liver and rice, or blood and rice. Salt, pepper, and spices are optionally added. Butter is not.


title: Kielbasa

text: The "kranjska klobasa" "Carniolan sausage" closely resembling the Polish "kiełbasa wiejska" is the best known Slovenian sausage.


title: Kielbasa

text: In the United States, kielbasa which may also be referred to as "Polish sausage" in some areas, is widely available in grocery stores and speciality import markets. While the smoked variety is more commonly found, the uncured variety is often available, particularly in areas with large Polish populations. Several sandwiches featuring the sausage as a main ingredient have become iconic in local cuisines including Chicago's Maxwell Street Polish, Cleveland's Polish Boy, and several offerings from Primanti Brothers in Pittsburgh.


title: Kielbasa

text: In Canada, varieties typical of Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, western Ukraine, and elsewhere are available in supermarkets, and more specific varieties can be found in specialty shops. The world's largest display model of a Ukrainian sausage is a roadside attraction in Mundare, Alberta, the home of Stawnichy's Meat Processing.


title: Kielbasa

text: In Russia, it is known as "kolbasa" (колбаса ), mentioned as early as the 12th century in Birch bark manuscript number 842. In the Russian language the word "kolbasa" refers to all sausage-like meat products including salami and bologna. Similar sausages are found in other countries as well, notably the Czech Republic (spelled "klobása", or regionally "klobás"), Slovakia (spelled "klobása"), and Slovenia (spelled "klobása"). In Croatia, as well as in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Serbia, this sausage is called "kobasica" or "kobasa", while in Bulgaria and North Macedonia it is called "kolbas".) In Austria it is called "Klobassa" (similar to the neighbouring Slavic-speaking countries). In South Africa, this type of sausage is known as the "Russian" sausage, and is often deep-fried and served with chips as fast food.


title: Kielbasa

text: In China, where once prominent White émigré residents fleeing from the Russian Civil War were concentrated, the food was gradually localized around major hubs. Even though Harbin Russian residents are scarce today, Kielbasa remains in production well into the 21st century in Harbin.


title: André Villas-Boas

text: Luís André de Pina Cabral e Villas-Boas (; born 17 October 1977) is a Portuguese football manager, who most recently was the manager of Ligue 1 club Marseille. He is one of a growing number of top-level managers who have never played football professionally and one of the few managers to have never played beyond youth football.


title: André Villas-Boas

text: Highlights in his career include an undefeated 2010–11 season in the Primeira Liga with Porto, winning four trophies and becoming the youngest manager ever to win a European title in the process, helping Tottenham to their then-record tally of 72 points in the Premier League during the 2012–13 season (the highest points for a team to finish outside the top four at the time) and three trophies during his spell with Zenit, achieving the fifth league title in the club's history.


title: André Villas-Boas

text: Born in Porto, Portugal, Villas-Boas was the second child and first son of Luís Filipe Manuel Henrique do Vale Peixoto de Sousa e Villas-Boas (born 29 February 1952) and Teresa Maria de Pina Cabral e Silva (born 11 February 1951). He is also the great-grandson of Dom José Gerardo Coelho Vieira Pinto do Vale Peixoto de Vilas-Boas, 1st Viscount of Guilhomil. Villas-Boas has spoken fluent English since childhood, as his grandmother was from Stockport, England.


title: André Villas-Boas

text: At the age of 16, Villas-Boas found himself living in the same apartment block as Sir Bobby Robson, who was then manager of Porto. Following a conversation between the two, Robson appointed Villas-Boas to Porto's observation department.


title: André Villas-Boas

text: Robson arranged for Villas-Boas to obtain the FA coaching qualification, the UEFA C coaching licence in Scotland and for him to study the training methods of Ipswich Town. He obtained his C licence at the age of 17, and his B licence at 18. He received his A licence at the age of 19, and later acquired UEFA Pro Licence under the tutelage of Jim Fleeting.


title: André Villas-Boas

text: Villas-Boas had a short stint as technical director of the British Virgin Islands national team at the age of 21, before he moved on to a career as an assistant coach at Porto under José Mourinho. As Mourinho moved clubs to Chelsea and Internazionale, Villas-Boas followed.


title: André Villas-Boas

text: At the start of the 2009–10 season, Villas-Boas left Mourinho's team to pursue a career as a manager, and he soon found a job in the Primeira Liga with Académica de Coimbra, filling a vacancy created by Rogério Gonçalves' resignation in October 2009. At the time of his appointment, Académica were at the bottom of the league and still without any wins, but their luck started to change as he introduced a new style, leading them to a safe 11th place, ten points clear of the relegation zone. In addition to that, Académica also reached the 2009–10 Portuguese League Cup semi-finals, losing against Porto at the Estádio do Dragão to a late goal from Mariano González. His impact at Académica was immediate, not only because of solid results, but also because of the attractive football displayed by the team, which led to intense media speculation linking him with the vacant jobs at Sporting CP and FC Porto in the summer of 2010.


title: André Villas-Boas

text: Villas-Boas signed a deal to become the new manager of Porto on 2 June 2010. Two months later, he won his first trophy as a manager when Porto defeated Benfica 2–0 to win the Portuguese Supercup. Villas-Boas went on to immense success with Porto, leading them to an undefeated season in the Primeira Liga—only the second time this had ever been achieved—and winning the title by more than 20 points, having conceded only 13 goals all season. Villas-Boas went on to follow up this success by leading Porto to win both the Portuguese Cup and the UEFA Europa League, thus completing a treble in his first season in charge. By doing so, Villas-Boas became the third-youngest coach ever to win the Primeira Liga (behind Mihály Siska in 1939 and Juca in 1962) and the youngest manager ever to win a European competition, at the age of 33 years and 213 days. On 21 June 2011, Villas-Boas tendered his resignation as Porto manager.


title: André Villas-Boas

text: Chelsea confirmed the appointment of André Villas-Boas as their new manager on a three-year contract with immediate effect on 22 June 2011. They indirectly paid Porto a world record €15million (£13.3million) compensation via Villas-Boas to activate his release clause and free him from his contract with Porto. On 30 July 2011, during the pre-season, Villas-Boas won his first piece of silverware with Chelsea, the 2011 Barclays Asia Trophy. Villas-Boas won all of his pre-season fixtures with Chelsea, with the team conceding only one goal in all six games. On 14 August, Villas-Boas's first Premier League match ended in a 0–0 at Stoke City, with Villas-Boas commenting on Stoke's strong defence at home. Villas-Boas then won his first competitive match as Chelsea manager, defeating West Bromwich Albion 2–1 on 20 August. He continued his season with a home win, beating Norwich City 3–1. On 18 September 2011, Villas-Boas's Chelsea lost to Manchester United 3–1 at Old Trafford. It was Chelsea's first defeat of the season and Villas-Boas's first defeat in 39 league matches, a run stretching back to his spells as manager of Académica and Porto. On 29 October, Chelsea lost their second derby under Villas-Boas in a 5–3 defeat at home to Arsenal after falling to a 1–0 defeat to Queens Park Rangers. Then three weeks later, his Chelsea side lost a second successive home game in a 2–1 defeat to Liverpool. Days later, he once again lost to Liverpool in a 2–0 defeat in the League Cup quarter-final.


title: André Villas-Boas

text: On 11 February 2012, pressure began to mount on Villas-Boas as Chelsea dropped out of the top four in the Premier League following a 2–0 league defeat against Everton. Villas-Boas responded by cancelling his squad's day off and called them in for an inquest, which provoked several senior players to question his tactics in front of owner Roman Abramovich. On 21 February 2012, during a Champions League match against Napoli, Villas-Boas left Frank Lampard, Michael Essien and Ashley Cole on the bench. Chelsea lost 3–1 and the club's technical director asked for an explanation of the team selection on behalf of Abramovich. On 4 March 2012, following a 1–0 league defeat against West Brom which left Chelsea three points adrift of Arsenal in the battle for fourth place in the Premier League, Villas-Boas was relieved of his managerial duties by Chelsea, with assistant manager Roberto Di Matteo being appointed as caretaker manager on an interim basis until the end of the season. On the Chelsea website, it read, "The board would like to record our gratitude for his work and express our disappointment that the relationship has ended so early."


title: André Villas-Boas

text: On 3 July 2012, it was announced that Villas-Boas had been named Tottenham Hotspur head coach after successful talks with the club, replacing Harry Redknapp and signing a three-year deal with the North London football team. Villas-Boas' first competitive game in charge of Tottenham came on 18 August 2012 in the opening day of the Premier League season, losing 2–1 to Newcastle United away from home. His first competitive win came on 16 September 2012, a 3–1 victory away to Reading.


title: André Villas-Boas

text: On 29 September 2012, Villas-Boas became the first Tottenham manager to win at Old Trafford in 23 years after his side beat Manchester United 3–2. Villas-Boas took charge of his first North London derby against Arsenal on 17 November 2012 at the Emirates Stadium. Despite taking the lead early on, goalscorer Emmanuel Adebayor was sent off just eight minutes later, and Tottenham eventually lost 5–2.


