Face-to-face , first and second term, 60 hours of theory.

View timetable

Dutch.

This course aims to familiarise the students with legal literature (doctrine, legislation and jurisprudence) and to sensitise them to the Dutch legal culture (how to approach the Flemish reality, if not first through its language as prism through which every community grasps the world?).
This course is designed to be interactive and should thus, by the end of the year, enable the students to acquire a minimum of technical vocabulary used in an appropriate environment, rather than in lists of disembodied words. It will also enable the students to understand a text in Dutch on a studied subject, and to express their opinion on a subject studied in class.

A fundamental knowledge of everyday Dutch is necessary.

In order to optimise the technical approach, the studied themes will present a parallelism with some courses taught in the Bachelor of Laws programme and therefore echo lessons taught in French in the first two academic years: notions of principles of law and constitutional law, civil liberties, legal proceedings, penal law, among others.
The exercises focus on a critical reading of texts (structure, meaning, factual data and opinions), and the linguistic aspects will also be developed (reminder of the usual rules, rhetoric processes, specific meaning of the legal language, etc.).

It is a practical course based on written (compositions, translations) and oral exercises (discussion, short presentations).
A reference work will be available for the students (see below). It includes a series of subjects that are grouped together by theme. To facilitate self-learning, especially of the conceptual vocabulary, the presentations are bilingual and completed by explanations of texts, even contexts, and sometimes grammar. They are also completed by exercises that are discussed and corrected in class.

This reference work is the basis of the course, however the evolution of society, just like the evolution of legislation and jurisprudence, brings us to propose each year new exercises relating to the news (for instance: examination of a law project or a recent court decision). Audio-visual material will sometimes be used.
Two written tests are organised (in December and March).

The final assessment is an oral examination, with a preparation time. It includes three parts: a question of legal knowledge based on one of the themes studied in class, a critical reading of a text (excerpt of an article of doctrine or a court ruling) and a question of translation from French to Dutch. A Dutch dictionary (explanatory) will be available for the students. The result of this assessment may be enhanced by the work achieved during the year.

IB. Dejemeppe (en coll. avec I. Van Heers), Néerlandais juridique (Kluwer, 2005).

Support: reference manual.