Legal Dutch

Teacher(s)

de Clippele Marie-Sophie;

Language

Dutch

Prerequisites

The prerequisite(s) for this Teaching Unit (Unité d’enseignement – UE) for the programmes/courses that offer this Teaching Unit are specified at the end of this sheet.

Learning outcomes

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

The aim of the course is to familiarise students with legal texts dealing with general themes of public and private law (doctrine, case law, legislation, letters, etc.) and to make them aware of Flemish legal culture (how can Flemish reality be approached, if not first and foremost through its language, as a prism through which every community perceives the world?) The general learning objective is also to introduce students to legal practice (e.g. introduction to certain legal methods, professions and procedures). The course is designed to be active and should enable students, by the end of the year, to acquire a minimum of technical vocabulary, not in a disembodied way but on the basis of direct contact with targeted legal writings, to understand a text in Dutch in the subjects examined and to express themselves on the subjects seen in the course. The aim of the course is thus to achieve both passive and, as far as possible, active understanding and knowledge of legal Dutch. In this way, the student who has followed the course in ordinary Dutch and the course in legal Dutch will have acquired the necessary skills to follow a legal course in Dutch in BLOCK 3, thus fulfilling the language learning objectives of the Faculty of Law.

Content

As far as possible, students are divided into small groups according to their usual level of Dutch.
A syllabus will be available at the beginning of the term. The course is made up of several themes (around 4 in total, divided into 12 chapters alternating between in-class and small group sessions) and a list of basic legal vocabulary.

The chapters included in the small group classes contain (i) legal texts, and (ii) exercises on understanding the content and vocabulary of these texts. During the term, additional documents and exercises may be made available to students via Moodle.

Students must read and prepare the texts and exercises for the relevant chapter in advance. These are then discussed in small group sessions. Active student participation is required during these sessions.

Teaching methods

The course is delivered through large-audience sessions, as well as a series of sessions given in small groups.
The courses require compulsory attendance and active preparation and participation by the students (30 hours, two hours per week in the second term).
Students who have taken the BAC1 course in standard Dutch in the ‘beginners’ module are required to take a preparatory Dutch module (30 hours, two hours per week) in the first four-month period, which prepares them to take the legal Dutch course in the second four-month period. The courses in this preparatory Dutch module also require compulsory attendance, preparation and active participation.

Evaluation methods

Assessment is based partly on ongoing evaluation of active participation during the small group sessions (and, where appropriate, during the preparatory Dutch module courses) and partly on a written examination.
The exam consists of three parts:

•     A series of vocabulary questions based on texts from the course and the basic vocabulary list
•     A series of questions on the course content (audience sessions and small group sessions)
•     A series of questions examining comprehension of new texts (their genre, structure, scope or content). These new texts are of a similar type and theme to those seen in the course, and the questions asked are also comparable to those raised in the course.

Attendance is compulsory for the small group sessions. In the event of two absences from the small group sessions (and, where applicable, during the preparatory Dutch module classes), a replacement assignment must be completed (even if one of the two absences is unjustified). Two unjustified absences from small-group sessions (and, where applicable, during the Dutch preparatory module) may result in a grade of 0A for the course.

Teaching materials

• Syllabus Néerlandais juridique

Faculty or entity

> DRTB