title: André Villas-Boas

text: Villas-Boas earned his first piece of personal Tottenham silverware when he won the Manager of the Month award for December. The team managed to pick up vital points in order to pursue their top four ambition. Promising big scorelines away from home such as against Fulham, Aston Villa and Sunderland along with home wins against Swansea City and Reading, left Tottenham in third place going into the new year. One set back was a tough trip to Goodison Park, where Spurs were leading up until the 90th minute, before two late Everton goals in as many minutes, snatched victory away from the North London side.


title: André Villas-Boas

text: In February 2013, he guided Tottenham to the last 16 of the Europa League after a last minute goal from Mousa Dembélé, securing a 1–1 draw against Olympique Lyonnais at the Stade Gerland. Spurs won the tie 3–2 on aggregate, after a 2–1 win at home the previous week. Following a 3–2 away win at West Ham United, Tottenham's third win from three Premier League matches that month, Villas-Boas picked up his second piece of personal Tottenham silverware of the season as he was awarded the Manager of the Month award for February, along with Gareth Bale who picked up the Player of the Month award for February as well.


title: André Villas-Boas

text: On the final day of the Premier League season, Tottenham sat a point behind North London rivals, Arsenal, knowing that in order to qualify for the 2013–14 Champions League, they had to win and hope that Arsenal failed to win. Tottenham won against Sunderland, but did not qualify due to Arsenal's 0–1 win at Newcastle United. Even though Tottenham finished a point behind the Champions League playoff spot, they set a new club record by finishing with 72 points. This was also the highest points tally ever achieved by any club in the Premier League to consequently not finish in the top four, until Arsenal finishing in fifth with 75 points in 2016-17.


title: André Villas-Boas

text: In the close season, Villas-Boas claimed he was approached by both Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid to fill their managerial vacancies but insisted he rejected these offers to remain with Spurs for a second successive season, something which he had not previously done as a manager. Following the sale of star player Gareth Bale to Real Madrid for a world record fee of £85.3 million, Villas-Boas was active in the transfer market before the start of the 2013–14 Premier League season. Key acquisitions included defensive midfielder Étienne Capoue, midfielder Paulinho, striker Roberto Soldado, the versatile Nacer Chadli, ball-playing defender Vlad Chiricheș, winger Erik Lamela and playmaker Christian Eriksen. Departures from the club included Tom Huddlestone, Clint Dempsey, Steven Caulker and Scott Parker.


title: André Villas-Boas

text: On 16 December 2013, Tottenham announced that Villas-Boas had left the club "by mutual consent." The dismissal, with Spurs lying seventh in the Premier League and having won all six Europa League group games, followed a series of disappointing domestic league results that included a 6–0 defeat away to Manchester City and culminated in a 0–5 home defeat to Liverpool. Villas-Boas left the club with the highest percentage of league wins of any Tottenham manager in the club's Premier League era.


title: André Villas-Boas

text: On 18 March 2014, Villas-Boas signed a two-year deal with Zenit Saint Petersburg, replacing Luciano Spalletti, and took the reins the day after the club's Champions League round of 16 second leg against Borussia Dortmund. A month later, he went on to become the first coach in Russian Premier League history to win his first six matches in charge. He continued to pursue the title but on 3 May, Zenit lost their first points in a 1–1 away draw with Lokomotiv Moscow being followed by a 2–4 loss at home to Dynamo Moscow which dictated the league advantage to CSKA Moscow. In the final fixture of the Russian Premier League on 16 May, Zenit won 4–1 away against Kuban Krasnodar but it was not enough to win the title, as CSKA defeated Lokomotiv and were crowned champions one point ahead of Zenit. However, the St. Petersburg club clinched a place in the 2014–15 UEFA Champions League Third qualifying round.


title: André Villas-Boas

text: In the 2014–15 season, Zenit qualified for the UEFA Champions League group stage by beating AEL Limassol in the third round qualification and Standard Liège in the playoffs. On 17 May 2015, Villas-Boas led the club to the fifth league title in its history, clinching it after a 1–1 draw against FC Ufa with two games left to play.


title: André Villas-Boas

text: On 10 September 2015, Villas-Boas announced he would return to Portugal because of his family and therefore be leaving Zenit at the end of the 2015–16 season after turning down a contract extension. In the 2015–16 Champions League Zenit finished top of the Group H, being eliminated by Benfica in the Round of 16. On 2 May 2016, Zenit won the Russian Cup by beating CSKA Moscow 4–1 in the final in Kazan, this was the Portuguese's last achievement for the Russian side, leaving at the end of the season and with Mircea Lucescu appointed the new manager.


title: André Villas-Boas

text: On 4 November 2016, Villas-Boas became the manager of Shanghai SIPG, replacing Sven-Göran Eriksson for the Chinese Super League club. Despite not being able to win any major silverware during his stint at the club, Villas-Boas has been credited with turning a relatively inexperienced side into a true championship contender. Bolstered by the talents of Brazilians Hulk and Oscar as well as star Chinese attacker Wu Lei, his only season at the helm saw SIPG finish second in the league, losing to rivals Shanghai Shenhua in the final of the Chinese FA cup, as well as reaching the semi-finals of the Asian Champions League, the club's best result in the competition to date (as of November 2019).


title: André Villas-Boas

text: Villas-Boas' stint at SIPG was also marred by a number of controversial remarks he made throughout the campaign, some of which were in response to star midfielder Oscar's controversial 8-match suspension for kicking the ball at an opponent during play. He also repeatedly lambasted match officials for favouring eventual league champions Guangzhou Evergrande, notably following a game between Guangzhou and Yanbian Funde where Guangzhou defender Liu Jian scored following a handball gifting Guangzhou a crucial victory. By the time of his departure from SIPG, he was yet to serve out his suspension for these remarks.


title: André Villas-Boas

text: In November 2017, Shanghai SIPG announced Villas-Boas left the club by mutual consent after he refused to extend his contract for another year.


title: André Villas-Boas

text: On 28 May 2019, Villas-Boas signed a two-year contract to be the new manager of Olympique de Marseille, replacing Rudi Garcia.


title: André Villas-Boas

text: In the 2019–20 Ligue 1 season, Marseille finished second after the season was ended early due to the coronavirus pandemic, thus qualifying for the 2020–21 UEFA Champions League for the first time since 2013–14. On September 13, 2020, he became the first Olympian coach in 9 years to lead his squad to a victory (0-1) in Le Classique against Paris Saint-Germain.


title: André Villas-Boas

text: On 2 February 2021, Villas-Boas announced in a press conference that he had offered his resignation to the club's board due to his dissatisfaction with the club's recruitment policy, namely them signing Celtic player Olivier Ntcham on loan the previous day against his wishes. A few hours later, Marseille announced the suspension of Villas-Boas as manager with immediate effect, with the club branding his public criticism of the club "unacceptable" and confirming that disciplinary hearings against Villas-Boas will take place.


title: André Villas-Boas

text: On 29 November 2017 it was announced that Villas-Boas would compete in the 2018 Dakar Rally driving a Toyota Hilux and co-driven by former motorcycle class frontrunner Ruben Faria. He withdrew from the rally after crashing into a sand dune on the fourth stage in Peru and injuring his back.


title: André Villas-Boas

text: On 16 and 17 March 2018, he participated in another off-road rally, the Baja TT do Pinhal, driving a Can-Am Maverick X3.


title: André Villas-Boas

text: Following his departure from Marseille in 2021, Villas-Boas made his maiden appearance in the World Rally Championship between 20 and 23 May, competing in the WRC3 category of the 2021 Rally de Portugal. Driving a Citroën C3 Rally2 alongside co-driver Gonçalo Magalhães, the pair finished 12th.


title: André Villas-Boas

text: Villas-Boas has said that he is unlikely to make a WRC return, and intends to compete again in the Dakar Rally.


title: André Villas-Boas

text: In 2004, Villas-Boas married Joana Maria Noronha de Ornelas Teixeira, with whom he now has two daughters, Benedita (born August 2009), Carolina (born October 2010) and a son, Frederico (born May 2015). He speaks English fluently, having been taught by his paternal grandmother Margaret Kendall, whose mother moved to Portugal from Cheadle, Greater Manchester, England, to start a wine business. Her brother Douglas Kendall served as a wing commander for the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.


title: André Villas-Boas

text: His paternal great-uncle José Rui Villas-Boas was the Viscount of Guilhomil, a title initially bestowed on his father José Gerado Villas-Boas by King Carlos I in 1890.


title: André Villas-Boas

text: Villas-Boas' brother João Luís de Pina Cabral Villas-Boas is a Portuguese stage and television actor. He had a bit-part in the costume drama "Mistérios de Lisboa" ("Mysteries of Lisbon").


title: Master of Laws

text: A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is an advanced postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in a related subject. In most jurisdictions, the "Master of Laws" is the advanced professional degree for those usually already admitted into legal practice.


