Duration
30h Th
Number of credits
| Bachelor in law | 3 crédits |
Lecturer
Language(s) of instruction
Dutch language
Organisation and examination
Teaching in the second semester
Schedule
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Learning unit contents
This course is intended for third-year undergraduate law students. It focuses on developing reading comprehension skills in relation to legal texts, such as legally oriented press articles, (excerpts from) academic legal journal articles, legislative extracts, and a variety of other legal documents. The course will introduce lexical fields specific to the law without privileging any particular branch of legal studies, and will place particular emphasis on:
- acquiring strategies for reading comprehension,
- assimilating basic legal vocabulary,
- studying grammatical and syntactic structures characteristic of both general and legal language.
The course is structured into three modules of increasing difficulty, each offering a wide range of varied exercises.
Learning outcomes of the learning unit
With the ultimate objective of meeting the examination requirements established by the Faculty, students will, by the end of the course, be able to:
- read effectively and comprehend legal texts such as legally oriented press articles, legislative texts, and various legal documents dealing with accessible issues;
- verify, correct, and/or improve legal translations produced by AI systems.
Prerequisite knowledge and skills
Students must possess a sufficient level of reading comprehension in general language in order to approach legal language.
Ideally, they should have already reached level B1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) prior to the start of the course.
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
- Exposure to a broad selection of legal texts (e.g., federal brochures, specialized articles, case law, legislative texts)
- Reading and analytical tasks focused on legal materials.
- Varied comprehension exercises to assess and consolidate reading skills.
- Exercises targeting the acquisition and assimilation of basic legal terminology.
- Activities emphasizing the identification and analysis of specific linguistic features (e.g., connectors, adverbs, prepositions, verb forms, particles) to enhance accuracy and precision in legal text comprehension.
- Study of sentence structures characteristic of both general and legal language.
- A range of translation activities, with or without the use of AI tools.
- Collaborative group work conducted in class.
- Dictionary-based research tasks to promote efficiency and fluency in use, alongside the integration of digital tools during class activities.
Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)
Face-to-face course
Further information:
Face-to-face course
Further information:
2 hours/week, second term
Students are required to prepare activities and exercises on a weekly basis as indicated by the teacher. Regular class attendance is mandatory.
Some classes may take plaice online, students will be notified of this via email and on Celcat.
Students cannot change groups during term.
Course materials and recommended or required readings
Platform(s) used for course materials:
- eCampus
Further information:
Syllabus:
Lecture de textes juridiques en néerlandais.
Available on eCampus
Exam(s) in session
Any session
- In-person
written exam ( multiple-choice questionnaire, open-ended questions )
Further information:
Written exam: reading comprehension.
The exam will be made up of reading comprehension questions: MCQ and open questions.
These questions will be based on the texts/documents covered in class + sight texts
An exemption exam will be organised. It will coincide with the second session exam.
Students are allowed to use a bilingual dictionary and/or legal dictionary. However, they are not allowed to use either electronic media or other written media, such as word lists or glossaries. In case of doubt, students should seek advice from their teacher in order to make sure that they have chosen an appropriate dictionary.
Work placement(s)
Organisational remarks and main changes to the course
This year, we'll use a new textbook, that won't be the same as the previous years.
Contacts
COLIN CLaudine
c.colin@uliege.be
PEETERS Catherine
c.peeters@uliege.be