Upon completion of the course, the student will be able to:
The student will also have acquired transversal skills:
The course aims to provide foundational training in general criminal law, with a strong emphasis on legal precision and rigor, while fostering critical inquiry.
It also seeks to equip students with the ability to develop legal solutions to practical issues, drawing from legislation, case law, and legal doctrine.
Particular attention will be given to current events and the faculty-wide guiding theme, which includes a sustainable development dimension: “Re-enchanting the Earth.”
The teaching of criminal law covers the general principles of criminal law and includes the rules that determine the general conditions of criminality, liability and punishment.
A detailed table of contents is included in the General Criminal Law Manual, which serves as the written support for the course.
The manual is divided into six sections:
Practical exercises aim to familiarize students with legal analysis and the application of rules and principles to individual, real-life situations through the resolution of case studies.
They are conducted during both the first and second terms by a team of three teaching assistants. Students are divided into groups of approximately thirty people.
The theoretical material is covered in lectures before the practical sessions. At the beginning of each session, the assistants provide a brief recap focused on concrete and practical aspects (using diagrams, tables, etc.). Then, students and assistants work together on practical exercises using various formats (examples from current events, videos, envelopes containing files inspired by real cases, etc.). The case studies are designed to allow students to deepen their understanding of the central issue of the day’s session. They also incorporate knowledge from previous sessions, which covered other concepts and notions.
The practical exercises are delivered over seven sessions:
Assessment takes the form of a question during the January exam and a summary case study in June, both designed to evaluate the student's ability to apply legal concepts in practical scenarios. The resit exam follows the same format (case study) for the part related to practical exercises.
Teaching methods and assessment procedures are explained during the first class of the academic year.
The pedagogical approach is both analytical and critical, encouraging reflection on societal issues closely linked to criminal law.
Active participation from students is expected.
Some parts of the course are delivered through traditional lectures, while others follow a flipped classroom model. This requires students to prepare in advance according to specific instructions provided by the instructor. The flipped classroom aims to develop several skills: public speaking, group interaction, self-confidence and autonomy in learning, research abilities, the ability to defend a point of view with structured arguments, and improved mastery of the French language.
During flipped classroom sessions, students must answer questions that involve legal analysis and personal reflection, based on examples drawn from current events and case law. Additionally, at the end of certain chapters, synthesis and cross-disciplinary questions are used to test deep understanding of the subject matter and the accuracy of legal reasoning. Practical cases and advocacy exercises also allow students to apply criminal law rules. Questions are posted on Webcampus at least one week before the flipped classroom session. Students are invited to prepare the exercises individually or in small groups and to read in advance the relevant pages of the textbook covering the topics addressed in class. During the flipped classroom session, several students present their answers to the entire audience, interacting with the instructor and their peers.
Online polls (via Wooclap) are conducted regularly, both during lectures and flipped classroom sessions, to encourage participation from the entire audience.
Short videos may be posted to help students better understand certain aspects of the course content.
PowerPoint presentations are used during the course, with key legal terms translated into Dutch. Students are expected to be able to translate these terms from Dutch into French. A glossary is also made available on Webcampus.
Two or three times during the academic year, external speakers will be invited to present a topic related to criminal law from a more practical perspective. A presentation in Dutch on a specific theme or court decision may also be organized during a class, possibly with the participation of one or more Dutch-speaking students in the audience. Written materials (text or PowerPoint) will be posted on Webcampus to facilitate understanding of these presentations.
Some sessions will be dedicated to the faculty-wide “Fil rouge” project, allowing students to explore various criminal law concepts in a concrete and nuanced way, notably through conferences and a mock trial involving both daytime and evening students.
The instructor will always be available to answer students’ questions during class and office hours. A Q&A session is organized during the final class before the exam.
This is a written examination. Students must bring their bac code, which may not contain any annotations. In addition to the content of the General Criminal Law Manual, the examination material includes everything that has been covered in the course, including reversed classes and lectures. The teacher specifies which parts of the book, if any, are not part of the examination material. The distribution of marks is indicated next to each question. The final score is not purely arithmetical and depends on the overall assessment of the paper. An official answer key is available to students on webcampus. As the course is given in the first and second terms, two evaluations are carried out: the first at the end of the first term, the second at the end of the second term. Before the end of the first term, the teacher presents the modalities of the January examination and comments on the criteria for the assessment. Advice is given to students on how to best prepare for the type of questions that will be asked. The assessment at the end of the first term (January) covers the material covered in the first term. It is worth a quarter of the final mark (i.e. 5 points out of 20). The January examination takes place in a lecture theatre and has a maximum duration of 2 hours. The questions are of the multiple choice or "true or false" type with a brief justification of the answer and indication of the applicable legal basis. More open-ended questions requiring a focused and fairly brief response may also be asked, calling for precision and reasoning skills. The examination may also include a decision analysis (seen in the course or presented in the Manual) or restitution questions such as definitions or a comparison of different concepts. The questions contain several legal terms in Dutch, but the answer must always be given in French. The assessment at the end of the second term (May-June) is worth three-quarters of the final mark (i.e. 15 points out of 20). It takes place in a lecture theatre and lasts a maximum of 3 hours. It is based on the material covered in the second semester. The questions include several legal terms in Dutch but the answer must always be given in French. The students have to solve a case study according to the method used in the practical exercises. The assessment related to practical exercises accounts for one quarter of the final exam grade. It includes the case study (during the evaluation at the end of the second semester) and one question during the January evaluation. The other questions are of the multiple choice or "true or false" type with a brief justification of the answer and indication of the applicable legal basis. More open-ended questions requiring a focused and fairly brief response may also be asked, calling for precision and reasoning skills. The examination may also include a decision analysis (seen in the course or presented in the Manual) or restitution questions such as definitions or a comparison between different concepts. The assessment at the end of the third term (August-September) will cover the entire criminal law course. The examination will be 3 hours long and will include the same categories of questions as those of June listed above. The answers to the previous year's exams are available to students on webcampus. Depending on the evolution of the health situation, certain adjustments may be made to the examination format. The evaluation criteria are as follows; • Understanding and mastery of the material, • Ability to solve concrete cases correctly, • Rigour, clarity, precision, coherence and structure of the answer to the question asked.
The course material consists of a textbook written with an essentially didactic purpose (N. COLETTE-BASECQZ and N. BLAISE, Manuel de droit pénal général, 5th ed, Limal, Anthémis, 2024). References to relevant provisions of the Code are systematically included, helping students become familiar with it and easily locate answers within their own copy. Provisions from the new Criminal Code (expected to come into force on April 8, 2026) are also incorporated. To illustrate the rules and principles of criminal law, several judicial decisions are reproduced in full within the manual. New legislation and case law (some of which may be in Dutch) discussed during the course are made available to students on Webcampus, along with videos and PowerPoint slides. Key legal terms encountered in criminal law are translated into Dutch on the PowerPoint slides and can also be found in a French-Dutch glossary available on Webcampus.
| Training | Study programme | Block | Credits | Mandatory |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bachelor in Law | Standard | 0 | 8 | |
| Bachelor in Law | Standard | 2 | 8 |