title: Master of Laws

text: To become a lawyer and practice law in most states and countries, a person must first obtain a law degree. While in most common law countries a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) is required, the U.S. generally require a professional doctorate, or Juris Doctor, to practice law.


title: Master of Laws

text: The Juris Doctor (J.D.) is a professional doctorate and professional graduate degree in law. The degree is earned by completing law school in the United States, Canada, Australia, and other common law countries. Many who hold the degree of Juris Doctor are professionals committed to the practice of law, and may choose to focus their practice on criminal law, tort, family law, corporate law, or a wide range of other areas. The majority of individuals holding a J.D. must pass an examination in order to be licensed to practice law within their respective jurisdictions.


title: Master of Laws

text: If a person wishes to gain specialized knowledge through research in a particular area of law, they can continue their studies after an LL.B. or J.D. in an LL.M. program. The word "legum" is the genitive plural form of the Latin word "lex" and means "of the laws". When used in the plural, it signifies a specific body of laws, as opposed to the general collective concept embodied in the word "jus", from which the words "juris" and "justice" derive. LL.M. is sometimes incorrectly written L.L.M., but Latin abbreviations of plural terms are indicated by doubling the abbreviation of the singular term.


title: Master of Laws

text: The highest degree in law is the Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D or J.S.D., depending on the institution), and it is equivalent to the Doctor of Philosophy in Law (Ph.D. or DPhil) or doctorat en droit (in France). The full equivalent in Germany is the Doktor der Rechtswissenschaften (Dr. iur.) (but German universities require completion of a second doctoral thesis, a Habilitation, to become qualified for teaching as a full professor, but can waive this requirement and usually do so for qualified foreigners). There are also variant doctoral degrees, such as the D.C.L. (Doctor of Civil Law) degree bestowed by McGill University in Canada. Most schools require an LL.M. before admission to an S.J.D. or a Ph.D. in law degree program. Like the Ph.D., the S.J.D. degree generally requires a dissertation that is graded (often by two graders), orally defended (by an exam known as "viva voce") and then often published as a book or series of articles. The "Doctor of Laws" (LL.D.) degree in the United States is usually an honorary degree.


title: Master of Laws

text: Historically, the LL.M. degree is an element particular to the education system of English speaking countries, which is based on a distinction between Bachelor's and Master's degrees. Over the past years, however, specialized LL.M. programs have been introduced in many European countries, even where the Bologna process has not yet been fully implemented.


title: Master of Laws

text: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Italy and Switzerland require a Master's with an additional two to five years to become a lawyer.


title: Master of Laws

text: In Finland, an LL.M. is the standard graduate degree required to practice law. No other qualifications are required.


title: Master of Laws

text: To be allowed to practice law in the Netherlands, one needs an LL.M. degree with a specific (set of) course(s) in litigation law. The Dutch Order of Lawyers (NOVA) require these courses for every potential candidate lawyer who wants to be conditionally written in the district court for three years. After receiving all the diplomas prescribed by NOVA and under supervision of a "patroon" (master), a lawyer is eligible to have his own practice and is unconditionally written in a court for life but he/she will need to continually update his/her knowledge.


title: Master of Laws

text: There is a wide range of LL.M. programs available worldwide, allowing students to focus on almost any area of the law. Most universities offer only a small number of LL.M. programs. One of the most popular LL.M. degrees in the United States is tax law, sometimes referred to as an MLT (Master of Laws in Taxation).


title: Master of Laws

text: Other LL.M. degree programs include bankruptcy law, banking law, commercial law, criminal law, data privacy law, dispute resolution, construction law, cybersecurity law, entertainment law, environmental law, estate planning (usually as a sub-specialty of tax law), financial services law, human rights law, information technology law, insurance law, intellectual property law, international law, law and economics, litigation, maritime law, military law, patent law, prosecutorial sciences, real estate law, social care law, telecommunications law, trade law, Trial Advocacy. Some law schools allow LL.M. students to freely design their own program of study from the school's many upper-level courses and seminars, including commercial and corporate, international, constitutional, and human rights law.


title: Master of Laws

text: In Europe, LL.M. programs in European law are recently very popular, often referred to as LL.M. Eur (Master of European Law).


title: Master of Laws

text: In the Netherlands and its former colonies, the title used was (mr.). This title is still widely used in the Netherlands and Flanders (Belgium), especially by those who studied Dutch or Belgium law respectively.


title: Master of Laws

text: Some LL.M. programs, particularly in the United States, and also in China, focus on teaching foreign lawyers the basic legal principles of the host country (a "comparative law" degree).


title: Master of Laws

text: Moreover, some programs are conducted in more than one language, give the students the opportunity to undertake classes in differing languages.


title: Master of Laws

text: The length of time it will take you to study an LLM program will depend on your mode of study. Most full-time on-campus courses take one academic year to complete, and this is a busy intensive year of study so students need to factor in the cost of not working while they study. Other students may complete their LLM program on a part-time basis over two years but increasingly courses are available online. These courses are aimed at those students already working and usually take between two and five years to complete.


title: Master of Laws

text: International students often get confused between an LL.M program and a JD (Juris Doctor). A JD is mostly only studied in the United States as part of the process to become a qualified practising lawyer and can be considered equivalent to an LLB in the UK, despite being a postgraduate course. Both LL.M courses and JD courses in the US are offered at law schools, with both LL.M and JD students usually attending the same lectures and classes.


title: Master of Laws

text: LL.M. programs are usually only open to those students who have first obtained a degree in law, typically an LL.B. or J.D. There are exceptions to this, but an undergraduate degree or extensive experience in a related field is still required. Full-time LL.M. programs usually last one year and vary in their graduation requirements. Most programs require or allow students to write a thesis. Some programs are research oriented with little classroom time (similar to a M.Phil.), while others require students to take a set number of classes (similar to a taught degree or M.Sc.).


title: Master of Laws

text: LL.M. degrees are often earned by students wishing to develop more concentrated expertise in a particular area of law. Pursuing an LL.M. degree may also allow law students to build a professional network. Some associations provide LL.M. degree holders with structures designed to strengthen their connections among peers and to access a competitive business environment, much like an MBA degree.


title: Master of Laws

text: In Australia, the LL.M. is generally only open to law graduates. However, some universities permit non-law graduates to undertake variants of the degree. There are nearly 100 LLM courses in Australia across 25 institutions taught in English.


title: Master of Laws

text: The shortage of graduate program/articles places has resulted in some LL.B. graduates proceeding directly to an LL.M. course before seeking graduate employment.


title: Master of Laws

text: Unique variants of the LL.M. exist, such as the Master of Legal Practice (M.L.P.) available at the Australian National University, where students who have completed the Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice (which law graduates must obtain before being able to be admitted as a solicitor/barrister), will be granted some credit towards the Master qualification. Other variants of the LL.M. are more similar to the LL.M. available in the wider Commonwealth but under a different title, for example Master of Commercial Law, Master of International Law or Master of Human Rights Law. These courses are usually more specialised than a standard LL.M.


title: Master of Laws

text: In Canada, the LL.M. is generally open to law graduates holding an LL.B., LL.L., B.C.L., or a J.D. as a first degree. Students can choose to take research based LL.M. degrees or course based LL.M. degrees. Research based LL.M. degrees are one- or two-year programs that require students to write a thesis that makes a significant contribution to their field of research. Course based LL.M. degrees do not require a significant research paper. An LL.M. can be studied part-time, and at some schools, through distance learning. LL.M. degrees can be general, or students can choose to pursue a specialized area of research.


title: Master of Laws

text: Canadian law graduates pursue LL.M. degrees because they would like to pursue a career in academia or because they would like to deepen their knowledge in a specific area of the law. Canadian law graduates in most of the provinces in Canada must complete an internship with a law firm (known as "articling") and a professional legal training course, as well as pass professional exams in order to be called to the bar in a province.


title: Master of Laws

text: Foreign trained lawyers who wish to practice in Canada will first need to have their education and experience assessed by the Federation of Law Societies of Canada's National Committee on Accreditation. Upon having received a certificate of accreditation from the National Committee on Accreditation, foreign law graduates would then have to obtain articles with a law firm, take the professional legal training course, and pass the professional exams to be called to the bar in a province.


title: Master of Laws

text: The University of British Columbia's LLM in Common Law is an example of one of a few LLM courses that help to prepare students for the professional exams.


title: Master of Laws

text: The LL.M. is available at China University of Political Science and Law, and the entrance requirements are: a native English speaker, or near native English, with any bachelor's degree. The course is flexible and allows students to study Mandarin and assists with organizing work experience in Beijing and other cities in China. It normally takes two years, but can be completed in one and a half years if students take the required credits in time.


title: Master of Laws

text: The flagship of the China-EU School of Law (CESL) in Beijing is a Double Master Programme including a Master of Chinese Law and a Master of European and International Law. The Master of European and International Law is taught in English, open for international students and can be studied as a single master programme. CESL also offers an International Master of Chinese Law (IMCL) which is an LL.M. in Chinese law taught entirely in English.


