Key words
Introduction to law
Objectives
The purpose of the course is to familiarize the students with the essence of law or the legal phenomenon, the most central legal concepts, and the functioning of law in our society. The course is focussed on understanding the typical characteristics and structure of law and the legal process in general and on certain basic legal principles that will be presumed as known in the subsequent law courses in the program. It is not intended to provide students with encyclopedic knowledge of specific legal rules relating to certain subject matters.
Topics
The course contains three major parts:
- Part I considers law as a collection of legal rules. It focuses on the:
- characteristics of legal rules in general,
- different types of legal rules according to their content, i.e. the subject matter they deal with (the different "branches of the law"),and
- different types of legal rules according to their source, i.e. the different ways in which legal rules can be created (the so-called "sources of law").
- Part II looks at law as a collection of legal rights. Here we will study the:
- different types of legal rights and their characteristics in general,
- different types of subjects of these rights (persons) and their capacity to be the beneficiary and/or the holder of rights, and
- ways in which legal rights can be created, changed (including transferred from one subject to the other) or extinguished.
- Part III sees law as a process, a specific method of conflict resolution in society.It covers the:
- characteristics of conflicts that can be legally resolved,
- different types of legal conflict resolution (settlement, litigation in the courts and arbitration)
- specific characteristics of the legal method of resolving conflicts (versus other available methods)
- different actors in the process of law, mainly the courts and their jurisdiction, and
- legal value and effect of judicial decisions.
Prerequisites
A general high school degree (secondary education) is sufficient; no specific prior legal education is required or expected.
Final Objectives
Materials used
teacher's text
Study costs
Study guidance
Teaching Methods
lectures
- home study
Assessment
closed book written examination
open book written examination
Lecturer(s)
Marc KRUITHOF
Ludo PEFEROEN
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