Special Criminal Law - Special Criminal Law

Teacher(s)

Giacometti Mona;

Language

French

Main themes

The object of this course is that of the incriminations and, through those, of the values protected by the criminal law, of the stakes of the criminal policy related to the processes of incrimination, and of the principles that the creation of the incriminations must respect. The principle of legality, which governs the production of the incriminations, will be in particular examined in its various aspects, in the framework of the progressive displacement of the definition of the criminal law out of the national borders. The course will examine a selected number of criminal offences - traditional infringements (such as fight, murder') and recent infringements (such as money laundering, terrorism, racism'), in order to highlight the evolutions of the legislative technique, the shift of the limits of the criminal responsibility, the problems involved in the interpretation of complex rules. The influence of the international and European law will be taken into account.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	This course pursues four complementary goals: - to provide to the students a knowledge on criminal offences (incriminations), intended to supplement the basic training in criminal law; - to lead the students to understand the processes of definition of the incriminations and the main issues related to their implementation; - to familiarize the students with the basic principles which frame the production of the incriminations; - to develop the critical attitude of the students, in order to lead them to analyse in an autonomous way the questions of the values, the purposes and the effectiveness linked to the production of the incriminations and their implementation. These assets should make the students able to understand the context of a changing criminal law, which develops more and more in relation with external references as well to the discipline as to the national territory.

Content

The special criminal law course is devoted to the study of criminal offences, the different elements of these offences and the penalties that punish them. It allows the students to mobilize the concepts and principles developed in the general criminal law course. The offences that we will study will be selected because they are particularly topical (e.g. terrorism, offences on social networks), complex (e.g. organized crime, drug offences) or because they are traditional and widespread offences (e.g. theft, assault and battery, fraud). The analysis of these offences will highlight the values that are protected in our society and the links that special criminal law has with other branches of law (economic law, social law, environmental law, tax law, etc.).
This course aims to bring students to understand the articulation between general criminal law and special criminal law, to distinguish the charachteristics of the offences and to be able, in an autonomous and precise way, to qualify criminally the offending behaviors observed in a particular situation.  It will thus be a useful addition to the basic training in criminal law offered to students.

Teaching methods

The course will be given in the form of three-hour lessons starting in November. 
While the teaching will be resolutely theoretical, the content of the course will be enriched by case law as well as by the daily practice of the teacher. The active participation of the students will be encouraged on the basis of previous readings (judgments, press articles, doctrine), which will be the subject of developments during the lecture sessions.

Evaluation methods

Written exam

Online resources

A detailed course outline and powerpoints will be provided to students. Additional readings will be required to complete the material. They will be posted on Moodle. 

Bibliography

Ouvrages de référence :
F. Kuty, A. De Nauw, Manuel de droit pénal spécial, Waterloo, Kluwer, 2021
Collection Les infractions, Bruxelles, Larcier, vol. 1 à vol. 5

Faculty or entity

BUDR