Contract law + Exercises session with casus

The teaching unit (UE) provides basic training in the law of special (civil) contracts and extra-contractual civil liability.  

It is a direct extension of the law of obligations course, which has made it possible to study the general theory of obligations by deepening two specific sources of civil obligations: the contractual legal act appointed by the legislator, and the legal fact legally qualified as a liability-generating event. In doing so, the UE also provides the necessary foundations for the study of more specialised subjects within the scope of the Bachelor's degree (business law, labour law, certain elective courses, etc.) and the Master of Laws, whether as part of the compulsory core curriculum (e.g. private international law) or in elective courses or specializations (in-depth consumer law,   real estate law, commercial contract law, credit law, accident or disaster law, insurance law, environmental law, digital law, etc.). 

The UE is part of the aims set out in the Manifesto for Law Education adopted by our Faculty in 2015 (R.I.E.J., 2016/1, Vol. 74, pp. 169-175). 

https://dial.uclouvain.be/pr/boreal/en/object/boreal%3A178251/datastream/PDF_01/view) 

In particular, the mastery of concepts, their application to concrete situations, and the development of a critical mindset are the general objectives of the UE.  

Moreover, the subjects are directly related to our daily lives, particularly that of students: noticing that the recently purchased smartphone presents defects, shopping online, renting a student flat or an apartment to establish one's primary residence, renting a shared bike or a shared scooter, assuming responsibility as a chef or during a student job, causing or suffering damage as a result of a road traffic accident,  being implicated in damage caused by one's pet, being dissatisfied with a service provided by their mechanic, being represented in a vote, etc. Links are thus regularly made with "practical life", thanks to examples as well as some case law decisions. 

The teaching unit (UE) consists of two activities, understood as forming a coherent whole. The teaching team ensures the strongest possible coordination between theoretical instruction (lectures) and practical work sessions.
The course focuses on the study of Belgian law, integrating recent reforms (particularly Books 1, 5, and 6) and reform projects (Book 7) of the Civil Code. European law, resulting from transposed directives and applicable regulations, is also addressed in relation to specific themes (consumer protection, environmental protection, AI and “smart” objects, and specialties)

The second part of the course is devoted to an examination of the regime of the main special civil contracts, understood as the most common contracts, namely:

• the sales contract;
• the contract for work;
• the mandate contract;
• the so-called "common law" lease contract;
• the residential lease contract in the Brussels-Capital Region.

This part directly extends the study of the general regime of contractual obligations, as it was reformed with the adoption of Books 1 and 5 of the Civil Code, and places the regimes in critical perspective.
It begins with a (brief) general introduction, which is based, by recalling them, on the fundamental principles of the common law of contracts, to then be able to carry out a critical, transversal, and decompartmentalized approach to the special contracts whose regime is presented.

Through the examination of the regime of these contracts, it is in particular a question of

• drawing students’ attention, future legal practitioners, to the fact that each particular contract is necessarily part of the confluence of general norms and special norms that should be combined.
• to emphasize the practical interest that there may be for the contracting parties to supplement, adjust, or exclude this general or special right by even more specific norms (contractual clauses) when the legislator authorizes them to do so.

The teaching insists on the importance of drawing links between the two parts of the subject, the concrete situations most often bringing them together.

Practical work sessions (TP) accompany the learning of the subjects taught in the lecture.
This practical work tends to anchor legal knowledge to usefully mobilize it in the resolution of concrete situations as well as to adopt a more transversal and critical reflection. In this way, they make it possible, in particular, to confront a "decompartmentalized" approach to the subjects taught.

It is an ex cathedra teaching, in a large audience.
The teacher pays attention to supporting the progression of the students' knowledge, in particular through systematic reminders, made at the beginning of the course, and relating to the teaching given during the previous course, as well as to test moments or live questions and answers (wooclap or other). A "question and answer" session is organised at the end of the term.
PowerPoints (slides) are placed on Moodle before each class to accompany notetaking.
A "directed" study session on contract and liability law is offered on an optional basis. For two hours placed at the beginning of the blockade, they allow students to come and study on site while benefiting from the presence of the incumbent to answer their questions. On this occasion, the incumbent also presents PowerPoint and synthesis exercises.
In addition to the specifically dedicated moments of exchange that punctuate the teaching, students are invited to give priority to the moments of class (before, between classes or after) to ask their questions.

Practical work sessions (TP) accompany the lecture.
They are given in small groups of maximum 25 students and are supervised by an assistant.
These practical exercises take the form of 6 sessions of 1h30 whose main purpose is the collective resolution of practical cases (casus) relating to subjects taught as part of the lecture.

