Law Clinic "Les Surligneurs"

Teacher(s)

Clarenne Julian; Dahin Charlotte (compensates Léonard Thierry); Léonard Thierry;

Language

French

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 :

In the wake of numerous fact-checking initiatives - including the recent one in Flanders: https://factcheck.vlaanderen/ - the legal clinic "Les Surligneurs" aims to carry out legal-checking, i.e. to verify the conformity with the law of statements made by public figures, particularly in the media. The legal clinic can also try to shed light on the political debate through its legal issues. These two objectives are achieved through "legal highlighting" or "legal clarification" operations, in which students, under the supervision of teachers, write short articles, easily accessible to the general public, where the legal issues are clearly apparent: legally false, problematic, nuanced, incomplete, etc. statements are "highlighted" and politically debated subjects are "clarified" in law. These articles are then put online on the Belgian part of the site currently administered by "Les Surligneurs" France, founders of this successful project and with whom the clinic is partnering: https://lessurligneurs.eu/ . The articles are also disseminated on social networks, all with a view to feeding the public debate. In doing so, the legal clinic is part of the legal design movement, notably conceptualised by Margaret Hagan (Stanford University, USA), which works towards a better understanding, visibility and accessibility of the law from the point of view of its users (user-centred). The clinic is also to be understood in the context of fake news, alternative facts & post-truth, these phenomena being the subject of the next collective research conducted within the Interdisciplinary Seminar of Legal Studies (SIEJ) and entitled "The (post-)truths of law". The emergence of a period of 'post-truth', understood by Marcel Gauchet as 'the adulterated offspring of political correctness' (Le Débat, 2017/5, p. 20-27), poses new questions - and renews the interest of a research on - the relationship between law and truth. The students of the clinic are thus invited to participate in the sessions organised within the framework of this research, in order to provide theoretical input for the practical work of highlighting in the clinic. Finally, the clinic is in line with the Manifesto for legal education "Free and responsible future jurists! " which aims to train students to be actors in society by learning autonomy, critical thinking, creativity and individual responsibility. In addition, the university's Strategic Plan 2023 calls for the development of curricular innovations allowing for a more advanced initiation to the critical analysis of information sources (p. 25). In order to be able to fully satisfy these multiple objectives and in view of the launch of this clinic for the 2021-2022 academic year, which is necessarily exploratory in nature, it seems justified to limit the number of students to 20, and to give priority to students enrolled at the end of the cycle. The ability to write, particularly in a vulgarised manner, legal texts will be especially appreciated.

Content

The clinic pursues two main objectives: verification and clarification of the political debate. In practice, these objectives are achieved through the drafting of short articles by students, under the supervision of faculty members. Two types of work are distinguished:

• “Legal highlighting”, which identifies statements that are legally false, problematic, in need of nuance, incomplete, etc.;
  
• “Legal clarification”, which sheds legal light on issues debated in the political sphere.
  

Once finalized, the articles are published on the Belgian section of the website founded by Les Surligneurs France (https://lessurligneurs.eu/) and then disseminated on social media to contribute to public debate. Students themselves manage the communication channels, ensuring the visibility of their work to the general public.
In doing so, the legal clinic is part of the legal design movement, notably conceptualized by Margaret Hagan (Stanford University, USA), which seeks to promote better understanding, visibility, and accessibility of law from the perspective of its users (user-centered).
To fully meet these multiple objectives, it is considered appropriate to limit the number of students to 20 and to give preference to those enrolled in the final stage of their studies. Particular value will be placed on the ability to write clearly, especially in a way that makes legal reasoning accessible to a broader audience.
The clinic continues with 20 (max.) students in sessions throughout the academic year to discuss political news, 'highlightable' ('surlignable') claims by public figures in the media, and the distribution of tasks and articles to be written by students.
 

Teaching methods

The legal clinic operates as an interactive and participatory workshop with all students.

Exchanges take place during the sessions, but also outside of them, by setting up a WhatsApp group in order to (1) collectively keep abreast of political news and/or political statements to be commented on (media monitoring exercise) and (2) determine the student in charge of the writing, as well as the teacher in charge of the follow-up or the teacher-editor and the student who carries out punctual research. This teacher is not necessarily one of the two teachers in charge of the clinic; depending on the subject, another expert teacher (academic or scientific) in the legal field concerned may be called upon.

The students can take on different roles to be specified during the first session after the introductory session: media monitoring to identify statements to be highlighted or political debates to be clarified; specific research enabling a teacher to write his or her article more quickly or more effectively (the student's collaboration is indicated on the site after the name of the author teacher); writing articles; coordination of articles to be written; publication and dissemination of the articles written, etc.

Thanks to the expertise of the French project, the concrete aspect of writing and publishing (according to a precise framework, a publication manual and a publication charter) benefits from major support.

Evaluation methods

Regarding teaching methods and modalities, the legal clinic operates in two complementary ways:

• In person: interactive and participatory workshops held throughout the academic year with all students (attendance is mandatory), during which the main discussions take place;
  
• Online: individual work aimed at carrying out the highlighting and clarification tasks, supported by exchanges (via email, Teams, and WhatsApp) with other students and the two faculty members responsible for the clinic.
  

These exchanges are intended to (1) keep the group collectively informed of current events and/or political statements that may be subject to commentary (media monitoring), and (2) distribute tasks and address organizational aspects relating to the drafting and publication of articles.
Students may take on different roles throughout the academic year: monitoring the media to identify statements to highlight or political debates to clarify; drafting articles; coordinating articles to be written; publishing and disseminating the finalized articles, and so forth.
In their research and article writing, students receive guidance from a faculty member. This supervisor is not necessarily one of the two faculty members responsible for the clinic; depending on the topic, another academic or research expert in the relevant legal field may be consulted.

Other information

None

Online resources

https://be.lessurligneurs.eu

Faculty or entity

> DRTB