DROI1296-1

Duration

30h Th, 15h Pr

Number of credits

	Bachelor in law	4 crédits
	Bachelor in political sciences : general	5 crédits

Lecturer

Pierre Moreau, Cécile Nissen

Coordinator

Pierre Moreau

Language(s) of instruction

French language

Organisation and examination

Teaching in the first semester, review in January

Schedule

Schedule online

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, hybrid 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.

Organisational adjustments related to the current health context

XXX

Assessment methods and criteria

Below you will find information on the evaluation methods planned for in-person and remote exams as well as those planned for hybrid sessions. Depending on how the health crisis evolves, the chosen method will be communicated to you no later than one month before the start of the exam session.

Any session :

- In-person

written exam ( multiple-choice questionnaire, open-ended questions ) AND oral exam

- Remote

written exam ( multiple-choice questionnaire, open-ended questions ) AND written work

- If evaluation in "hybrid"

preferred in-person

Additional information:

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.
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

Methodology : the application of law, documentary research and artificial intelligence