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

French

By the end of the course, the students should master the specificities of natural law in regards to both the nature of the ethical questioning it addresses to law and the content of the main answers it brings to it. More broadly, the aim is to accustom students to the idea that legitimacy of legal solutions always remains indebted to an ethical judgement. With this in mind, the aim is to set up the necessary critical elements to be able to discuss numerous contemporary legal questions that have a strong axiological content, while avoiding as much intellectual conformism (legal dogmatism, ideological alignment) as subjectivism and irrationality.

For the Bachelor in Law :

For the Bachelor in History :

For the Bachelor in Modern Languages and Letters: German, Dutch and English :

For the Bachelor in Philosophy :

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The entire course (and 30 hours would not be enough) could be devoted to a “history of ideas” relating to natural law, by reviewing the content of this concept from Aristotle to the present day, though Saint Thomas, Hobbes, Kant, Rousseau and many others. Even if the course sometimes follows this approach, its aim is quite different: the point is to study how the issue of natural law arises nowadays. Therefore in the first part, the course will instruct the “trial of natural law” (way to study its critical relations with substantive law and the established power). Then, it will study several contemporary ways to think the legitimacy of law (legitimation by consistency, by performance or by rational discussion). The course will more specifically discuss the contractarian legitimacy of law (and its modern avatars in the form of “all negotiable”), thus emphasising the dialectic of autonomy and heteronomy at the basis of law.
Based on this theoretical frame, the second part of the course will address the current legal issues representing particularly important ethical stakes. Among the themes likely to be discussed and to which correspond texts in the syllabus, we will mention notably: civil disobedience, democracy's reaction to liberticidal parties, the human time and rights, juridical connection with nature and responsibility towards future generations, media justice, ethico-legal stakes of globalisation.

The course is an ex-cathedra lecture. A syllabus will be available for the students at the beginning of the course. It includes texts by the professor, which cover some of the chapters developed in class.

The assessment is an oral examination. The students have the option to present a personal question. The examination is generally made up of three questions (the students have at their disposal some preparation time for the first question) designed to evaluate the level of appropriation of knowledge by the students and the understanding of the studied subjects. They will be tested on their ability to mobilise analyses presented in class to enlighten legal ethical issues that arise today.

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Syllabus available at the start of the course.