EUTOPIA Learning Unit - Legal History

6 ECTS credits
150 h study time

Offer 2 with catalog number 4022232DEW for working students in the 2nd semester at a (D) Master - preliminary level.

Semester

2nd semester

Enrollment based on exam contract

Possible

Grading method

Grading (scale from 0 to 20)

Can retake in second session

Yes

Enrollment Requirements

NOTE: registration for this course is only possible for working students. Day students can register for courses whose code ends with an R. At Inschrijven / studentenadministratie@vub.be you must be registered at the VUB as a working student for the current academic year.

Taught in

Faculty

Faculty of Law and Criminology

Department

Metajuridica

Educational team

Frederik Dhondt (course titular)
Raphaël Cahen

Activities and contact hours

26 contact hours Lecture
124 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study

Course Content

This course treats themes from the history of public law and international law (treaties, war and peace, alliances, diplomacy, constitutional order).

The aim of this course is not pure transfer of knowledge, but the stimulation of understanding and the development of legal reasoning through historical examples.

A first partim (8 hours) treats international legal doctrine from the Middle Ages to the present.
A second partim (8 hours) treats cases on the European Balance of Power in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, using published treaties and diplomatic correspondence.
A final partim (8 hours) treats the European balance in the nineteenth century, with a strong emphasis on the Vienna Congress (1814-1815).

Course material

Digital course material (Required) : Syllabus Legal History, Frederik Dhondt - Raphaël Cahen, Canvas, 2024
Digital course material (Recommended) : Digitized primary sources and secondary literature, Canvas

Additional info

Digital syllabus in PDF, written out by Prof. Dhondt and dr. Cahen.

Supplementary material on Canvas (treaties, papers, diplomatic sources). Frequent use of English and French, German to a lesser degree.

This course has been selected as a Learning Unit in the European University EUTopia. EUTopia learning activities take place throughout the academic year and will be announced separetely.

Frequent use of English and French, German to a lesser degree.

The third partim is taught in French, the first two in Dutch (at the end of the description of the partims).
The third partim of the syllabus is in French (at the end of the mention of the written syllabus).

Learning Outcomes

Standaard

This course is a metajuridical course, stimulating reflection. This requires analysis, critical evaluation and synthesis of new, personal perspectives, based on insight acquired in the interactive courses.

As a reflection course, legal history offers a historical perspective on matters already treated during the Bachelor and Master program in Law, in a positivist approach. Starting from primary sources (treaties, diplomatic correspondence, private correspondence), the instructors build a bottom-up and interactive approach, engaging students to participate and discuss the role of law in diplomatic negotiations, as well as the specific place of law in the history of power, as well as ideas. Starting from the structural differences between the law of nations and private law, the common matrix of European legal culture, this leads to a general reflection on the sources of law and normativity.

Students master:

The main developments in the history of public international law
The identification of various points of view in case of conflicts between international law and constitutional law, in the studies cases
A critical approach of the available secondary literature and primary sources

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Written Exam determines 100% of the final mark.

Within the Written Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

Written Exam with a relative weight of 100 which comprises 100% of the final mark.

Note: open-book exam

Additional info regarding evaluation

The exam evaluates the students’ capacity to critically assess the documents discussed during the interactive classes (doctrine, treaties, constitutional documents, archival documents). Students will be given open essay questions on the documents.

Students are allowed to use a print version of the documents (especially the syllabus) made available on Canvas. Digital material and aids are not allowed.

The written open book exam will be in Dutch (for all partims).

Allowed unsatisfactory mark

The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.

Academic context