Face-to-face , second term, 30 hours of theory and 9 hours of tutorials with cases.

French

HDDR1215A - Criminal law procedure [2 Q. • 30 Th. • Pond. : 3] Damien Vandermeersch
HDDR1215B - Exercises session with casus in Crimanal law and Procedure [2 Q. • 9 Ex. • Pond. : 1] Camille Leroy

By the end of the course, the students should be able to master the fundamental notions of criminal procedure, not only in terms of theory, but also as to 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 parties who participate to it (prosecutor, judge, defence, civil party, etc.). The students should also be able to use the different sources of criminal procedure, be they legislative or jurisprudential, national or international.

By the end of the practical exercises, the student should have developed:
- a mastery in legal methodology (research and use of sources of law, structure of a text, correct referencing of commentaries);
- the ability to reason in law (identify a legal issue and develop a clear and precise answer; read, understand and analyse legal texts; use legal language correctly; develop a sense of reasoned critique);
- the ability to express himself on a legal issue (through discussions with the lecturer and between peers);
- his time-management (meeting deadlines) and collective work skills (group research and discussions are encouraged; however, each student has to submit a personal and original work)

For the Bachelor in Law (Evening Programme) :

For the Bachelor in Law (Evening Programme) :

Having set out the guiding principles of criminal 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 practical exercises are in line with the constitutional law, criminal law and criminal procedure courses. The aim is to get in touch the legal practice through analysing specific documents and resolving a practical case.

The course is a lecture centred around: emphasising, both in theory and in practice, the most important points of the subject matter; establishing links between the different parts of the course and comparisons between principles and concepts; commenting on applicable clauses and illustrating principles based on numerous examples taken from the legal practice.

Three mandatory sessions of three hours, plus “duty hours” for appointments and the possible visit of a "law venue" (e.g. criminal court hearing).

Are available on eSaintLouis: specifications manual, files and documents discussed during sessions, as well as the statement of the casus.
Outside of course hours, the teachers are available by email and by appointment for further information.

The final assessment of the course takes place through oral examination on the subject matter studied in class, including three questions that the students may prepare in writing during ? of an hour (one question will be based on a practical case). The questions aim to assess the students' level of knowledge, to test their ability to read, understand and explain legal texts and decisions of jurisprudence related to the subject matter. The students must have their Penal Code with them; the Code may be highlighted and contain numeral references, but cannot contain any comments or annotations.

The criteria taken into account for the evaluation of the practical exercises are:
• the compliance with the instructions and methodological constraints
• the quality of the research (selection of sources relevant to the case resolution)
• the relevance of legal reasoning (identifying the legal issues raised by the topic; rigor, precision and consistency in the response)
• the intellectual approach (statements supported by rigorously detailed sources, distinction of levels of speech, critical perspective, clarity of structure);
• writing (layout, level of language, spelling, grammar, vocabulary)

Three weeks after the distribution of the statement, students will be asked to hand in a status report evaluated:
- In the criminal law and criminal procedure tutorials, as a bonus: depending on its quality, it may give the student between -1 and +2 points on the final mark;
- In the constitutional law tutorial, 1/4 of the final mark (i.e.: 5 out of 20 points).

The work is marked out of 20 points.

Course material:

The course uses the following book as reading material: N. BASECQZ, M-A. BEERNAERT, Ch. GUILLAIN, L. KENNES, P. MANDOUX, M. PREUMONT, D. VANDERMEERSCH, Introduction à la procédure pénale, La Charte, 2017.
The students should also be in possession of an updated Penal Code.

Further documents are available on eSaintLouis or handed out during sessions.

Additional material:

Besides the course material, the students may refer to the following work:

M.-A. BEERNAERT, H.-D. BOLSY et D. VANDERMEERSCH, Droit de la procédure pénale, Bruxelles, La Charte, 7ème éd., 2014 (new edition forthcoming, spring 2017), for a more extensive coverage of the subject and/or as support for practical exercises.

As regards the recent legislative amendments brought by Law of 5 February 2016, the student may refer to the collective work M. CADELLI et T. MOREAU (dir.), La loi pot-pourri II : un recul de civilisation ?, Limal, Anthémis, 2016.

When it comes to criminal law, the student will refer to: D. VANDERMEERSCH, Eléments de droit pénal et de procédure pénale, Bruxelles, La Charte, 5ème éd., 2015 ; Y. CARTUYVELS, Ch. GUILLAIN, F. TULKENS et M. VAN DE KERCHOVE, Introduction au droit pénal. Aspects juridiques et criminologiques, 10ème éd., Waterloo, Kluwer, 2014, 944 pp.