title: Master of Laws

text: Beijing Foreign Studies University has launched an online LLM for international professionals. The course is taken over two years, with the first covering online lessons through video and assignments, the second year is for the dissertation and an online defense is required at the end. Students are required to attend Beijing for an introductory week in September to enroll and meet students and staff. Students also have the opportunity to take work experience at a top five law firm in China.


title: Master of Laws

text: LL.M degree programs are available at many other universities in Mainland China, such as at Peking University, Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, and Shanghai International Studies University.


title: Master of Laws

text: The LL.M. in International Business Law is available at Panthéon-Assas University (Paris), the oldest school of law in France.


title: Master of Laws

text: A further 11 institutions in France offer almost 20 other LLM programs taught in English, with specialisms including European Law.


title: Master of Laws

text: In Germany, the LL.M. is seen as an advanced legal qualification of supplementary character. As such, Master of Laws programmes are generally open not only to law graduates, but also to graduates of related subjects or those displaying a genuine interest in and link to the particular LL.M. programme in question. Some graduates choose to undertake their LL.M. directly following their "Erstes Juristisches Staatsexamen" (the "first state examination" constitutes the first stage of the official German legal training and completes the German law degree as a "Jurist" which is an equivalent to Masters), an alternative postgraduate course, or their "Zweites Juristisches Staatsexamen" (that is, the second and final stage of the official German legal training, following which graduates are referred to as "Volljuristen" who then have access to practice in different branches of the legal profession). On the other hand, many professionals now take career breaks in order to study for an LL.M., in particular for subjects of growing importance or those with constantly changing dynamics, such as European law, economic law or media law for example.


title: Master of Laws

text: LL.M. degree programmes are offered by the law faculties of The University of Hong Kong, the Open University of Hong Kong, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and the City University of Hong Kong. An LL.B. degree is usually required for admission, but for some specialised programmes, such as the LL.M. in Human Rights programme offered by HKU, require an undergraduate degree in laws or any related discipline.


title: Master of Laws

text: In India, the thrust of legal education is on the undergraduate law degrees with most of those opting for the undergraduate law degree either going forward to enroll themselves with the Bar Council of India and start practicing as Advocates or giving legal advice without being eligible to appear in courts (a consequence of non-enrollment). Similar to the United Kingdom, a master's degree in law in India is basically opted to specialize in particular areas of law. Traditionally the most popular areas of specialization in these master's degrees in law in India have been constitutional law, family law and taxation law.


title: Master of Laws

text: However, with the establishment of the specialized autonomous law schools in India in 1987 (the first was the National Law School of India University) much emphasis is being given at the master's level of legal education in India. With the establishment of these universities, focus in specialization has been shifted to newer areas such as corporate law, intellectual property law, international trade law etc. Master's degree of Law in India was in earlier times of 2 years but at present it is of only 1 year.


title: Master of Laws

text: A number of universities and colleges in Ireland offer LL.M. Master of Laws programmes, such as Dublin City University, Trinity College Dublin, University College Cork who have an LL.M. e-Law programme, National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG) who offer an LL.M in Public Law, National University of Ireland, Maynooth (NUIM), who offer an LLM programme and an LLM in International Business Law (this is a dual degree with the Catholic University of Lyon), The Law Society of Ireland in partnership with Northumbria University offer two LLM programmes, and Griffith College in Dublin and Cork who offer LL.M. programmes in International, Commercial and Human Rights Law. Hibernia College offer a completely online LL.M. in International Business Law validated by Birmingham City University.


title: Master of Laws

text: University College Dublin also offers the Masters in Common Law (MCL/ "Magisterii in Jure Communi, M.Jur.Com)", an advanced two-year programme for non-law graduates. The degree is a qualifying law degree for admittance to the entrance exams of the Honorable Society of King's Inns.


title: Master of Laws

text: Italy offers both master programs in Italian and in English, depending on the school. They are often called "laurea specialistica", that is, the second step of the Bologna plan (European curriculum), and in this case they last two years. For example, the University of Milan offers a 2 years LLM on Sustainable Development. In South Tyrol programmes are also taught in German, as in Bolzano.


title: Master of Laws

text: In Italy the term "master" often refers to a vocational master, 6 or 12 months long, on specific areas, such as "law and internet security", or "law of administrative management", is often taught part-time to allow professionals already working in the field to improve their skills.


title: Master of Laws

text: The LLM in International Business Law from Panthéon-Assas University is also available in Mauritius in Medine Village campus.


title: Master of Laws

text: The Norwegian legal degrees master i rettsvitenskap (English for master in jurisprudence) are officially translated to English as Master of Laws (LL.M.), as these degrees are more comprehensive than the basic graduate law degree in common law countries (e.g., J.D. and LL.B). The last year in the five-year professional Norwegian law degree program is thus considered to correspond to a LL.M specialization. In addition, the universities with legal faculties at the masters level offers several LL.M programmes. For example, Universitetet i Oslo offers tuition-free LL.M courses in Public International Law, Maritime Law, Information and Communication Technology (ICT Law), as well as distinct specializations in human rights.


title: Master of Laws

text: In Pakistan, University of the Punjab, University of Karachi, Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto University of Law, International Islamic University, Islamabad, Government College University, Faisalabad, University of Sargodha are LL.M. degree awarding institutions.


title: Master of Laws

text: Completing a LL.M. qualification in Pakistan consists of studying eight subjects in four semesters; this spans over a period of two years and also requires the student to write a thesis on a proposed topic. A student has to pass in each of the subject in order to qualify for LL.M. degree, and the passing mark is set at 60%. The programme is taught in English.


title: Master of Laws

text: Universities in Pakistan teach comparative constitutional law, comparative human rights law and comparative jurisprudence as mandatory subjects. The programmes also include research methodology and four elective subjects, which may include company law, taxation law, intellectual property law and banking law.


title: Master of Laws

text: The Master of Laws programmes offered in Portugal are extremely varied but haven't, for the most part, adopted the designation LL.M., being more commonly called "Mestrado em Direito" (Master's Degree in Law), like the ones at Coimbra University's Faculty of Law and Lusíada University of Porto. Albeit the classical "Mestrado em Direito" takes two years to finish and involves a scientific dissertation, there are some shorter variants. A few "Mestrados" with an international theme have specifically adopted the LL.M designation: the LL.M in European and Transglobal Business Law at the School of Law of the University of Minho and the LL.M. Law in a European and Global Context and the Advanced LL.M. in International Business Law, both at the Católica Global School of Law, in Lisbon.


title: Master of Laws

text: The LL.M. in International Business Law from Panthéon-Assas University is also available in Singapore in Insead campus.


title: Master of Laws

text: In South Africa, the LL.M. is a postgraduate degree offered both as a course-based, and as a research-based Master's. In the former case, the degree comprises advanced coursework in a specific area of law as well as (limited) related research, usually in the form of a "short dissertation", while in the latter, the degree is entirely thesis ("dissertation") based. The first type, typically, comprises "practice-oriented" topics (e.g. in tax, mining law), while the second type is theory-oriented, often preparing students for admission to LL.D. or Ph.D. programmes; see . The research Master's essentially reflects an ability to conduct independent research, whereas a Doctoral thesis is, in addition, an original contribution in the field of study. Admission is generally limited to LL.B. graduates, although holders of other law degrees, such as the BProc, may be able to apply if admitted as attorneys and / or by completing supplementary LL.B. coursework.


title: Master of Laws

text: In Taiwan, law can be studied as a postgraduate degree resulting in an LL.M. Some LL.M. programs in Taiwan are offered to students with or without a legal background. However, the graduation requirements for students with a legal background are lower than for those students who do not have a legal background (to account for fundamental legal subjects that were taken during undergraduate studies). Students studying in an LL.M. program normally take three years to earn the necessary credits and finish a master's thesis.


title: Master of Laws

text: In the United Kingdom, an LL.M. programme is open to those holding a recognised legal qualification, generally an undergraduate degree in Laws or a CPE. They do not have to be or intend to be legal practitioners. An LL.M. is not required, nor is it a sufficient qualification in itself to practise as a solicitor or barrister, since this requires completion of the Legal Practice Course, Bar Professional Training Course, or, if in Scotland, the Diploma in Legal Practice, but is an opportunity to gain specialist knowledge of a particular area of law or an understanding of the legal systems of other nations. As with other degrees, an LL.M. can be studied on a part-time basis at many institutions and in some circumstances by distance learning. Some providers of the Bar Professional Training Course and the Legal Practice Course also allow the student to gain an LL.M. qualification on top of these professional courses by writing a dissertation.


