Duration
30h SEM
Number of credits
| Master in law (120 ECTS) | 6 crédits |
Lecturer
Language(s) of instruction
French language
Organisation and examination
Teaching in the first semester, review in January
Schedule
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Learning unit contents
Opening Remarks :
The existence of an ongoing assessment on the basis of oral presentations to be made by students justifies that a limited number of places are available in this course, in order to ensure that everyone has sufficient time to express themselves. Places are allocated on a "first come, first served" basis: students wishing to take this course have the opportunity - but not the obligation - to send an e-mail directly to the Secretariat of the Constitutional Law Department (sylvia.lehnen@uliege.be) indicating their potential interest in the course; with the help of this revocable e-mail, they are guaranteed to take precedence on the course sending date.
Teaching is organized every other year: it is organized during the academic year 2018-2019; it will not be organized during the year 2019-2020.
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This course aims to raise students' awareness of the reading of major texts that have marked public law and the theory of the State. The various texts and speeches analysed will be structured around a central theme and sub-themes per seminar.
The central theme for 2018-2019 will be "The State and its choices".
Among the sub-themes, we can mention speeches on :
- The State and Liberalism
- The State and the choice of regime (monarchy/republic)
- The State and the representation and direct democracy
- The State and its projection in the world
- The State and its projection in time
- The state in the face of colonialism
- The State in the face of the death penalty
- The utopian State
- ...
The speeches and authors will be voluntarily varied. The following authors can be cited as examples: Lazare Carnot, Otto von Bismarck, Father Sieyès, Joseph Chamberlain, Léon Gambetta, Édouard Herriot, Jules Ferry, Victor Hugo, Robert Badinter, Abraham Lincoln, Vladimir Ilitch Oulianov (known as Lenin), Lucy Parsons, Charles Fourier, etc.
Note that if the ex cathedra course as well as the oral presentations and written reports are given in French, the speeches can be made available to students in French, English and Dutch.
Learning outcomes of the learning unit
The competencies assessed will be as follows:
- Understanding the content, context and issues of the texts submitted for analysis
- The capacity for synthesis, essentialization and critical thinking
- Students' speaking skills during presentations
- Writing skills in short written reports
- Involvement in the course in exchanges and debates.
Prerequisite knowledge and skills
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning)
The course will be organized in the first quadrimester in the form of five seminars preceded by an introductory session (ex cathedra course) on the methodology of speech analysis.
The seminars of 3 hours each will be organised as follows: presentations by groups of a few students on the speeches distributed at the end of the previous seminar, followed by a critical debate moderated by the Professor, an assistant or an external guest.
The objective is to approach speeches in a descriptive, analytical and interpretative mode, taking into account the context - as well as the consequences and historical, political and legal issues - of the texts submitted to students.
The ongoing assessment will be based on the following reading (and presentation) grid:
1 The author
Who is he? What's his background? What is his competence to address the subject and in what capacity does he do so? What political or doctrinal current is he linked to? Is there a difference between the author and the speaker?
2 Historical and ideological context
In what cultural, social or political context does the author of the speech fall? What is the historical context of the speech?
3 The occasion of the speech and the author's intention
What was the speech writer's (or speaker's) purpose? How important is the occasion on which the speech is delivered? What was the broadcast of the speech? Was it known to its contemporaries?
4 Speech description
What is the purpose, the idea behind the text? What does the text deal with? What is the guiding idea? What are its ramifications? How does he support his ideas?
It is recommended, at this stage, to present a synthesis of the speech's structure.
5 Analysis and interpretation of the discourse with regard to the student's knowledge (political theories, legal theories, historical knowledge)
What conclusions can be drawn from this text? How does he fit into his time or, on the contrary, does he question it? What are the contributions for political theory or legal theory? What are its deeper issues?
6 Critical debate
There will be four to five speeches per seminar depending on the number of students, one speech per team. Brief notes (2-3 pages) will be sent by each group to everyone before the presentation and will also be evaluated.
Recommended or required readings
The texts are distributed before each seminar.
Assessment methods and criteria
Course evaluation is ongoing.
This evaluation will be carried out on the one hand on the students' oral presentations and their involvement during the seminars (70%), and on the other hand on the written notes of two to three pages given in support of their oral presentations (30%).
The assessment criteria will take into account the pre-mentioned learning objectives.
Work placement(s)
Organizational remarks
Subject to confirmation
The seminars will take place every other week from 2 October 2018 on Tuesdays from 16h to 19h (local to be defined).
A first presentation of the course will take place during the information session organized on September 17 from 8am to 10am.
Contacts
The assistants specifically assigned to this course are available to students for any additional information as well as assistance in their documentary research and in the preparation of their notes and presentations.
Contact details of the assistant of reference :
Quentin Pironnet, Lecturer and assistant, quentin.pironnet@uliege.be, office : building B31, level 0, office R.34, tel. 04.366.30.68.
Other contact details :
Vincent Genin, PhD in history and postdoctoral FWO (KU Leuven), v.genin@uliege.be.
Xavier Miny, FRESH grantee, xavier.miny@uliege.be, Office: Building B31, Level 0, Office R.28.
Sylvia Lehnen, Secretary, sylvia.lehnen@uliege.be, tel. 04.366.91.14.