Learning outcomes

The social law course covers labour law and social security law. At the end of the course, the student is required to : • To be able to take clear and complete notes during oral presentations (lectures, practical work, conferences, webinars, etc.) on which he/she can rely to master the material and solve practical cases, just as he/she will do in his/her professional life; • To learn and acquire by themselves a given subject, for which materials are provided, in order to be able, in their professional life, to master subjects that would never have been taught to them ('learning to learn'); • Master the most important legal rules and principles of labour law and social security law; • To define precisely the basic concepts of labour law and social security law; • Use and apply these concepts, legal rules and principles to concrete cases similar to those he will encounter in his professional practice; • Distinguish, in the subject studied, the essential from the accessory; • Mastering the organisation of social relations ; • To know the administrative and financial organisation of social security; • To master the distribution of competences in social matters and to know which institutions and services are competent; • Understand and correctly apply the hierarchy of norms; • Distinguish and define precisely the different occupational categories; • Apply the relevant legislation to each occupational category and give the correct reasons for this choice; • Making the necessary links between labour law, social security law and other branches of law such as administrative law, constitutional law, the law of obligations, judicial law, etc. This of course implies a sufficient command of these subjects; • Solve concrete cases (casus) reflecting the reality of professional life and therefore mixing different themes and different legal norms, if necessary from different branches of law; • Read and analyse case law correctly in French and Dutch; • Develop and formulate a personal opinion, a critical point of view on all questions of social law, in a structured, argued and motivated manner; • Write with correct spelling, respecting the rules of grammar, syntax and conjugation of the French language; • Use your social law code correctly, even when faced with a new problem, in order to analyse and solve it; • Develop, in groups or alone depending on the exercise, the ability to question the legal framework, to master it, to use the tools and to adopt a critical and nuanced mindset on the questions that are put to him or her or that the student has identified himself or herself; • To understand the issues at stake in any social matter, not just the legal issues.

Goals

The Social Law course covers labour law and social security law. At the end of the course, the student will achieve the following objectives: • Understand the originality and specificity of social law with respect to other branches of law and professional realities in the field; • To properly understand the interactions between social law, other branches of law and the economic, social, human, etc. issues of the labour market as a whole; • To master the fundamental concepts of labour law and social security by knowing the applicable legal framework, in particular the organisation of social relations, the administrative and financial organisation of social security, the hierarchy of norms, the different professional categories and their specificities, the distribution of competences between entities (federal and federated), the main legal norms governing the discipline. • Use the legal framework and apply theoretical knowledge to practical situations; • To have a reflective and nuanced grasp of the subject matter; • Identify, problematize and respond to legal issues related to social law; • To qualify the legal and statutory framework studied.

Content

The social law course covers labour law and social security law. It covers : • The articulation between social security law and labour law ; • Differences between professional categories (employees, civil servants, self-employed) ; • The history of social law ; • Collective labour relations (professional organisations, trade unions, national labour council, joint committees, works councils, collective labour agreements, etc.); • The individual employment relationship (in particular, specificities of salaried employees, civil servants, selfemployed persons; social protection regime resulting from it, employment contract (from recruitment to termination of the contract); • Worker protection (health and safety at work, non-discrimination, working time, etc.); • The administrative organisation and financing of social security (including the distribution of competences) ; • The principles relating to social security benefits with a particular focus on certain social security schemes social security (e.g. family allowances, unemployment, social assistance or retirement pensions); • Welfare at work (basic principles, welfare at work obligations, occupational health).

