Face-to-face , first term, 45 hours of theory.

First term
Monday from 13:30 to 16:30 at Ommegang Om10

French

The course must initiate students who do not intend to pursue a legal profession to situate the place of law in the contemporary society. This implies giving them the technical tools specific and the rigor of this discipline, be it in their lives as a Belgian, European and World citizen, as a user of public services, as an actor in the economic, social and political life, in its personal and collective dimension.

Students will be taught all the pre-requisites for the understanding the more specialized courses of law which, according to the orientations they have chosen, will be offered to them in the course of their studies (constitutional and administrative law, international law, Commercial law, tax law ...)

None

None

In the first part, it will be necessary to define some of the fundamental notions of law (the different types of norms, the key actors of the judicial world, various existing legal systems, national and international, including their relations, rule of law, control of political institutions, etc.)

In the second part, a very general introduction to Belgian public law and the institutions of Belgium will be given, without forgetting the importance of understanding the position of our state in its European and international dimension, including its commitments to human rights.

Finally, a third part should introduce students to the fundamental concepts and mechanisms of private law, and more particularly the law of obligations and contracts.

At the end of these forty-five hours, the students will have learned to work directly with the sources of law: reading a legal norms and their structure, reading and understanding of jurisprudence, handling a compendium of Codes and Standards

A) The lecture
The lectures consist of an exposition of the concepts and explanatory mechanisms, an illustrated presentation of concrete cases inspired by current events or by the history of the law and institutions of Belgium. It follows the general structure of the course plan detailed above and thus also that of the syllabus which, while not complete, takes up the essential data and concepts defined in the course. The syllabus is designed and used by the instructor, during the lecture, as a pedagogical support facilitating the taking of notes.

B) TA sessions
These sessions in small groups allow for the verification of acquired knowledge and use in exercises and case analysis. To make the most of each exercise, students must have previously reviewed the material. In the second half of the semester, the assistant introduces students to reading and comprehension as well as to the technique of summarizing jurisprudential sources

c) Personal work

Regular personal work is an essential element to success in this course. As the course progresses, students must devote a sufficient amount of personal study time to ensure that they understand the subject. At the end of the semester, the period before the examination must not be a period of discovery, but rather a period of revision of a previously understood matter.
Personal work should not be learning by heart. What will be assessed on the exam is not the student's restitutive capacity but rather his understanding of the concepts and explanatory mechanisms and his ability to use them.
To help the students in their regular study, the teacher and the assistant receive the students who wish to do so and respond by email to the questions raised by the lecture.

The final exam is a written exam. First, it involves a multiple choice part, the aim of which is to evaluate students' mastery of the technical concepts of law to which they have been introduced. A second part has open-ended question which allows to evaluate their cross-curricular knowledge of the course and requires them to mobilize a Code. Finally, a decision of jurisprudence is given that they must summarize and show that they understand it.
Examples of previous exams can be found on the course website (see Supports section below)

Syllabus provided at the beginning of the course.

Syllabus of jurisprudence: collection of some jurisprudence decisions to practice their understanding preceded by some explanations to guide them.

Code Bac: a collection of rules of law published each year by the editions of the Chartre under the editorial responsibility of all the holders of a course of law in a subsidiary SPOL or ECGE of the French Community. This Code is available in the syllabus service for the price of 35 euros and is used by all colleagues holding a bachelor's degree course.