Dear Professor Cahoy,

In my opinion, a student should not be allowed to undertake
such a project without at least (1) a good reading knowledge
of Italian and (2) some knowledge of Italian law in
general.  It is clear from the student's message that she is
way out of her depth.

It might make sense to require that the project be limited
to EU law, rather than attempting to include Italian
domestic law.  However, although the necessary EU materials
are available in English, some general knowledge of EU law
would be necessary.  Does she have sufficient background in
that?

It seems to me that you should be providing guidance here,
not merely facilitating an inappropriate project.  Your
student needs to learn to walk before she tries to run the
high hurdles, but, in this instance, she wants to run them
wearing a blindfold.

Peter W. Schroth

Dan Cahoy wrote:
>
> One of my honors advisees has a need for some rather
> complex research assistance. . . .
>
> The student is looking for information on Italian insider
> trading regulations, but can't seem to find anything
> substantive that isn't in Italian (go figure).  Her
> specific request is below in quotes. . . .
>
> "As we'd previously discussed, I was looking to compare
> investor relations
> practices and more specifically, insider trading laws, in
> the US to those of
> Italy for my thesis.  The information on the US is clearly
> not a problem to
> find.  Yet in my preliminary research, I had found a lot
> of links in Italian
> so I had assumed the information was out there in English
> as well.  After
> having spent extensive time with the librarians in the
> Business Library, we
> have found that a lot of the information appears to be
> solely in Italian and
> due to the nature and complexity of the law, beyond my
> comprehension."
>