Course 2024-2025

Administrative law [DROIB318]

  • 6 credits
  • 60h+6h
  • 1st quarter
Language of instruction: French / Français
Teacher: Nihoul Marc

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the student must : 1. to have appropriated and to be able to juggle with the notions, principles, institutions, rules and mechanisms of general administrative law included in the syllabus and seen in the lectures or during the monitorships; 2. master the main sources of administrative law and be able to articulate them; 3. to perceive the underlying issues of the subject and to be able to take a position on the adequacy of the rules set to meet these today by showing critical reflection; 4. be able to apply the rules seen to concrete situations proposed in the form of case studies; 5. be able to go beyond the concrete case and devise a more global rule of principle. At the same time, the student is required to : 1. Prepare for lectures by reviewing the notes from the last lecture and reading the syllabus section or handout; 2. actively participate in the course by answering or asking questions, participating in debates and collective analysis of decisions; 3. to speak in public in an informed and reasoned manner; 4. mobilise passive linguistic knowledge of the Dutch language through a collection of administrative terminology and analysis of texts; 5. Take responsibility for using optional learning resources (lectures, readings, etc.).

Objectives

The basic objective is to provide the student, on the basis of theoretical teaching, with the necessary knowledge to enable him or her to have a correct scientific and legal approach to administrative matters and to help him or her to acquire the necessary weapons to assume his or her future role intelligently and effectively in the various professional circles concerned with public service (administrative authorities, politics, judiciary, bar, etc.) More specifically, the administrative law course aims at mastering the above-mentioned learning outcomes.

Content

"Administrative law is to public law what civil law is to private law. It governs the fundamental relations that are established on a daily basis between the citizen and the administration. These relations are particularly numerous since the administration, in the sphere of its competences, can adopt unilateral decisions likely to impose obligations on the citizens; what the citizen cannot do in the framework of his private relations. Moreover, the public authorities are the main provider of labour in Belgium, especially through the civil service and the markets public. The teaching of administrative law does not only contribute to the training of the jurist through the mastery of the main concepts, principles, reasoning, rules, mechanisms and institutions of the discipline. It also contributes directly to his or her training as a citizen. Unlike private law, which gives rise to several specific courses (obligations, contracts, labour, judicial, etc.), administrative law is taught in a single block - which can be called "general administrative law" - in which must be included, in particular, (I) the specificity of the Belgian administrative system and its legal sources.Unlike private law, which gives rise to several specific courses (obligations, contracts, labour, judicial, etc.), administrative law is taught in a single block - which can be called "general administrative law" - in which must be included, in particular, (I) the specificity of the Belgian administrative system and its legal sources, (II) the study of the main administrative authorities, (III) the different modes of administrative action (the unilateral, regulatory and individual administrative act; the administrative contract), (IV) the different modes of conflict resolution and control of the administration and the administrative courts, (V) the civil service and the different statutes of civil servants, and (VI) the legal status of the civil service. (VI) the property of the administration.


Prerequisites

Droit constitutionnel [DROIB102]

Teaching methods

University pedagogy is too focused on ex cathedra lectures. An attempt will be made to go beyond this model by means of a relatively complete basic syllabus which students will be asked to go through as the year progresses to enable the teacher, during the lecture, to present the subject in a different way (diagrams, timelines, etc.), to go into greater depth or to provide more examples of certain concepts and to help students to discover administrative law from the point of view of cross-cutting views and topical issues. Interactivity is at the heart of the system through the direct participation of students in various forms: 1. presentation of the summary of the previous course at the beginning of the course by a student chosen at random; 2. a question and answer session initiated by the teacher or the students (free); 3. collective analysis of court decisions ; 4. collective commentary on current affairs ; 5. the start of debates highlighting the underlying issues of the subject. The student is regularly

Evaluations

The student has the choice between the written or oral examination. The oral exam is strongly recommended for those who usually avoid them to complete their skills. The exam is compulsory in January. In both cases, the issues are threefold: - knowledge or restitution (define, mention, list, etc.) ; - understanding, mastery and reflection (compare, distinguish, comment, explain, etc.) ; - application and resolution of cases. In writing: 6 definitions (3 points) and a restitution question (2 points), 2 reflection questions (5 points each), 2 case studies (3+2 points) and a subsidiary question in case of hesitation for a duration of 2H30. The subsidiary question is a familiar one: formulate an original, interesting and relevant reflective question about the course and answer it briefly. It is intended to encourage the student to think about how they can be questioned when studying. Oral: 2 reflection questions with the teacher (14 points in total) and 2 definitions and 1 case study with the assistant (6 points in total) for a duration of 1 hour with 30 minutes of preparation. The questionnaires are designed to cover the whole subject. The statements may contain Dutch language terms (word to be defined, decision to be commented on,...). The final mark is not purely arithmetical and depends on the teacher's overall assessment of the paper (serious error, failure to address a subject, etc.). Two sample questionnaires allow you to preview real exam conditions on the webcampus.

Recommended readings

Four materials help the student to master the learning outcomes: 1. the written syllabus (to be published) which contains a list of the most important administrative law terms in the Dutch language; 2. the documentation folder (doctrine and case law) ; 3. the course website on webcampus (doctrine and jurisprudence); 4. UNamur's legal bac code. The recommended references are mentioned in the syllabus and the documents in the documentation folder.

Language of instruction

French / Français

Location for course

NAMUR

Organizer

Faculté de droit
Rue de Bruxelles, 61
5000 NAMUR

Degree of Reference

Undergraduate Degree
BlockCredits
Bachelier en droit36