Duration
30h Th, 15h Pr
Number of credits
| Bachelor in law | 4 crédits | |||
| Bachelor in political sciences : general | 5 crédits |
Lecturer
Coordinator
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
The course in "Methodology: application of law, documentary research and artificial intelligence" focuses on the study of the reasoned steps that must be fulfilled to find the legal rules that are likely to apply and determine the consequences that the law ascribes to actual or intended acts or behaviours.
Learning outcomes of the learning unit
The course aims to:
- enable students to independently search for a written standard, court decision or doctrinal publication, using computer databases and written documentation;
- teach students to correctly reference their search result;
- teach them the process, the principles and the technology of rigorous legal reasoning in the application of law,
- show them the impact of artificial intelligence in documentary research and in the application of law.
Besides these immediate objectives, given the essential competences needed to do the work required in later study programmes, this course helps to develop the analytical and investigative abilities of students [formulating questions (defining a subject of research/reference in a branch of law), positioning in relation to a typology (legal or documentary: what type of sources /documents to look for), the logical and complete sequence of a series of operations]. It stimulates formal rigour in the presentation of the results. It allows students to employ the notions they have already encountered in the positive law classes and puts these notions into context.
At the end of the course, students should be able to:
- "use the relevant standards regarding the practical goal pursued" and to "explain the possible solution(s)" with a view to developing a legal reasoning.
- "determine the objectives of all the protagonists" and "analyse the different legal opinions" with a view to taking a stance.
- point out the effects and stakes of artificial intelligence in terms of documentary research and the application of law.
Prerequisite knowledge and skills
Students must have done the course in the Methodology of Legal Interpretation. They should also have a keen interest in reading texts and analysing them, and appreciate the rigour of scientific reasoning. For Legal Documentary Research, it is necessary to be familiar with the institutions that produce the standards and the hierarchy of the law sources, and the judicial system that makes the decisions and the basic elements of legal vocabulary.
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
Information below on how the course is organised.
Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning)
The course is taught during the first term. It focuses on theory accompanied by relevant examples.
Learning assistance:
Student teaching assistants will work with small groups of students to introduce them to documentary research, the library and the computer room.
Someone will be on duty to provide assistance if students so wish. The day, time and location will be posted on MyULiège or on the noticeboards.
Recommended or required readings
Students should have the following work:
- P. DELNOY, Eléments de méthodologie juridique, 3e éd., Bruxelles, Larcier, 2008 (published 2009), 447 p. and the collection of texts (Bruxelles, Larcier, updated on 1 September 2009) that accompanies this handbook (the handbook and the collection were already used for the Methodology of Legal Interpretation course);
- P. MOREAU, F. CREVECOEUR et M. DESSARD, Méthodologie de l'application du droit. Complément, Presses Universitaires de Liège, 2019-20 (available on MyULiège);
- C. NISSEN, F. DESSEILLES et A. ZIANS Méthodologie juridique. Méthodologie de la recherche documentaire juridique, 6e édition, Bruxelles, Larcier, 2016, 324 p. ;
- N. BERNARD (dir.), Guide des citations, références et abréviations juridiques, 6e éd., Waterloo, Wolters Kluwer., available online).
Assessment methods and criteria
There is only one mark out of 20 for the course in "Methodology: application of law, documentary research and artificial intelligence". It is calculated as follows:
The (written) part of the exam relating to the methodology of the application of law, artificial intelligence and writing legal references is marked out of 100, while the part relating mainly to legal documentary research techniques is marked out of 40. The sum of the points obtained (out of 140) is divided by 7 to give the final mark out of 20.
However, students who score less than 35/100 for the (written) part of the exam relating to the methodology of the application of law, artificial intelligence and writing legal references, or less than 14/40 for the (oral) part of the exam relating to the techniques of legal documentary research, will receive a maximum score of 9/20 for their final mark for the whole course in the Methodology of the application of law, legal documentary research and artificial intelligence.
Students who don't sit both parts of the exam will be noted as "absent".
A partial exemption can only be granted for the second exam session.
Any students who sat both parts of the exam or one of them during the first session, will be exempt from sitting the part of the exam for which they scored 10/20 or more, during the second session (August-September).
During the written part of the exam relating to the methodology of the application of law, artificial intelligence and writing legal references, students may bring the collection of texts (see section: Recommended or required reading and Course notes). The collection of texts mustn't contain any annotations.
Work placement(s)
Organizational remarks
Contacts
For any questions relating to the training sessions in documentary research taught by the student teaching assistants, please contact:
Sofian HEYNE, student teaching assistant, Sofian.Heyne@student.uliege.be
For any other questions, please contact:
Pierre MOREAU, Professor at the Faculté de droit de l'Université de Liège, Quartier Agora - Place des Orateurs, 3 (Bât. B31), 4000 Liège, tel. : 04/366.30.86; e-mail: pmoreau@uliege.be
Victoria PALM, Assistant at the Faculté de droit de l'Université de Liège, Quartier Agora - Place des Orateurs, 3 (Bât. B31), 4000 Liège, tel. : 04/366.30.84; e-mail: victoria.palm@uliege.be
Other participants:
Cécile NISSEN, Director of Bibliothèque L. Graulich, Quartier Agora - Place des Orateurs, 3 (Bât. B31), 4000 Liège, tel.: O4/366.27.73, fax: 04/3662983, e-mail: cnissen@uliege.be
François DESSEILLES, Assistant - science manager (law and criminology), Bibliothèque L. Graulich, Quartier Agora - Place des Orateurs, 3 (Bât. B31), 4000 Liège, tel. : 04/366.27.71, E-mail : fdesseilles@uliege.be
Adaptation of teaching commitments following the COVID-19 pandemic for the May-June 2020 session
Teaching methods implemented : distance-learning
Assessment subjects
Assessment methods
Contacts
Adaptation of teaching commitments following the COVID-19 pandemic for the Aug-Sept 2020 session
Assessment subjects
The course "Méthodologie : application du droit, recherche documentaire et intelligence artificielle" is a two-part examination:
1) The first part deals with the methodology of the application of law, artificial intelligence and the drafting of legal references.
2) The second part of the exam is the legal literature search.
Assessment methods
The course "Méthodologie : application du droit, recherche documentaire et intelligence artificielle" is a two-part examination:
1) The first part deals with the methodology of the application of law, artificial intelligence and the drafting of legal references.
2) The second part of the exam is the legal literature search.
Contacts
Pierre MOREAU, Quartier Agora - Place des Orateurs, 3 (Bât. B31), 4000 Liège, tel. : 04/366.30.86; e-mail: pmoreau@uliege.be
Victoria PALM, Quartier Agora - Place des Orateurs, 3 (Bât. B31), 4000 Liège, tel. : 04/366.30.84; e-mail: victoria.palm@uliege.be
Florence BODSON, Quartier Agora - Place des Orateurs, 3 (Bât. B31) à 4000 Liège, tél. : 04/366.57.63; e-mail : florence.bodson@uliege.be