Face-to-face , second term, 30 hours of theory.

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French.

By the end of the course, the students should be able to master the fundamental notions of the criminal law procedure, not only in terms of theory, but also in its practical implications. The students should be able to explain the different stages that mark the criminal trial (information, inquiry, trial, right of appeal, etc.) as well as the role and responsibilities of the different protagonists who comprise it (prosecutor, judge, defence, civil party, etc.). The students should also be able to use the different sources of criminal law procedure, be they legislative or jurisprudential, national or international.

None, except the general knowledge provided by the courses of the first year programme of the bachelor of law, and the "Criminal law" course given in the first semester of the second year of the bachelor of law.

Having set out the guiding principles of criminal law procedure, the course will describe the exercise and suppression modes of public action and civil action. It will then move on to the protagonists and characteristics of the pre-trial stage (information and inquiry) and trial stage of the criminal trial, ending with the examination of appeal rights.

The course is a lecture centred around: emphasising the most important points of the subject matter; establishing links between the different parts of the course and comparisons between principales and concepts; the commentary of applicable clauses and the illustration of principles based on decisions of jurisprudence.

The final assessment is an oral examination on the subject matter studied in class, including two questions that the students may prepare in writing. Additional questions may be asked during the oral examination. The questions aim to assess the students' level of knowledge, to test their ability to read, understand and explain legal texts. The students must have their Penal Code with them, the Code can be highlighted and contain references, but cannot contain any comments or annotations.

The course uses the following book as support:
M-A. Beernaert, N. Colette-Basecq, Ch. Guillain, P. Mandoux, M. Preumont, D. Vandermeersch, Introduction à la procédure pénale, La Charte, 2011.
The students should also be in possession of an updated Penal Code.

Besides the course's support documents, the students may refer to the following work: Bosly h-d., Vandermeersch d. et Beernaert m-a., Droit de la procédure pénale, 5e éd., Bruxelles, La Charte, 2008, to deepen their understanding of the subject matter or to guide them in their practical work.

Tools that the students may have at their disposal during the examination:

The students should have an updated Penal Code. This Code can be highlighted, divided into sections by “post-its”, but cannot contain any annotations (with the exception of numerical references to other legislative dispositions, without any commentary). The students can supplement their Code with additional texts (conventions, treaties, laws, regulations…), however these documents cannot contain annotations.

The students can have at their disposal the jurisprudential decisions studied during the tutorials as well as the diagram of the criminal trial. Again these documents cannot contain any annotations.

The Criminal proceedings work (see above), the table of contents and the syllabus of practical exercises cannot be brought to the examination; only the jurisprudential decisions and the diagram of criminal procedure (without annotations).