1° Subject matter subject to the evaluation

The evaluation of the teaching unit (UE) focuses on the subject taught during the lecture, as it is also identified in the PowerPoint course materials available on Moodle. It also covers the "techniques" for solving practical cases that were worked on during the practical work sessions (TP).
Students must ensure that they are up to date: the evaluation is specific to the teaching provided during the academic year during which it takes place. This is especially important in this period of successive (and profound) reforms of the field.

2° Type of evaluation
Lecture
In the first and second sessions, the examination relating to the lecture takes the form of an oral evaluation, which focuses on the subject taught.
The exam is scored out of 20.
The score awarded to this assessment corresponds to 3/4 of the final UE grade.
Only one "main" question is the subject of the preparation time. The other questions are asked on the spot.
The examination may take the form of knowledge questions (a definition exercise, a list of related concepts to be defined, etc.), reflection (a comparison exercise, an "open" theoretical question, a discussion based on a legal provision or an article of the proposal for a new Book 7 of the Civil Code, a reflection to be presented based on the main principles and/or concepts that govern the matter, etc.), as well as the development of initial ways to resolve a practical case whose degree of difficulty is adapted to an oral exam (following a necessarily short preparation time).
Practical work with casus
The evaluation of the practical work is marked out of 20.
The mark awarded corresponds to 1/4 of the final grade of the UE.
The details relating to the evaluation are included in the specifications of the TP.
In the first session, the evaluation focuses on active participation in the sessions and the presentation of the state of the question (5 points out of 20) on the one hand, and on the completion of a written assignment (15 points out of 20) on the other.
If the written work is to be (re)submitted as part of the second session (which is the case if the UE and the practical work were not passed with a mark of 10/20 in the first session), students carry out the work based on the practical file received in the first session.
Regarding the mark out of 5 for participation in the practical sessions and the state of the question, the student has the choice:

• or keep the grade they obtained at the end of the first term: the grade is then carried over and includes the overall mark awarded for the practical work, alongside the written work presented in the second session. Keeping the grade from the first term will automatically be the option chosen by the assistant in the absence of a request from the student to prepare a case law commentary (see next option);
• or try to improve the grade they obtained at the end of the first term, which they must inform the assistant who supervised the practical work by July 15 of the current academic year at the latest. The student will then be required to submit, in addition to the above-mentioned written work, a commentary on a case law decision communicated by the assistant. Failure to submit this commentary will result in a score of 0/5 for the “participation and state of the question” part of the practical work grade. The instructions for the case law commentary are included in the specifications for practical work, to which reference is made.

The written work (state of the question and final work) must be submitted to the assistant according to the terms and conditions defined in the specifications of the practical work (not. sending by email for the "state of the question" and deposit on Moodle for the final work).
As far as the final work is concerned, only the version uploaded to Moodle is authentic, even if a version has been communicated by another means (email or other).
Students will also ensure that the "good" written work is submitted: the submission on Moodle of a work on another subject (e.g. the one relating to another practical work) is equivalent to the failure to submit the expected work and therefore justifies a grade of 0A for the "written work" part of the practical work, and therefore for the UE. It is not up to the assistants to check before the session whether this minimum requirement is met by the students.
The final work (1st and, if applicable, 2nd sessions) must also be accompanied by the commitment of integrity established by the Faculty for the Bachelor of Laws program.
This document must be signed by the student. 
If the signed document is not submitted, the work mark is reduced by two points.
Other important details:

• As noted, participation in the sessions and submission of actual work is mandatory and is subject to a full evaluation.

Unjustified absence from more than one session and unjustified failure to submit a genuine written assignment ("state of the matter" and final work) within the given time and according to the channel identified by the assistant give rise to a mark of 0A/20for the practical work and, therefore, for the UE.
The requirement that the work be a real work is assessed according to the instructions determined in the specifications of the practical work, in accordance with the decision taken by the Faculty Council, to which it is referred.
In the event of a delay in the communication of a written work ("status of the question" and final work) in compliance with the deadline and the channel indicated (email for the "status of the question" and Moodle for the final work) by the assistant, the sanctions are as follows:
- A decrease in the mark of 2 points per 24 hours of delay in the submission of the work;
- The attribution of a score of 0A/20 when the work is submitted more than 5 days late.
This applies to each of the sessions.
 Justification for absences or failure to submit actual work ("status of the matter" and final work) within the imposed deadline must be submitted to the assistant and the faculty administration no later than the day following the end of the impediment (e.g. the day after the last day which is covered by a medical certificate), failing which it is automatically declared inadmissible.