Assessment method

Assessment method Assessment in the form of written examinations. Assessment objectives Examinations are designed to validate that the student has achieved the course objectives and has the required learning outcomes (supra). Evaluation methods The mastery of the course objectives and learning outcomes can be checked in several ways: 1. By comparison of one concept to another (in this case, it is a general question aiming to assess whether the student has mastered the subject as a whole and is able to articulate the different concepts in a relevant and argued manner, in compliance with the requirements and rules of the French language); 2. By commenting on a text (in principle, a case law decision (in French or Dutch) from the 2021-2022 case law collection or on the webcampus or discussed during a practical course) or a quotation; 3. By solving practical cases (practical exercises of the same type as those proposed during the practical sessions but mixing different legal issues, as in professional realities); 4. By multiple choice questionnaire; 5. By multiple response questionnaire ; 6. Through open questions; 7. Through closed questions. Organisation of the evaluation The examination consists of two parts which take place at different times of the year: 1. A partial examination out of session for 40% of the final course grade; 2. A final examination held during the session for 60% of the final grade of the course. In the event of failure in June (if the final score for the Social Law course is less than 10/20), the student is required to resit the part(s) for which he/she would not have obtained 50%. 1.Partial review The partial examination is in principle organised face-to-face and out of session for the June session (end of April/beginning of May or in August for the second session). It consists of a case law commentary and/or case resolution. If necessary, the resolution of cases may require recourse to (and citation of) case law, as is the professional reality of any lawyer. The relevant case law can be found in : • Or in the case law report 2021-2022 ; • Or on webcampus ; • Either in the subject matter seen during the practical sessions. The partial examination is an open-book examination, i.e. using any paper material the student wishes to use (codes, course notes, documentation provided on the webcampus, etc.) to the exclusion of any electronic material of any kind and any use of the internet. However, as the duration of each examination is limited, it is essential that the student has prepared and studied the course before the examination. 2.Final review The final examination, held in June (or August in case of a second session), covers the whole subject. As described in the previous section (Assessment methods), the questions asked may be : • One or more general questions (open questions) ; • Practical case studies; • Multiple choice questions (with negative points for wrong answers); • Multiple answer questions (with negative points for wrong answers); • Closed questions (with negative marks for wrong answers). The examination is, in principle, face-to-face and closed-book. All relevant details concerning the assessment and its modalities will be communicated to the students during the second semester. Materials allowed in the examination With the exception of the open book assessments, only the social law code and the bac code are allowed, possibly supplemented by the texts listed in the legislation section, 'texts allowed for the examination', of webcampus. • In accordance with the guidelines issued by the Academic Secretary, only "number" references are permitted in the codes. The numerical references must of course be placed next to the relevant articles and not arbitrarily on any page of the code! Any non-compliant return will be considered as fraud. • Post-it notes may only be used as 'bookmarks', to indicate the relevant page(s). Collections of post-its filled with numbers and other figures, letters or words are strictly forbidden, as are post-its in the form of arrows or any other drawing. Any improper use of post-its will be considered as fraud. • The current indexed amounts can be noted by the student in their social law code instead of/alongside those listed in the legal texts.

Sources, references and any support material

Recommended readings are indicated or posted on webcampus. In addition, regular monitoring of social news is strongly recommended in order to make the link between the theory covered in the course and the practice of social law. Essential supports • each student's personal lecture notes (each student is logically responsible for the completeness and quality of his or her own lecture notes - see 'Teaching Method') • code of social law (code La Charte CLC4 droit social, edition 2021-2022) • casebook 2021-2022. Recommended materials • Manuel de droit du travail (Kefer, F. and Clesse, J., Manuel de Droit du travail, Larcier, 2018 edition); • Information available on www.emploi.belgique.be (website of the FPS Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue); • Information available on www.socialsecurity.be (FPS Social Security website); • Information from the websites of the various public social security institutions (Famifed, Inami, Federal Pensions Service, Onem, Fedris, ONSS, Inasti, ONVA, etc.).

Language of instruction

Français
Training Study programme Block Credits Mandatory
Bachelor in Law Standard 0 4
Bachelor in Philosophy Standard 0 4
Bachelor in Philosophy Standard 2 4
Bachelor in Law Standard 3 4
Bachelor in Philosophy Standard 3 4