Seminaire on the Sources and Principles of Law

Teacher(s)

Mathy Irène;

Language

French

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :

The aim of this seminar is to build on the first term course taught by Monsieur Demarsin (Inleiding tot de Rechtswetenschap). It does so by offering students an overview of the world of law, and seeks to familiarise them with the basic legal concepts that are indispensable for any more advanced study in the different fields of the discipline. At the end of the course students will be able to: • define a range of basic legal concepts (objective law, subjective law, ‘juridicité' (in French administrative law, the principle that the state administration is subject to the different sources of law), justiciability, direct effect, legal personality, norm, law, regulation, and so on); • describe and identify the different legal orders, to set out their relationships and interactions, to list the diverse sources of law that constitute them and to discuss the main principles that are intended to ensure their coherence. With these objectives in mind, the seminar focuses on legal terminology and legal reasoning. Students are required to learn and take on board the standards of rigour and precision that the study and practice of law require. They must also learn how to describe the logic of legal reasoning based on legislation, case law and examples.

Content

The seminar studies the following topics:
• Introduction: description of the subject and the methods of the seminar ; Introduction to legal terminology, to the characteristics of the regal rule and to the various meanings of the notion of “law”.
• Part I - Legal orders: national legal orders (the Belgian legal order; legal families, introduction to comparative law); the international legal order (Overview, UN, Council of Europe, European Union)
• Part II - The relationship between legal orders (Legal Monism, Legal Dualism, Legal Pluralism ; Direct applicability, Direct effect, Primacy)
• Part III - Introduction to the Belgian judicial system and to Belgian civil procedure law (Judicial power ; Scope and sources of Belgian civil procedural law, the judge ; the proceedings)

Teaching methods

• Lecture
• Among the teaching materials, the first to be identified are the notes taken during the course. In order to help the student in taking notes, a syllabus is provided. It is accompanied by a collection of appendices containing the case law decisions commented on during the course, as well as certain other documents, which will also be commented on during the course.
• Lecturers are available to answer all students' questions

Evaluation methods

The examination is based on, and only on, material presented during lectures (whether or not the material studied is indicated on the course syllabus). Any substantive points appearing on the syllabus but not studied in class together will not feature on the examination.

The normal mode of evaluation is the face-to-face test. The examination is oral and lasts on average 15 minutes per student. The student picks a card with two questions, which he or she prepares for at least 15 minutes.
If it is necessary to organise the examination at a distance due to health circumstances (covid-19), the examination remains oral, via Teams. The teacher dictates two questions at the beginning of the connection; at the end of the dictation, the student has twenty minutes to prepare (while remaining connected) and answer the two questions. The reduction in preparation time is linked to the difficulty of controlling how the exam is carried out remotely.

Other information

Students are provided with a course syllabus and syllabus of appendixes (case-law, legislation, …) and are invited to supplement them with their written notes taken during lectures

First standardised annual block of the bachelor's degree in law - Bilingual French-Dutch https://www.usaintlouis.be/sl/2020/maj_droi1ba_fn_en.html

Bibliography

Aucun

Faculty or entity

DRTB