title: Master of Laws

text: The UK offers over 1000 different LL.Ms across its HE sector. Large law faculties such as Queen Mary University of London offer 25 different programs, whilst other such as Aston University simply offer one program which sits within their business school portfolio. Institutions allow those without a first degree in law onto their LL.M. programme although there are still minimum educational requirements, such as an undergraduate degree, or evidence of substantial professional experience in a related field. Examples of such programmes include the Master of Studies in Legal Research at Oxford, the LL.M. degrees at the University of Edinburgh and LL.M.s at the University of Leicester In addition, Queen's University Belfast offers an LL.M. suite, accessible to legal and social science graduates, leading to specialisms in sustainable development, corporate governance, devolution or human rights. Northumbria University offers an innovative approach to an LL.M. qualification to students starting the master's programme as undergraduates. Students completing this four-year programme graduate with a combined LL.M. and Legal Practice Course professional qualification or BPTC.


title: Master of Laws

text: An LL.M course can therefore sometimes be a choice comparable to an MBA or an accountancy degree, acting as a supplementary discipline intended for career enhancement. So, for example, an engineer working extensively with matters such as intellectual property (patents, etc.) may seek broader knowledge and recognition by pursuing an LL.M.


title: Master of Laws

text: The University of Law (UK) offers two online LL.M. programmes in Legal Practice (Conflict Resolution) and Legal Practice (Intellectual Property).


title: Master of Laws

text: The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge have taken slightly different approaches to other British universities to postgraduate legal study, as they have in other areas.


title: Master of Laws

text: The University of Cambridge has a taught postgraduate law course, which formerly conferred an LL.B. on successful candidates (undergraduates studying law at Cambridge received a B.A.). In 1982 the LL.B. for postgraduate students was replaced with a more conventional LL.M. to avoid confusion with undergraduate degrees in other universities. Additionally in 2012 the University of Cambridge introduced the M.C.L. (Masters of Corporate Law) aimed at postgraduate students with interests in corporate law.


title: Master of Laws

text: The University of Oxford unconventionally names its taught masters of laws B.C.L. (Bachelor of Civil Law) and M.Jur. (Magister Juris), and its research masters either MPhil (Master of Philosophy) or MSt (Master of Studies). Oxford continues to name its principal postgraduate law degree the B.C.L. for largely historic reasons, as the B.C.L. is one of the oldest (and therefore within the Oxford hierarchy, most senior) degrees, having been conferred since the sixteenth century. The M.Jur. was introduced in 1991. At present there is no LL.M. degree conferred by the university. Oxford claims that the B.C.L. is "the most highly regarded taught masters-level qualification in the common law world". Additionally in 2010 the University of Oxford introduced the MSc in Law and Finance (MLF). The degree is taught jointly by the Faculty of Law and the Saïd Business School. The MLF programme involves a combination of finance and economic courses combined with BCL law courses.


title: Master of Laws

text: In the United States, the acquisition of an LL.M. degree is often a way to specialize in an area of law such as tax law, business law, international business law, health law, trial advocacy, environmental law or intellectual property. A number of schools have combined J.D.-LL.M. programs, while others offer the degree through online study. Some LL.M. programs feature a general study of American law. Degree requirements vary by school, and they often differ for LL.M. students who previously earned a J.D. from an American law school and LL.M. students who previously earned a law degree from a non-American law school.


title: Master of Laws

text: An LL.M. degree from an ABA-approved law school also allows a foreign lawyer to become eligible to apply for admission to the bar (license to practice) in certain states. Each state has different rules relating to the admittance of foreign-educated lawyers to state bar associations.


title: Master of Laws

text: An LL.M. degree from an ABA-approved law school qualifies a foreign legal graduate to take the bar exam in Alabama, California, New Hampshire, New York, Texas, as well as in the independent republic of Palau.


title: Master of Laws

text: In addition, legal practice in the home jurisdiction plus a certain amount of coursework at an accredited law school qualifies a foreign legal graduate to take the bar exam in Alaska, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia. However, a number of states, including Arizona, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey and North Carolina only recognize J.D. degrees from accredited law schools as qualification to take the bar.


title: Master of Laws

text: New York allows foreign lawyers from civil law countries to sit for the New York bar exam once they have completed a minimum of 24 credit hours (usually but not necessarily in an LL.M. program) at an ABA-approved law school involving at least two basic subjects tested on the New York bar exam. However, beginning for those who take the bar exam in July 2013, applicants will be required to complete 24 credits of law school coursework, including 12 credits in specific areas of law. Lawyers from common-law countries face more lenient restrictions and may not need to study at an ABA-approved law school. Foreign lawyers from both civil law and common law jurisdictions, however, are required to demonstrate that they have successfully completed a course of law studies of at least three years that would fulfill the educational requirements to bar admission in their home country.


title: Master of Laws

text: As of 2008, there is one LL.M. degree in International Law offered by The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, the oldest school of international affairs in the United States. Given that the degree specializes in international law, and is not teaching a first degree in U.S. law (the J.D. degree), the program has not sought ABA accreditation.


title: Master of Laws

text: The Notre Dame Law School at the University of Notre Dame offers an LL.M in International Human Rights Law to JD graduates from ABA-accredited US schools or LL.B or equivalent from accredited non-US schools.


title: Master of Laws

text: Both Duke University School of Law and Cornell Law School offer J.D. students the opportunity to simultaneously pursue an LL.M. in International and Comparative Law.


title: Master of Laws

text: The University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Law provides an LL.M. in Space, Cyber & Telecommunications Law, the only program providing focused study in these three areas. The program was established using a grant from NASA and a partnership with the U.S. Air Force Strategic Command.


title: Master of Laws

text: St. Mary's University offers the LL.M. in International and Comparative Law, with students having the option to complete both it and their J.D. simultaneously.


title: Master of Laws

text: The University of Tulsa College of Law offers an LL.M. in American Indian and Indigenous Peoples Law to JD graduates from ABA-accredited US schools or LL.B or equivalent from accredited non-US schools.


title: Master of Laws

text: The University of Washington School of Law offers an LL.M. in Sustainable International Development, the first program of its kind to focus on international development law. LL.M. students in this program are also able to elect for a concentration in Indigenous Rights Law. Similarly, the school offers a separate LL.M. degree in Asian and Comparative Law.


title: Master of Laws

text: There is one institution that offers an ABA-approved LL.M, that does not offer the first degree in law (the J.D. degree): The U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Legal Center and School offers an officer's resident graduate course, a specialized program beyond the first degree in law, leading to an LL.M. in Military Law, with concentrations in Administrative and Civil Law, Government Contract and Fiscal Law, Criminal Law, and Operational and International Law.


title: Metropolitan France

text: Metropolitan France ( or "la Métropole"), also known as European France () is the area of France which is geographically in Europe. This collective name for the European regions of France is used in everyday life in France but has no administrative meaning. Indeed, the overseas regions have exactly the same administrative status as the metropolitan regions. Metropolitan France comprises mainland France and Corsica, as well as nearby islands in the Atlantic Ocean, the English Channel (), and the Mediterranean Sea.


title: Metropolitan France

text: In contrast, overseas France is the collective name for all the French territories outside Europe. Metropolitan and overseas France together form the French Republic. Metropolitan France accounts for 82.0% of the land territory, 3.3% of the exclusive economic zone (EEZ), and 95.9% of the population of the French Republic. Some small parts of France (e.g. Cerdanya) are a part of the Iberian Peninsula.


title: Metropolitan France

text: In overseas France, a person from metropolitan France is often called a "métro", short for "métropolitain".


title: Metropolitan France

text: The term "metropolitan France" dates from the country's colonial period (from the 16th to the 20th centuries), when France was referred to as "la Métropole" (literally "the Metropolis"), as distinguished from its colonies and protectorates, known as "les colonies" or "l'Empire". Similar terms existed to describe other European colonial powers (e.g. "metropolitan Britain", "España metropolitana"). This application of the words "metropolis" and "metropolitan" came from Ancient Greek "metropolis" (from μήτηρ "mētēr" "mother" and πόλις "pólis" "city, town"), which was the name for a city-state that created colonies across the Mediterranean (e.g. Marseille was a colony of the city-state of Phocaea; therefore Phocaea was the "metropolis" of Marseille). By extension "metropolis" and "metropolitan" came to mean "motherland", a nation or country as opposed to its colonies overseas.


title: Metropolitan France

text: Today, some people in Overseas France object to the use of the term "la France métropolitaine" due to its colonial history. They prefer to call it "the European territory of France" (le territoire européen de la France), as the Treaties of the European Union do. Likewise, they oppose treating overseas France and metropolitan France as separate entities. For example, INSEE used to calculate its statistics (demography, economy, etc.) for metropolitan France only, and to analyze separate statistics for the overseas departments and territories. People in the overseas departments have opposed this separate treatment, arguing that the then four overseas departments were fully part of France.


title: Metropolitan France

text: As a result, since the end of the 1990s INSEE has included the four overseas departments in its figures for France (such as total population or GDP). The fifth overseas department, Mayotte, has been included in the figures for France since the mid-2010s too. INSEE refers to metropolitan France and the five overseas departments as "la France entière" ("the whole of France"). "The whole of France" includes the five overseas departments, but does not include the other overseas collectivities and territories that have more autonomy than the departments. Other branches of the French administration may have different definitions of what "la France entière" is. For example, in contrast to INSEE, when the Ministry of the Interior releases election results, they use the term "la France entière" to refer to the entire French Republic, including all of overseas France, and not just the five overseas departments.


