A good knowledge of French is necessary to understand the course and pass the examination.
The course of Historic foundations of the private law has for objective to familiarize the students with the concepts, the vocabulary, the distinctions and the reasonings of the private law. It aims to arrest and understand notions and basic rules of the law of property, the right of persons and the law of contracts in a historical perspective which covers the period from the former roman law to the current law.
It also intends to underline the relativity of the legal institutions and their insertion in time. The law being the fruit of the history, any understanding of rules governing life in society has to take into account their genesis. At the end of the course, the student will so have to be capable of understanding and of explaining the links between the roman law and the current law.
The study of the roman law is imperative in the lawyers’ university education as far as by its object, it is the foundation of our private law.
Part one (60 hours – 1st quadmester)
After an introduction dedicated to the historical environment of the roman law, the course deals with the basic concepts and institutions regulating the right of the properties (classification of things and rights, ownership and detention, property, manners of acquisition of the property, property rights in thing belonging to another) and describe its evolution through some chosen themes like the medieval property.
We will then analyse the right of people (such as capacity, marriage, filiation, will and testament). In particular, the legal structures of the antique Roman family, which were used as model to our system of family law, are studied.
Second part (30 hours – 2nd quadmester)
Afterwards, we will discuss contract law (general theory, classification of contracts) and some questions relative to the sale contract.
The course finally details requirements prior to the design of the Civil code of 1804 and some of its guiding principles. The family model in force in the 19th century will conclude our remarks.
See the manual.
Six sessions of practical exercises are planned and allow the students to apply the subject seen in the course in concrete situations. They are distributed by an assistant in front of reduced groups.
For further information, see above under the tab pedagogy.
The material seen in the lecture establishes, in the same way as that of the sessions of practical exercises, the material of the examination. A list of questions supplied from the beginning of the new academic year notes the main tackled issues and allows to confine exactly the contents of the examination.
The evaluation will be made by a written examination. More specifically, each of both parts of the course is the object of a different examination. The maximal duration of each exam is of two hours. The part exempted in the 1st four-month period must be presented from the session of January and represents 60 % of the final outcome. The second part given in the second term will be estimated during the session of June and accounts for 40 % of the final note. The student whose final note is lower than 10/20 will have to represent both parts during the second session of September.
No course material, code or dictionary is allowed to present the exam.
The evaluation criteria are the following ones :
If the health situation deteriorates again and does not allow for a face-to-face examination, the evaluation methods could be modified. Students will be notified via the WebCampus platform of the new modalities in application.