A good knowledge of French is necessary to understand the course and pass the examination.
The course Historical Foundations of Private Law aims to familiarize first-year Bachelor of Law students with the terminology, sources, and methods of legal reasoning specific to the European civil law tradition, which emerged from ancient Roman law and its medieval and modern developments.
The historical approach demonstrates that the “traditional” rules and distinctions that are so prevalent in law are neither natural nor immutable, but rather the product of social, political, intellectual, and economic contingencies. It also highlights the fact that legal institutions themselves are constantly reappropriated and reinvented, with the same rule or concept potentially being used in different ways depending on the periods and contexts that give it meaning. Understanding these developments not only provides a better grasp of the law itself, but also makes it possible to take a step back from current and future transformations of our positive law. In this way, knowledge of the historical foundations of our legal system contributes to training professionals who are able to adopt a critical perspective on legal norms.
The course is divided into four main chapters.
Chapter 1 (“Roman Law and its Legacy”, 12 hours) examines the history and foundations of Roman law, tracing its development from Antiquity through to its enduring influence on our contemporary legal systems. It begins by outlining the key stages in the development of Roman law (the Law of the Twelve Tables, the emergence of the Principate, the compilation of Gaius’s Institutes and of the Perpetual Edict by Julian, etc.), before exploring the very notion of law (ius) and the principal sources of Roman law. The course then examines the development of Roman judicial procedure, before turning to the legacy of Roman law and showing how it was transformed during the Middle Ages and the early modern period, as well as how it coexisted with other sources of law – canon law, custom, and, particularly from the sixteenth century onwards, legislation, which foreshadowed the codifications of the modern era. The chapter concludes with an excursus on the history of Belgian codification up to the most recent reforms.
Chapter 2 is devoted to the law of persons and family law, as well as providing an introduction to the law of succession (20 hours). Particular attention is paid to the historical development towards civil equality among all persons and to the shifting boundary between the concepts of “person” and “thing”, particularly in light of the legal status of animals and the emergence of increasingly advanced artificial intelligence systems.
Chapter 3 focuses on the law of property, with particular emphasis on the historical development of property rights (20 hours).
Finally, Chapter 4 addresses the law of obligations, with particular emphasis on the gradual recognition of consensualism in contractual relations, as well as on the emergence of a law of civil liability based on the concept of fault, resulting from developments in both medieval customary law and learned law (ius commune) (20 hours).
This year, the course outline will be included in the lecture slides shared regularly with students.
The tutorial sessions provided for in the course enable students to review the key points covered in the course and apply them to concrete situations. They are taught by a teaching assistant in small groups.
For further information, see supra, under the “Teaching” section ("onglet pédagogie").
Lectures
The course will be taught in a large lecture hall, primarily in a traditional ex cathedra format, and will be supported by PowerPoint slides made available to students after the lectures.
Particular emphasis will be placed on historical sources and on representations of law across time. To this end, the course will draw on a wide range of materials – including visual sources, comics, and excerpts from films and television series – in order to present a history of law that is both engaging and connected to contemporary issues.
Whenever possible, opportunities for collective reflection and interaction will be incorporated into the lectures, notably through tools such as Wooclap.
Tutorial Sessions
The lectures are complemented by tutorial sessions, which enable students to review the key points covered in the course and apply them to concrete situations. Led by a teaching assistant in smaller groups (of approximately 80 students), these sessions are spread throughout the academic year and are designed to reinforce the learning acquired during the lectures and to help students achieve the course objectives.
The course is assessed by means of a written examination. More specifically, each of the two parts of the course is assessed through a separate examination, each lasting a maximum of two hours. The part taught during the first semester must be taken during the January examination session and accounts for 60% of the final grade. The second part (covering the material taught during the second semester) is assessed during the June examination session and accounts for 40% of the final grade. Students who obtain a final grade below 10/20 are required to retake both parts during the second examination session in September.
The examination consists of three parts:
a multiple-choice questionnaire, with no negative marking and no confidence coefficient;
a true/false exercise, for which justification is required;
an open-ended question.
No course materials, legal codes, or dictionaries may be used during the examination.
The assessment criteria are as follows:
accuracy and precision of definitions;
logical structure of answers (reasoning, justification, and internal coherence);
quality of presentation (vocabulary, spelling, and syntax).
The PowerPoint slides for the lectures and tutorial sessions will be made available to students progressively, enabling them to check and supplement the notes they have taken during class.
| Training | Study programme | Block | Credits | Mandatory |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bachelor in Law | Double bac droit-philosophie | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| Bachelor in Law | Standard | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| Bachelor in Law | Erasmus Belgica UHasselt | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| Bachelor in Law | Eramus 2+2+1 | 1 | 9 | Yes |