UCL - Comparative criminal law

[DROP2121]

[30h] 5 credits

This course is taught in the 2d semester.

Teacher(s): Maria Luisa Cesoni

Language: French

Level: Second

Aims
Main themes
Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Aims

- The understanding of some specific concepts which characterize different legal systems.
- The familiarisation with some foreign penal legislations.
- The development of a critical analysis, based on the understanding of the relativity of the different legislative choices and of the bases of these differences.
- The awareness of the importance of the respect of fundamental rights in the production and in the implementation of the criminal law.
- The reinforcement of the capacity of the students to build their own field of analysis starting from the comparison
of different rules.

The course is based on participatory teaching methods (learning through projects or problems, review of the relevant case-law and doctrine, debates with guest speakers, field studies ...) which allow the students to develop independently a critical, forward-looking and inventive look on public international law. Students are encouraged to participate and to get involved in learning, which has both an individual and a collective dimension.

Main themes

The course aims to introduce to the comparative approach of criminal law and aims at presenting the basis of the principal legal systems (civil law vs. common law) and of the principal types of penal procedure (accusatory and inquisitoire or mixed).
On the basis of the study of the legislations of countries whose legal systems differ (and which will be selected according to the languages known by the students), the course will approach, in a comparative way, some particular topics related to the general principles of the criminal law, the incriminations, the penal procedure and, if necessary, the judicial organization.

For each subject, the teaching aims to enlighten the various choices offered to the legislator through the comparison of the differences and resemblances of the studied rules. It also aims to identify the concepts which connect or oppose the national legislations, and to analyse the framework of the rights and freedoms which underlies these rules.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

The determination of the program and of the contributions of the students will be decided in the first lesson, in which the presence of all the students is required.

Nota bene: the passive knowledge of at least one foreign language is required for the participation in this course.