title: Metropolitan France

text: Note that since INSEE now calculates statistics for "la France entière", this practice has spread to international institutions. For instance, the French GDP published by the World Bank includes metropolitan France and the five overseas departments. The World Bank refers to this total as "France"; it does not use the phrase "the whole of France", as INSEE does.


title: Metropolitan France

text: Metropolitan France covers a land area of , while overseas France covers a land area of , for a total of in the French Republic (excluding Adélie Land in Antarctica where sovereignty is suspended since the signing of the Antarctic Treaty in 1959). Thus, metropolitan France accounts for 82.0% of the French Republic's land territory.


title: Metropolitan France

text: At sea, the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of metropolitan France covers , while the EEZ of Overseas France covers , for a total of in the French Republic (excluding Adélie Land). Thus, metropolitan France accounts for 3.3% of the French Republic's EEZ.


title: Metropolitan France

text: According to INSEE, 65,250,000 people lived in metropolitan France as of January 2021, while 2,785,000 lived in overseas France, for a total of 68,035,000 inhabitants in the French Republic. Thus, metropolitan France accounts for 95.9% of the French Republic's population.


title: Metropolitan France

text: In the second round of the 2017 French presidential election, 35,467,327 French people cast a ballot (meaning a turnout of 74.56%). 33,883,463 of these (95.53% of the total voters) cast their ballots in metropolitan France (turnout: 76.26%), 1,003,910 (2.83% of the total voters) cast their ballots in overseas France (turnout: 53.59%), and 579,954 (1.64% of the total voters) cast their ballots in foreign countries (French people living abroad; turnout: 45.84%).


title: Metropolitan France

text: The French National Assembly is made up of 577 deputies, 539 of whom (93.4% of the total) are elected in metropolitan France, 27 (4.7% of the total) in overseas France, and 11 (1.9% of the total) by French citizens living in foreign countries.


title: Metropolitan France

text: Mainland France (French: "la France continentale"), or just "the mainland" (French: "le continent"), does not include the French islands in the Atlantic Ocean, English Channel or Mediterranean Sea, the largest of which is Corsica.


title: Metropolitan France

text: In Corsica, people from the mainland part of metropolitan France are referred to as "les continentaux".


title: Metropolitan France

text: A casual synonym for the mainland part of metropolitan France is l'Hexagone ("the Hexagon"), for its approximate shape, and the adjective "hexagonal" may be a casual synonym of French (usually understood as metropolitan only, except in topics related to the foreign affairs and national politics of France as a whole). The image of France as a hexagon first appeared in French geography texts of the 1850s.


title: European Central Bank

text: The European Central Bank (ECB) is the prime component of the Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as well as one of seven institutions of the European Union. It is one of the world's most important central banks.


title: European Central Bank

text: The ECB Governing Council makes monetary policy for the Eurozone and the European Union, administers the foreign exchange reserves of EU member states, engages in foreign exchange operations, and defines the intermediate monetary objectives and key interest rate of the EU. The ECB Executive Board enforces the policies and decisions of the Governing Council, and may direct the national central banks when doing so. The ECB has the exclusive right to authorise the issuance of euro banknotes. Member states can issue euro coins, but the volume must be approved by the ECB beforehand. The bank also operates the TARGET2 payments system.


title: European Central Bank

text: The ECB was established by the Treaty of Amsterdam in May 1999 with the purpose of guaranteeing and maintaining price stability. On 1 December 2009, the Treaty of Lisbon became effective and the bank gained the official status of an EU institution. When the ECB was created, it covered a Eurozone of eleven members. Since then, Greece joined in January 2001, Slovenia in January 2007, Cyprus and Malta in January 2008, Slovakia in January 2009, Estonia in January 2011, Latvia in January 2014 and Lithuania in January 2015. The current President of the ECB is Christine Lagarde. Headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, the bank formerly occupied the Eurotower prior to the construction of its new seat.


title: European Central Bank

text: The ECB is directly governed by European Union law. Its capital stock, worth €11 billion, is owned by all 27 central banks of the EU member states as shareholders. The initial capital allocation key was determined in 1998 on the basis of the states' population and GDP, but the capital key has been readjusted since. Shares in the ECB are not transferable and cannot be used as collateral.


title: European Central Bank

text: The European Central Bank is the "de facto" successor of the European Monetary Institute (EMI). The EMI was established at the start of the second stage of the EU's Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) to handle the transitional issues of states adopting the euro and prepare for the creation of the ECB and European System of Central Banks (ESCB). The EMI itself took over from the earlier European Monetary Cooperation Fund (EMCF).


title: European Central Bank

text: The ECB formally replaced the EMI on 1 June 1998 by virtue of the Treaty on European Union (TEU, Treaty of Maastricht), however it did not exercise its full powers until the introduction of the euro on 1 January 1999, signalling the third stage of EMU. The bank was the final institution needed for EMU, as outlined by the EMU reports of Pierre Werner and President Jacques Delors. It was established on 1 June 1998 The first President of the Bank was Wim Duisenberg, the former president of the Dutch central bank and the European Monetary Institute. While Duisenberg had been the head of the EMI (taking over from Alexandre Lamfalussy of Belgium) just before the ECB came into existence, the French government wanted Jean-Claude Trichet, former head of the French central bank, to be the ECB's first president. The French argued that since the ECB was to be located in Germany, its president should be French. This was opposed by the German, Dutch and Belgian governments who saw Duisenberg as a guarantor of a strong euro. Tensions were abated by a gentleman's agreement in which Duisenberg would stand down before the end of his mandate, to be replaced by Trichet.


title: European Central Bank

text: Trichet replaced Duisenberg as president in November 2003. Until 2007, the ECB had very successfully managed to maintain inflation close but below 2%.


title: European Central Bank

text: The European Central Bank underwent through a deep internal transformation as it faced the global financial crisis and the Eurozone debt crisis.


title: European Central Bank

text: The so-called "European debt crisis" began after Greece's new elected government uncovered the real level indebtedness and budget deficit and warned EU institutions of the imminent danger of a Greek sovereign default.


title: European Central Bank

text: Foreseeing a possible sovereign default in the eurozone, the general public, international and European institutions, and the financial community reassessed the economic situation and creditworthiness of some Eurozone member states, in particular Southern countries. Consequently, sovereign bonds yields of several Eurozone countries started to rise sharply. This provoked a self-fulfilling panic on financial markets: the more Greek bonds yields rose, the more likely a default became possible, the more bond yields increased in turn.


title: European Central Bank

text: This panic was also aggravated because of the inability of the ECB to react and intervene on sovereign bonds markets for two reasons. First, because the ECB's legal framework normally forbids the purchase of sovereign bonds (Article 123. TFEU), This prevented the ECB from implementing quantitative easing like the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England did as soon as 2008, which played an important role in stabilizing markets.


title: European Central Bank

text: Secondly, a decision by the ECB made in 2005 introduced a minimum credit rating (BBB-) for all Eurozone sovereign bonds to be eligible as collateral to the ECB's open market operations. This meant that if a private rating agencies were to downgrade a sovereign bond below that threshold, many banks would suddenly become illiquid because they would lose access to ECB refinancing operations. According to former member of the governing council of the ECB Athanasios Orphanides, this change in the ECB's collateral framework "planted the seed" of the euro crisis.


title: European Central Bank

text: Faced with those regulatory constraints, the ECB led by Jean-Claude Trichet in 2010 was reluctant to intervene to calm down financial markets. Up until 6 May 2010, Trichet formally denied at several press conferences the possibility of the ECB to embark into sovereign bonds purchases, even though Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy faced waves of credit rating downgrades and increasing interest rate spreads.


title: European Central Bank

text: In a remarkable u-turn, the ECB announced on 10 May 2010, the launch of a "Securities Market Programme" (SMP) which involved the discretionary purchase of sovereign bonds in secondary markets. Extraordinarily, the decision was taken by the Governing Council during a teleconference call only three days after the ECB's usual meeting of 6 May (when Trichet still denied the possibility of purchasing sovereign bonds). The ECB justified this decision by the necessity to "address severe tensions in financial markets." The decision also coincided with the EU leaders decision of 10 May to establish the European Financial Stabilisation mechanism, which would serve as a crisis fighting fund to safeguard the euro area from future sovereign debt crisis.


title: European Central Bank

text: The ECB's bond buying focused primarily on Spanish and Italian debt. They were intended to dampen international speculation against those countries, and thus avoid a contagion of the Greek crisis towards other Eurozone countries. The assumption is that speculative activity will decrease over time and the value of the assets increase.


title: European Central Bank

text: Although SMP did involve an injection of new money into financial markets, all ECB injections were "sterilized" through weekly liquidity absorption. So the operation was neutral for the overall money supply.