• During the January session, in the event of failure in only one of the activities of the UE, and success in the other activity, the pass mark that has been acquired is kept with a view to the award of the final mark that will sanction the evaluation of the second session. In other words, between the two sessions of the same academic year, the student retains the pass mark that was awarded for the exam on the lecture or for the practical work, even though he or she would fail the other activity; they must therefore not retake the test in the second session.

Such a favour is not maintained beyond the academic year in which the pass mark was awarded.

• The UE score is expressed in units, from 0 to 20. If rounding is to be carried out to award the final grade of the UE (as it emerges from the integration of the two grades, the one relating to the course and the one relating to the practical work), the teaching team carries out an overall evaluation of the work provided by the student and the skills that he or she has been able to demonstrate in this regard,  especially during oral and "classroom" performances. The UE score is therefore not systematically rounded up; it can be achieved by going down to the lower unit, even if the "integrated" score reaches or exceeds 0.5.

• During the week following the communication of the results of the session, a consultation of the written work is organized by the assistant, according to the modalities he or she specifies.

3° Language of the evaluation
The evaluation tests are held exclusively in French.
The resources used in the context of the written work (TP) must cover doctrine and case law in French and Dutch.
4° Evaluation criteria
Lecture
In line with the learning outcomes identified above, the criteria used in the evaluation of the lecture are as follows:

• the ability to answer the question that is actually asked;
• the ability to reproduce the content of teaching in a synthetic, precise but nevertheless complete way, by demonstrating its ability to distinguish the essential from the incidental and to "attach" particular questions to the more general frameworks to which they belong;
• the ability to legally qualify given factual situations;
• the ability to identify the relevant legal bases, to read them correctly, and to propose their articulation in a relevant way; this competence also assumes that the student demonstrates that they are already familiar with the exercise of using his or her codes and specific legislation;
• the ability to compare related concepts and mechanisms, including the ability to make connections between them in a convincing and well-argued manner;
• the ability to take a critical approach;
• the ability to reason and argue;
• the ability to express oneself orally.

Practical work
Attendance and participation in practical sessions include evaluation.
The criteria for evaluating the quality of the work ("state of the question" and final work) are as follows: in addition to the skills related to the subject and which are identical to those specified for the lecture (see above),

• the quality of the intellectual approach;
• the quality of the methodological approach (quality of the bibliography, sufficiency and relevance of the sources in French and Dutch, correct referencing of sources, etc.);
• the quality of the writing;
• compliance with constraints in terms of text length and deadlines;
• intellectual honesty, which is essential in scientific work, including, where appropriate, the ethical and intelligent use of AI(G).

5° Other details
5.1. Documents and References allowed in the Oral Examination 
Throughout the duration of the exam (preparation and response time), students can have access to:

• their code(s) on the condition that they do not include summaries of case law;

A code BAC is available for purchase at the SVIB Course Materials Office. It is specifically adapted to the subjects taught in the context of the UE. However, students remain free to choose their codes but will in any case respect the general instructions set out below.

• specific laws related to the subject taught, if and only if they are not included in the code(s) carried and are printed in full from an official website, such as the Belgian Official Gazette especially (e.g. no copy/paste made by the student).

As far as the (only) authorized documents are concerned, in accordance with the instructions set out in the BAC Code made available by the Faculty, students are admitted to:

• underlining or highlighting words or sentences;
• circle words (not isolated letters or groups of letters).
• make cross-references from one article to another, accompanied by the title of the corresponding standard, if necessary.

The use of sticky notes and other movable dividers is permitted, but only the title and date of the standard-setting instruments listed on the page marked may be indicated.
Anything not expressly permitted is prohibited.
A check of the documents is carried out at the beginning or during the examination.
Students also undertake not to take connected objects (mobile phones, watches, etc.) with them or nearby. These are placed in personal belongings.
Any non-compliance with the instructions will be brought to the attention of the president of the jury, without taking into consideration the intention or the good/bad faith of the student.
It is up to each student to personally ensure that these instructions are respected.

5.2. PEPS students
Reasonable accommodations linked to a PEPS status are positively received.
However, they are only implemented upon request to the teaching team by the PEPS Unit of the site's education administration (Mrs. Clara Wauthy).
Information on this support scheme is available at https://www.uclouvain.be/fr/aide/contact

Moodle is preferred for the sharing of information (general instructions, provision of course materials, course plans, announcements, special legislation, etc.) and possible tests or collective work arrangements. See also the section above.
Students are invited to consult it regularly.
Additional details will be given by the teaching team if necessary.