Law - The bachelor degree

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• Gain a direct understanding of law...
• ...without neglecting the humanities
• Combining theory with practice
• Learning languages
• Developing your personal study skills
• Encouraging adaptability

Gain a direct understanding of law... 

Law came into existence to organise human relationships at all levels.  Its raison d'etre is its practical application. It is for this reason that the Faculty of Law and Political Science at the University of Liège has always aimed at training real practitioners. In order to do this it pays particular attention to substantive law as it is set out in legal codes and applied in the courts and tribunals. As such from the first year of your training you will take classes in judicial law, penal law, private law, public law etc. In this way, from the outset, you are familiarised with legal technique, standards and methods.

... without neglecting the humanities

It will not be forgotten, however, that in practice, law is expressed, applied and experienced within a social and economic environment. A lawyer must be able to place legal phenomena in the context of the social sciences more generally. For this reason, law studies include a very robust course of general study through classes in sociology, political economy, philosophy, psychology and history.

Combining theory with practice

The teaching of law aims to be both rooted in solid theoretical foundations and  centred on practice. Meticulous theoretical training ensures that practical issues can subsequently be covered. Above all this will allow you to adapt to the constantly changing field of law and to gain an understanding of new subject matter that may arise in the course of your career. It is with this in mind that interactive practical exercises, supervised by members of the scientific staff, are organised in all law classes.

Learning languages

Today it is impossible to successfully apply for a quality job without knowing one or more foreign languages. Learning and perfecting languages is therefore a key objective of education at Liège. The Faculty has decided to use a progressive method : a general language course and a legal language course given to small groups in the 1^st year, a legal terminology course in the 2^nd year and, in the last year of the bachelor programme, a law course given in a foreign language. In addition, you will receive complementary language classes to support the law course given in a foreign language in the 3^rd year. You can choose between German, English or Dutch.

Two programmes offered by the ULg and no other French-speaking university in Belgium allow you to become fully bilingual and be able to master legal terminology in another language.

• A partnership agreement with the University of Ghent gives you the opportunity to earn a bachelor's degree in law by studying in Liège for the first two years and in Ghent for the 3rd year.

• The "Maastricht" option offers, in the 2nd and 3rd years of the baccalaureate, the possibility of taking the equivalent of 30 credits in law classes at the University of Maastricht in English (European and international law).

Under the masters programme, you also have the opportunity to go on to spend four months or a year in another university in Belgium or abroad.

Developing your personal study skills

The bachelors in law requires the development of critical thought, a better mastery of language and, above all, a taste for working independently. The supervised work organised each year pursues this objective by giving the opportunity to:

• read a work with a legal theme, to test comprehension of it and to exercise critical thought through small group discussion and finally to draft a summary paper (1st year)
• to draft a first legal paper (2nd year)
• to draft an academic paper or a note of jurisprudence (3rd  year)

Supervised group work is led by law practitioners in their 1st and 2nd  ^e years and by teachers and assistants in the final year of the bachelor degree.

Encouraging adaptability

From the 2nd year, in addition to "core classes" (around 150 credits), students are given the choice between 4 options (around 30 credits):

The "Law" option deepens and supplements legal training The "Ghent" programme allows some students in the "Law" section (selected applicants) to do the 3rd year of their bachelors in Law at the University of Ghent, as a part of the Erasmus Belgica agreement. Starting in the 2nd year, these students will follow a special programme that will include, among others, 3rd-year courses that cannot be taken at UGent. To take the "Maastricht" option students (selected applicants) must follow a law course in English at the University of Maastricht. The reasoning behind this is self-evident given the primary importance of foreign languages in the labour market The options "Criminology" and "Political Science" broaden the scope of your knowledge in a specific area... They allow students who wish to do so to go on to other masters such as in Criminology,  in Political Science with Professionnal Focus in Public Administration or European Studies.

Needless to say, each of these options give access to a masters in law.

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