title: European Central Bank

text: In September 2011, ECB's Board member Jürgen Stark, resigned in protest against the "Securities Market Programme" which involved the purchase of sovereign bonds from Southern member states, a move that he considered as equivalent to monetary financing, which is prohibited by the EU Treaty. The "Financial Times Deutschland" referred to this episode as "the end of the ECB as we know it", referring to its hitherto perceived "hawkish" stance on inflation and its historical Deutsche Bundesbank influence.


title: European Central Bank

text: As of 18 June 2012, the ECB in total had spent €212.1bn (equal to 2.2% of the Eurozone GDP) for bond purchases covering outright debt, as part of the Securities Markets Programme. Controversially, the ECB made substantial profits out of SMP, which were largely redistributed to Eurozone countries. In 2013, the Eurogroup decided to refund those profits to Greece, however the payments were suspended over 2014 until 2017 over the conflict between Yanis Varoufakis and ministers of the Eurogroup. In 2018, profits refunds were reinstalled by the Eurogroup. However, several NGOs complained that a substantial part of the ECB profits would never be refunded to Greece.


title: European Central Bank

text: The ECB played a controversial role in the "Troika" by rejecting all forms of debt restructuring of public and private debts, forcing governments to adopt bailout programmes and structural reforms through secret letters to Italian, Spanish, Greek and Irish governments. It has further been accused of interfering in the Greek referendum of July 2015 by constraining liquidity to Greek commercial banks.


title: European Central Bank

text: In November 2010, it became clear that Ireland would not be able to afford to bail out its failing banks, and Anglo Irish Bank in particular which needed around 30 billion euros, a sum the government obviously could not borrow from financial markets when its bond yields were soaring to comparable levels with the Greek bonds. Instead, the government issued a 31bn EUR "promissory note" (an IOU) to Anglo – which it had nationalized. In turn, the bank supplied the promissory note as collateral to the Central Bank of Ireland, so it could access emergency liquidity assistance (ELA). This way, Anglo was able to repay its bondholders. The operation became very controversial, as it basically shifted Anglo's private debts onto the government's balance sheet.


title: European Central Bank

text: It became clear later that the ECB played a key role in making sure the Irish government did not let Anglo default on its debts, in order to avoid a financial instability risks. On 15 October and 6 November 2010, the ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet sent two secret letters to the Irish finance Minister which essentially informed the Irish government of the possible suspension of ELA's credit lines, unless the government requested a financial assistance programme to the Eurogroup under condition of further reforms and fiscal consolidation.


title: European Central Bank

text: Over 2012 and 2013, the ECB repeatedly insisted that the promissory note should be repaid in full, and refused the Government's proposal to swap the notes with a long-term (and less costly) bond until February 2013. In addition, the ECB insisted that no debt restructuring (or bail-in) should be applied to the nationalized banks' bondholders, a measure which could have saved Ireland 8 billion euros.


title: European Central Bank

text: In April 2011, the ECB raised interest rates for the first time since 2008 from 1% to 1.25%, with a further increase to 1.50% in July 2011. However, in 2012–2013 the ECB sharply lowered interest rates to encourage economic growth, reaching the historically low 0.25% in November 2013. Soon after the rates were cut to 0.15%, then on 4 September 2014 the central bank reduced the rates by two thirds from 0.15% to 0.05%. Recently, the interest rates were further reduced reaching 0.00%, the lowest rates on record.


title: European Central Bank

text: The European Central Bank was not ready to manage the money supply under the crisis of 2008, therefore, it started using the instrument of quantitative easing only in 2015.


title: European Central Bank

text: In a report adopted on 13 March 2014, the European Parliament criticized the "potential conflict of interest between the current role of the ECB in the Troika as ‘technical advisor’ and its position as creditor of the four Member States, as well as its mandate under the Treaty". The report was led by Austrian right-wing MEP Othmar Karas and French Socialist MEP Liem Hoang Ngoc.


title: European Central Bank

text: On 1 November 2011, Mario Draghi replaced Jean-Claude Trichet as President of the ECB. This change in leadership also marks the start of a new era under which the ECB will become more and more interventionist and eventually ended the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis.


title: European Central Bank

text: Draghi's presidency started with the impressive launch of a new round of 1% interest loans with a term of three years (36 months) – the Long-term Refinancing operations (LTRO). Under this programme, 523 Banks tapped as much as €489.2 bn (US$640 bn). Observers were surprised by the volume of the loans made when it was implemented. By far biggest amount of was tapped by banks in Greece, Ireland, Italy and Spain. Although those LTROs loans did not directly benefit EU governments, it effectively allowed banks to do a carry trade, by lending off the LTROs loans to governments with an interest margin. The operation also facilitated the rollover of of maturing bank debts in the first three months of 2012.


title: European Central Bank

text: Facing renewed fears about sovereigns in the eurozone continued Mario Draghi made a decisive speech in London, by declaring that the ECB "...is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the Euro. And believe me, it will be enough." In light of slow political progress on solving the eurozone crisis, Draghi's statement has been seen as a key turning point in the eurozone crisis, as it was immediately welcomed by European leaders, and led to a steady decline in bond yields for eurozone countries, in particular Spain, Italy and France.


title: European Central Bank

text: Following up on Draghi's speech, on 6 September 2012 the ECB announced the Outright Monetary Transactions programme (OMT). Unlike the previous SMP programme, OMT has no ex-ante time or size limit. However, the activation of the purchases remains conditioned to the adherence by the benefitting country to an adjustment programme to the ESM. The program was adopted with near unanimity, the Bundesbank president Jens Weidmann being the sole member of the ECB's Governing Council to vote against.


title: European Central Bank

text: Even if OMT was never actually implemented until today, it made the "Whatever it takes" pledge credible and significantly contributed in stabilizing financial markets and ended the sovereign debt crisis. According to various sources, the OMT programme and "whatever it takes" speeches were made possible because EU leaders previously agreed to build the banking union.


title: European Central Bank

text: In November 2014, the bank moved into its new premises, while the Eurotower building was dedicated to host the newly established supervisory activities of the ECB under the Single Supervisory Mechanism.


title: European Central Bank

text: Although the sovereign debt crisis was almost solved by 2014, the ECB started to face a repeated decline in the Eurozone inflation rate, indicating that the economy was going towards a deflation. Responding to this threat, the ECB announced on 4 September 2014 the launch of two bond buying purchases programmes: the Covered Bond Purchasing Programme (CBPP3) and Asset-Backed Securities Programme (ABSPP).


title: European Central Bank

text: On 22 January 2015, the ECB announced an extension of those programmes within a full-fledge "quantitative easing" programme which also included sovereign bonds, to the tune of 60 billion euros per month up until at least September 2016. The programme was started on 9 March 2015.


title: European Central Bank

text: On 8 June 2016, the ECB added corporate bonds to its asset purchases portfolio with the launch of the corporate sector purchase programme (CSPP). Under this programme, it conducted net purchase of corporate bonds until January 2019 to reach about €177 billion. While the programme was halted for 11 months in January 2019, the ECB restarted net purchases in November 2019.


title: European Central Bank

text: In July 2019, EU leaders nominated Christine Lagarde to replace Mario Draghi as ECB President. Lagarde resigned from her position as managing director of the International Monetary Fund in July 2019 and formally took over the ECB's presidency on 1 November 2019.


title: European Central Bank

text: Lagarde immediately signaled a change of style in the ECB's leadership. She embarked the ECB's into a strategic review of the ECB's monetary policy strategy, an exercise the ECB had not done for 17 years. As part of this exercise, Lagarde committed the ECB to look into how monetary policy could contribute to address climate change, and promised that "no stone would be left unturned." The ECB president also adopted a change of communication style, in particular in her use of social media to promote gender equality, and by opening dialogue with civil society stakeholders.


title: European Central Bank

text: However, Lagarde's ambitions were quickly slowed down with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.


title: European Central Bank

text: In March 2020, the ECB responded quickly and boldly by launching a package of measures including a new asset purchase programme: the €1,350 billion Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP) which aimed to lower borrowing costs and increase lending in the euro area. The PEPP was extended to cover an additional €500 billion in December 2020. The ECB also re-launched more TLTRO loans to banks at historically low levels and record-high take-up (€1.3 trillion in June 2020). Lending by banks to SMEs was also facilitated by collateral easing measures, and other supervisory relaxations. The ECB also reactivated currency swap lines and enhanced existing swap lines with central banks across the globe.


title: European Central Bank

text: As a consequence of the COVID-19 crisis, the ECB extended the duration of the strategy review until September 2021. On 13 July 2021, the ECB presented the outcomes of the strategy review, with the main following announcements:


title: European Central Bank

text: Unlike many other central banks, the ECB does not have a "dual mandate" where it has to pursue two equally important objectives such as price stability and full employment (like the US Federal Reserve System). The ECB has only one primary objective – price stability – subject to which it may pursue secondary objectives.


