Face-to-face , first term, 45 hours of theory and 15 hours of personal work.

French.

Starting from a historical approach, the students should acquire some keys to understanding the institutional functioning of modern Belgium and the main components of the evolution of civil law and employment law.

For the Bachelor in Law :

None

This course is composed of two parts.
The first part is devoted to the evolution of institutions in contemporary Belgium (from 1830 to the present). The term “institution” should be understood in its broadest sense: everything that establishes politics. This part will focus both on the history of ideas and the political, economic and social institutions.
Then, we will draft a history of the Belgian institutions, in constant comparison with industrialised countries of the same regime. This institutional history will continuously be linked to the political, economic, social and ideological context. We will also study subjects such as the school issue, the Flemish issue, the social issue and the institutional evolution of Belgium from the Unitarian regime to the federal one. The choice to present a course on the history of institutions in Belgium can be explained by the fact that there is no history of Belgium course that the students could follow during their academic degree in law.
The second part of the course (15 hours) is devoted to a historical introduction of contemporary law. We will focus on civil law, especially the codification process of 1804 as well as the subject of persons and employment law.

Lecture.

The assessment is an oral examination.

The reference works of the first part of the course are:
- CRAEYBECKX, J. et WITTE, E, La Belgique politique de 1830 à nos jours. Les tensions d'une démocratie bourgeoise, Bruxelles, Labor, 1987.
- SZRAMKIEWICZ, R. et BOUINEAU, J., Histoire des institutions. 1750-1914, 4e édition, Paris, Litec, 1998.

The reference works of the second part of the course are:
- HALPÉRIN, J.-L., Histoire du droit privé français depuis 1804, Paris, PUF, coll. Droit fondamental, 1996.
- CHLEPNER, B.-S., Cent ans d'histoire sociale en Belgique, 4e édition, Bruxelles, Editions de l'Université de Bruxelles, 1972.

A detailed frame-syllabus accompanies the course. It includes a detailed course outline and numerous bibliographical references.