10/12/2009 (Agence Europe) - Entry to legal traineeships in a member state may be made conditional on a broad and in-depth knowledge of national law. Although Community law requires that the qualifications and experience of candidates who obtained their diplomas in law in another member state be fully taken into account, it does not require that the level of knowledge of national law required be lowered for such candidates. That, in substance, was the ruling delivered by the Court of Justice on Thursday 10 December in case C-345/08, opposing Polish citizen Krzystof Peœla and the Justice Ministry of the German Land of Mecklemburg-Western Pomerania. The Ministry refused to admit Peœla to the first period of training prior to sitting the second State examination that is required by Germany to be able to exercise a legal profession, although Peœla had obtained a Master's degree in German-Polish legal studies from the University of Frankfurt-an-der-Oder, in Germany. The German court decided that the Master of German and Polish Law degree did not attest to the level of knowledge required by German law. (O.L./transl.rt)