Criminal procedure - + Exercises session with casus

Teacher(s)

Guillain Christine;

Language

French

Main themes

Learning outcomes

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

With regard to the programme's framework of learning outcomes, the teaching unit contributes to the development and acquisition of the following outcomes:   I. Acquire general culture and interdisciplinary knowledge  II. Acquire specific legal knowledge by approaching, from a critical perspective, on the one hand, the guiding principles of criminal procedure in the light of case law, in particular that of the European Court of Human Rights, and, on the other hand, the actors and acts of the different phases of the criminal trial: preliminary investigation, judicial investigation, and trial.  IV. Acquire analytical, reflective, and argumentative skills based on concrete situations. Using a practical case, students must be able to identify the legal bases applicable to criminal law and criminal procedure, legally qualify the facts, and calculate the applicable sanctions in accordance with a rigorous methodology.  V. Demonstrate proficiency in written and oral communication in French and in a target language.  More broadly, and in terms of transferable skills, students who have followed the criminal law teaching unit will have:  - Perfected the mastery of the French language  - Developed a sense of autonomy  - Refined a personal ethic.

Content

After outlining the guiding principles and formal sources of criminal procedure, the lecture course describes the ways of exercising and extinguishing public and civil actions, then addresses the actors and characteristics of the preliminary phase of the criminal trial (investigation and pre-trial) and the trial phase, before concluding with an examination of avenues of appeal.
As part of the practical exercises, students must draft a state of the question as well as a final paper dealing with concrete issues arising from a described situation.
During the practical sessions, students analyze procedural acts (police reports, warrants issued by the investigating judge, orders of the chamber of counsel, summonses before the criminal court, judgments, etc.) that mark the progress of the criminal trial in order to familiarize themselves with the practice of criminal law and procedure.
Further information is available in the specifications relating to the practical exercises.

Teaching methods

Regarding the lecture course:
The course delivered in the lecture hall consists of a traditional lecture.
The course focuses on highlighting the most important points of the subject matter, establishing links between the different phases of the criminal trial, commenting on the applicable legal provisions, and illustrating principles through case law decisions.
The TU incorporates current events, and students are invited to review the materials made available to them, watch documentaries, or participate in debates related to the subject matter. Experts are invited to share their professional experience during the course.
At the end of each chapter, a summary of the material is provided, and students are invited to participate in an MCQ or Wooclap exercise.
The last lecture is devoted to exam preparation (solving the previous year’s exam) and includes a Q&A session.
The TU is based on the following reference work: Introduction à la procédure pénale, La Charte, 2025 (10th ed.) (with M.-A. Beernaert, N. Colette-Basecq, E. Delhaise, M. Giacometti, C. Guillain, C. Macq, and O. Nederlandt), 480p., available at the reprography center.
A PowerPoint, available on the course’s Moodle site, is projected during lectures to facilitate commentary on legal texts and analysis of case law decisions.
Students are invited to study with their BAC Code2 (2025-2026 edition).
A “case law file” is also available on Moodle and for purchase at the reprography center. It contains all excerpts of decisions covered in the course. Students must have this file at the exam.
Regarding the practical exercises:
The practical exercises, delivered in small groups, are organized in several stages (six 1.5-hour sessions) that allow assistants to guide students’ progress. From the first session, a specification document outlining the required approach and providing bibliographic references is distributed to students. The practical exercises require compliance with the instructions contained in this document. Solving the case study involves using various sources: legislation, doctrine, case law…
An intermediate stage requires the student to submit a state of the question (summarizing the research carried out), enabling the assistant to adjust the student’s orientation.
Individual and/or group office hours are available to allow students to ask questions.
The exercises conclude with a correction session that provides positive evaluation of the work performed.
Students are expected to prepare for practical sessions. Assistants may check preparations through targeted questions.
Students are also invited to attend a correctional hearing at the Brussels courthouse.
Further information is available in the specifications relating to the practical exercises.

