Aims

The first aim is to provide students with the legal elements of the various offences as well as with an understanding of the process for defining criminal rules and of the main problems encountered in their implementation.

The second purpose is to lead students to reflect independently on questions of values, teleology and effectiveness relating to criminal offences and their enforcement. This experience should enable students to place themselves in a field of criminal law undergoing constant change and which is evolving through influences extrinsic to the discipline itself and extrinsic to national boundaries.

Main themes

The subject matter covered is offences and, through them, the values protected by criminal law. On the one hand, the course deals with the infringements included in book II of the Criminal Code (offences against public law: forgery, diversion, corruption, offences against the person: voluntary homicide, manslaughter and bodily injury, failure to provide assistance, offences against families and children, slander and calumnies, etc; offences against property: theft, swindles, frauds, concealment, etc.) and, on the other hand, the infringements in particular laws (weapons offences, drug related offences, racism, etc.). From a European perspective, this course deals with the fight against national and transnational crime.

Content and teaching methods

The course first examines the impact of criminal law policy on society, the issue of the values that the main categories of offences provided by the criminal code and special laws are intended to protect, and the principles which must be respected in creating offences.

The study of a selected number of offences make it possible to understand the process of creating new offences and the underlying policies; to analyse the definition of the offence and to compare that definition with its enforcement. References to international and European law and some historical and international comparative elements enable students to better assess the choices made by the Belgian legislator. References to current cases make it possible to better understand what is at stake and the outlook for the legal areas under consideration.

Offences are chosen in the field of crimes against life, public health, sexual integrity, public order, public safety and property. The course covers a limited number of offences, since, given the extent of the subject matter, it is not possible to be exhaustive. The approach is based on examples.

The course is a lecture course, with active student participation (case studies and/or playacting); such participation is restricted, however, because of limited course time.

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