title: European Central Bank

text: The primary objective of the European Central Bank, set out in Article 127(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, is to maintain price stability within the Eurozone. However the EU Treaties do not specify exactly how the ECB should pursue this objective. The European Central Bank has ample discretion over the way it pursues its price stability objective, as it can self-decide on the inflation target, and may also influence the way inflation is being measured.


title: European Central Bank

text: The Governing Council in October 1998 defined price stability as inflation of under 2%, "a year-on-year increase in the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) for the euro area of below 2%" and added that price stability "was to be maintained over the medium term". In May 2003, following a thorough review of the ECB's monetary policy strategy, the Governing Council clarified that "in the pursuit of price stability, it aims to maintain inflation rates below, but close to, 2% over the medium term".


title: European Central Bank

text: Since 2016, the European Central Bank's president has further adjusted its communication, by introducing the notion of "symmetry" in its definition of its target, thus making it clear that the ECB should respond both to inflationary pressure to deflationary pressures. As Draghi once said "symmetry meant not only that we would not accept persistently low inflation, but also that there was no cap on inflation at 2%."


title: European Central Bank

text: On 8 July 2021, as a result of the strategic review led by the new president Christine Lagarde, the ECB officially abandoned the "below but close to two percent" definition and adopted instead a 2% symmetric target.


title: European Central Bank

text: Without prejudice to the objective of price stability, the Treaty (127 TFEU) also provides room for the ECB to pursue other objectives:"Without prejudice to the objective of price stability, the ESCB shall support the general economic policies in the Union with a view to contributing to the achievement of the objectives of the Union as laid down in Article 3 of the Treaty on European Union."This legal provision is often considered to provide a "secondary mandate" to the ECB, and offers ample justifications for the ECB to also prioritize other considerations such as full employment or environmental protection, which are mentioned in the Article 3 of the Treaty on the European Union. At the same time, economists and commentators are often divided on whether and how the ECB should pursue those secondary objectives, in particular the environmental impact. ECB official have also frequently pointed out the possible contradictions between those secondary objectives. To better guide the ECB's action on its secondary objectives, it has been suggested that closer consultation with the European Parliament would be warranted.


title: European Central Bank

text: The principal monetary policy tool of the European central bank is collateralised borrowing or repo agreements. These tools are also used by the United States Federal Reserve Bank, but the Fed does more direct purchasing of financial assets than its European counterpart. The collateral used by the ECB is typically high quality public and private sector debt.


title: European Central Bank

text: All lending to credit institutions must be collateralised as required by Article 18 of the Statute of the ESCB.


title: European Central Bank

text: The criteria for determining "high quality" for public debt have been preconditions for membership in the European Union: total debt must not be too large in relation to gross domestic product, for example, and deficits in any given year must not become too large. Though these criteria are fairly simple, a number of accounting techniques may hide the underlying reality of fiscal solvency—or the lack of same.


title: European Central Bank

text: In the United States Federal Reserve Bank, the Federal Reserve buys assets: typically, bonds issued by the Federal government. There is no limit on the bonds that it can buy and one of the tools at its disposal in a financial crisis is to take such extraordinary measures as the purchase of large amounts of assets such as commercial paper. The purpose of such operations is to ensure that adequate liquidity is available for functioning of the financial system.


title: European Central Bank

text: The Eurosystem, on the other hand, uses collateralized lending as a default instrument. There are about 1,500 eligible banks which may bid for short-term repo contracts. The difference is that banks in effect borrow cash from the ECB and must pay it back; the short durations allow interest rates to be adjusted continually. When the repo notes come due the participating banks bid again. An increase in the quantity of notes offered at auction allows an increase in liquidity in the economy. A decrease has the contrary effect. The contracts are carried on the asset side of the European Central Bank's balance sheet and the resulting deposits in member banks are carried as a liability. In layman terms, the liability of the central bank is money, and an increase in deposits in member banks, carried as a liability by the central bank, means that more money has been put into the economy.


title: European Central Bank

text: To qualify for participation in the auctions, banks must be able to offer proof of appropriate collateral in the form of loans to other entities. These can be the public debt of member states, but a fairly wide range of private banking securities are also accepted. The fairly stringent membership requirements for the European Union, especially with regard to sovereign debt as a percentage of each member state's gross domestic product, are designed to ensure that assets offered to the bank as collateral are, at least in theory, all equally good, and all equally protected from the risk of inflation.


title: European Central Bank

text: The ECB has four decision-making bodies, that take all the decisions with the objective of fulfilling the ECB's mandate:


title: European Central Bank

text: The Executive Board is responsible for the implementation of monetary policy (defined by the Governing Council) and the day-to-day running of the bank. It can issue decisions to national central banks and may also exercise powers delegated to it by the Governing Council. Executive Board members are assigned a portfolio of responsibilities by the President of the ECB. The executive board normally meets every Tuesday.


title: European Central Bank

text: It is composed of the President of the Bank (currently Christine Lagarde), the vice-president (currently Luis de Guindos) and four other members. They are all appointed by the European Council for non-renewable terms of eight years. Member of the executive board of the ECB are appointed "from among persons of recognised standing and professional experience in monetary or banking matters by common accord of the governments of the Member States at the level of Heads of State or Government, on a recommendation from the Council, after it has consulted the European Parliament and the Governing Council of the ECB".


title: European Central Bank

text: José Manuel González-Páramo, a Spanish member of the executive board since June 2004, was due to leave the board in early June 2012, but no replacement had been named as of late May. The Spanish had nominated Barcelona-born Antonio Sáinz de Vicuña – an ECB veteran who heads its legal department – as González-Páramo's replacement as early as January 2012, but alternatives from Luxembourg, Finland, and Slovenia were put forward and no decision made by May. After a long political battle and delays due to the European Parliament's protest over the lack of gender balance at the ECB, Luxembourg's Yves Mersch was appointed as González-Páramo's replacement.


title: European Central Bank

text: The Governing Council is the main decision-making body of the Eurosystem. It comprises the members of the executive board (six in total) and the governors of the National Central Banks of the euro area countries (19 as of 2015).


title: European Central Bank

text: According to Article 284 of the TFEU, the President of the European Council and a representative from the European Commission may attend the meetings as observers, but they lack voting rights.


title: European Central Bank

text: Since January 2015, the ECB has published on its website a summary of the Governing Council deliberations ("accounts"). These publications came as a partial response to recurring criticism against the ECB's opacity. However, in contrast to other central banks, the ECB still does not disclose individual voting records of the governors seating in its council.


title: European Central Bank

text: The General Council is a body dealing with transitional issues of euro adoption, for example, fixing the exchange rates of currencies being replaced by the euro (continuing the tasks of the former EMI). It will continue to exist until all EU member states adopt the euro, at which point it will be dissolved. It is composed of the President and vice-president together with the governors of all of the EU's national central banks.


title: European Central Bank

text: The supervisory board meets twice a month to discuss, plan and carry out the ECB's supervisory tasks. It proposes draft decisions to the Governing Council under the non-objection procedure. It is composed of Chair (appointed for a non-renewable term of five years), Vice-chair (chosen from among the members of the ECB's executive board) four ECB representatives and representatives of national supervisors. If the national supervisory authority designated by a Member State is not a national central bank (NCB), the representative of the competent authority can be accompanied by a representative from their NCB. In such cases, the representatives are together considered as one member for the purposes of the voting procedure.


title: European Central Bank

text: It also includes the Steering Committee, which supports the activities of the supervisory board and prepares the Board's meetings. It is composed by the chair of the supervisory board, Vice-chair of the supervisory board, one ECB representative and five representatives of national supervisors. The five representatives of national supervisors are appointed by the supervisory board for one year based on a rotation system that ensures a fair representation of countries.


title: European Central Bank

text: The ECB is governed by European law directly, but its set-up resembles that of a corporation in the sense that the ECB has shareholders and stock capital. Its initial capital was supposed to be €5 billion and the initial capital allocation key was determined in 1998 on the basis of the member states' populations and GDP, but the key is adjustable. The euro area NCBs were required to pay their respective subscriptions to the ECB's capital in full. The NCBs of the non-participating countries have had to pay 7% of their respective subscriptions to the ECB's capital as a contribution to the operational costs of the ECB. As a result, the ECB was endowed with an initial capital of just under €4 billion. The capital is held by the national central banks of the member states as shareholders. Shares in the ECB are not transferable and cannot be used as collateral. The NCBs are the sole subscribers to and holders of the capital of the ECB.


title: European Central Bank

text: Today, ECB capital is about €11 billion, which is held by the national central banks of the member states as shareholders. The NCBs’ shares in this capital are calculated using a capital key which reflects the respective member's share in the total population and gross domestic product of the EU. The ECB adjusts the shares every five years and whenever the number of contributing NCBs changes. The adjustment is made on the basis of data provided by the European Commission.


title: European Central Bank

text: All national central banks (NCBs) that own a share of the ECB capital stock as of 1 February 2020 are listed below. Non-Euro area NCBs are required to pay up only a very small percentage of their subscribed capital, which accounts for the different magnitudes of Euro area and Non-Euro area total paid-up capital.