Private Law
Full course description
Private Law (PL) is the second mandatory course in private law in the European Law School bachelor programme. It is the first course of the second year. This course continues the longitudinal learning trajectory (LLT) in Private Law and will utilize the knowledge and skills the students have gained in the first year. The course will lay further foundations for the course on Philosophy of Private law in period 4 of year 2 and for the electives in Year 3.
This mandatory course builds on the knowledge and insights of the students gained in the first year into private law as a system focusing on the fields of family law, contract law, property law, tort law and private international law. In this course the main narrative will be the role of private law in contributing towards solutions for large societal issues. Three major themes will be addressed in this course: (1) Consumer Protection, (2) Technological Developments and (3) Eco-Sustainability. In the course, students will become aware of the fundamental aspects of private law and its principles, apply legal rules from diverse sources of private law to the core legal issues in private law, and analyse the facilitative and regulatory role of private law in society; in particular in the context of the three wider themes. Issues of family law will be used to further underline the role of private law in the organization of people’s lives, closely connecting to the students’ own experiences.
The aim of this course is to provide students with a further understanding of the fundamental building blocks that constitute the underlying system in private law. The approach of this course is comparative, both in a traditional horizontal sense, as was carried out in the first year, but also in a multi-level (vertical) sense introducing the influence of EU law and the ECHR to private law. The course will focus on legislation and case law from Germany, England, France and the Netherlands as well as EU law and the ECHR to illustrate the main rules and principles from family law, contract law, property law, tort law and private international law. The course therefore adopts a European perspective.
Course objectives
1. The student understands the core concepts of private law as a system that consists of several sub-fields, as well as their societal contexts;
2. The student can identify the main actors relevant to private law at a national level;
3. The student understands the foundational concepts associated with family law, contract law, property law, tort law and private international law;
4. The student can identify and compare the defining features of the main sub-fields of national private law;
5. The student can identify, compare and understand the influence of multi-level legal systems such as European Union law and the European Convention on Human Rights on national private law, for example in the field of Consumer Protection, Technology and Sustainability.
Prerequisites
Introduction to Private Law (Year 1, period 2) (PRI1201)
Recommended reading
The course will provide a reader for students