Evaluation methods

Type of assessment (and possible arrangements)
The assessment of the TU is based on two components.
On the one hand, a written exam covering the material taught in lectures, consisting of several types of questions (open questions, MCQs, case law commentary, etc.). The questions aim to measure students’ knowledge, test their ability to read, understand, and explain legal texts. Students must bring their BAC Code and their case law file to the exam.
On the other hand, attendance and active participation in practical sessions and the resolution of a case study.
The practical exercises and the lecture course form a single TU. The credits allocated to this TU are indivisible (which means credits are granted for the whole unit or not at all).
The grade for this TU is expressed on a scale of 20 and is obtained by adding the grade for the practical exercises and the grade for the written exam.
The grade for the practical exercises represents 1/4 of the overall grade, while the lecture course represents 3/4 (Article 2, §1, of the Faculty of Law Regulations). The points for the practical exercises are distributed as follows: 2 points for the state of the question, 3 points for active participation in sessions, and 15 points for the final paper.
Unjustified absence from the June or September exam results in a global grade of 0A/20 for the TU in the concerned session. If an attendance grade is required, the student receives 0/20 for the concerned session.
Attendance is mandatory for practical sessions. Unjustified absence from more than one session results in a global grade of “0/20 absent” (0A/20) for the TU. Unjustified absence from one session leads to a deduction of participation points.
Failure to submit the final paper, or submission of a paper that is not “genuine,” results in a global grade of 0A/20 for the concerned session. If an attendance grade is required for submission, the student receives 0/20 for the session.
The paper must comply with the referencing rules taught at UCLouvain Saint-Louis Bruxelles. Students are subject to the Code of Ethics and Conduct applicable to users of UCLouvain information services.
Students are expected to make responsible use of artificial intelligence tools, in accordance with academic and scientific integrity practices, as outlined in the document “Responsible Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence,” approved by the Faculty Council of Law. To this end, students must sign a “Commitment to Integrity.”
The practical paper will be analyzed using the “Compilatio” software, which detects plagiarism and AI-generated content. Any plagiarism (as defined by Article 107, para. 3, of the RGEE and the Code of Ethics), including between students, will be sanctioned.
Further information is available in the specifications relating to the practical exercises.
Assessment Language
French
Assessment Criteria
The written exam assessment aims to:

• Measure students’ knowledge
• Test their ability to read, understand, and explain legal texts and case law decisions related to the subject matter, and to use the BAC Code

The assessment criteria for practical exercises are: quality of research and legal reasoning, intellectual rigor, quality of references and bibliography, quality of writing, compliance with formal requirements, attendance and active participation in sessions, absence of plagiarism, and compliance with AI use rules.
Further information is available in the specifications relating to the practical exercises.
Additional Information
Regarding annotations of the BAC Code, the instructor refers to the instructions included in the BAC Code. Regarding annotations of the case law file, its content may only be circled, underlined, or highlighted in whole or in part, using different colors if necessary. The file may also be divided using bookmarks (or “post-its”) reproducing the titles and subtitles of the file, without any further annotations (no indication of the legal provision related to the subject). Any annotation, even a single word, that exceeds these limits will be considered fraud.
In the week following the release of results, students may review the exam solution on Moodle, and a review session of exam papers, the details of which are announced on Moodle, is organized.

Other information

The schedule and plan of lectures and practical exercises are available on Moodle.
Students are invited to regularly consult the course Moodle to be informed of the latest updates, particularly through announcements, documentation provided, and activities they are invited to attend.
An online forum is available on Moodle to answer questions during the year and the exam session.
At the end of the year, students are asked to evaluate the course and the practical exercises.
Further information is available in the specifications relating to the practical exercises.

Online resources

Numerous resources and hyperlinks are indicated on PowerPoints and uploaded on the course Moodle.

Bibliography

Teaching materials

• Code BAC (2ème BAC)
• Introduction à la procédure pénale, La Charte, 2025 (10ème éd.) (avec M.-A. Beernaert, N. Colette-Basecq, E. Delhaise, M. Giacometti, C. Guillain, C. Macq et O. Nederlandt), 480p.
• Farde de jurisprudence

Faculty or entity

> DRTB