The Individual and Family Law

Teacher(s)

Sosson Jehanne; Willems Geoffrey;

Language

French

Main themes

This course will look at the following domains: 1) An introduction to the anthropological, social and cultural evolutions which modify the family and family law. 2) The juridical status of the human individual and especially the existence of personality, civil rights, personality rights and the incapacity regime. 3) The juridical status of couples : the juridical regime of marriage, including matrimonal regimes and the juridical regime of non married couples. 4) Filiation and parental laws and the juridical status of children. 5) Juridical relations within extended families. Lectures which may, if necessary, be completed, depending on course needs by other pedagogical methods. The syllabus must be provided at the beginning of the course semester, as from the second year of the nomination of the lecturer. 12 hours of compulsory practical exercises to help the student develop a practical approach to the subject. The sessions are prepared by the student whose course input is evaluated by the assistant. The course lecturer will, in agreement with the president of the department, be attentive to the coherence and adequation between the practical exercises and the lectures, including what concerns the evaluation. * The practical exercises are not accessible to students doing the minor in Law.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	This course, which ensures a basic training course in law as regards the individual and the family, meets a two-fold objective as follows: - to initiate the student into the understanding of the main problems posed by the considerable evolutions to Western society which affect the status of the individual human being and family and emotional relationships and which, in the same way, make him reflect upon the juridical responses which are or may be given to these problems in Belgium or in Europe and which deliberately take the socio-political stakes of these responses into account ; - to allow the student to get familiar with and assimilate the rules of positive Belgian law in the principal subjects of the individual and family law, including the law on marriage regimes, but excluding succession laws and liberalities which are the subject of a separate law master programme.

Content

The Family Law course aims both to ensure the general education of law students in a particular discipline of positive law and to continue to develop in the student a true legal competence consisting of a precise, rigorous and in-depth understanding of the meaning and scope of a set of legal rules.
The course will therefore have a double dimension:

• on the one hand, to introduce the student to the major questions posed to the law by the evolutions that today affect the status of the human person and family and emotional relationships (reflexive dimension) ;
• on the other hand, to enable the student to know, assimilate and put into practice the rules of Belgian positive law in the main areas of personal and family law (practical dimension).

The course addresses, in particular, the following questions :

• the existence of the human person
• personality rights
• the civil status of the person
• the incapacity of the minor and the major
• the legal status of the couple
• separation and divorce
• filiation
• parental authority
• maintenance obligations
• matrimonial regime
• family litigation

Teaching methods

The course is given in the form of lectures which may be supplemented, according to the needs of the teaching, by other pedagogical methods possibly involving the realization of preliminary readings.
The course is accompanied by 6 sessions of compulsory practical exercises which allow the student to develop a practical approach to the subject. Participation in the sessions is compulsory and involves the completion of exercises before and after the sessions.

Evaluation methods

Students will take a written exam. Several questions will focus on the lectures given by J. Sosson and G. Willems. The answers to these questions will contribute to the final mark of 15/20.  In addition, one question will consist of an exercise written by the course assistants that will mobilize the knowledge and skills acquired during the practical exercises. This question will intervene for 4/20.  Finally, the completion of the Moodle exercises planned throughout the quadrimester as part of the practical exercises is mandatory and 1/20 will be awarded for the completion of all these exercises.

Online resources

Both teachers provide students with course notes on Moodle, organized in a five-part plan with several chapters each:
Part 1: The person
Part 2: Couples
Part 3: Children
Part 4: Matrimonial Property
Part 5: Family Court
These notes are deposited on the course site before they are taught.

Faculty or entity

BUDR