Family law [DRHDB204]

Learning outcomes

Subject specific skills - Understand and assimilate the rules of Belgian positive law in the main areas of family law, including an introduction to the law of matrimonial property regimes, but excluding the law of succession and liberalities; - To learn to understand the major issues that Western societies face as a result of the considerable changes affecting family and emotional relationships and, at the same time, to reflect on the legal responses that are or can be made to these issues; - Understand the links with other branches of law and the humanities; - Based on the light of legislative, jurisprudential and doctrinal sources, construct a rigorous analysis and critically reflect on the solutions that family law reserves for different situations; - Make comparisons and develop a critical view of legal mechanisms; - To move from the abstraction of the norm to the concrete fact and, conversely, to transform a field problem into legal questions, notably through illustrations drawn from case law and the resolution of practical cases; - To become aware of the relative and evolving nature of legal solutions and the controversies they may generate in family law; - Take an interest in current family issues and understand the issues at stake. Crosscurricular competences - Ability to develop a rigorous and reasoned analysis of jurisprudential solutions, adding a personal and critical perspective; - Build a structured, well-founded and convincing argument; - Projecting oneself into concrete situations, designing good examples, identifying the advantages and disadvantages of different solutions; - Public speaking (answering questions in class) ; - Defend a point of view in an argumentative manner; - Enriching the material taught by personal interventions (orally in class); - Use the French language as a tool for legal thinking and master legal terminology; - Mobilise specific language skills in Dutch, at least receptively; - Valuing the commitment to the defence of fundamental rights, including the rights of the child.

Objectives

The aim of the Family Law course is to introduce the main questions posed to the lawyer by the complexity of family relations and to describe in sufficient detail the answers that Belgian law tries to provide, without forgetting a critical approach to the solutions proposed. The course insists on the concrete aspects of the implementation of family law. It also aims to make students aware of the new challenges of contemporary family law (new forms of life in couples, facilitation of divorces, importance of mediation, new modes of procreation, evolution of the place of the father, advent of the rights of the child,...).

Content

Two main areas are addressed: the couple and the child. In the first axis, the course successively addresses de facto cohabitation, legal cohabitation and marriage, including an introduction to matrimonial regimes. The various forms of legal responses to crises in the couple are considered each time. The second axis is devoted to filiation and adoption. Throughout these two parts, the rules of operation of the family court, discussed in the first part of the course, are applied.