| Lecturers |
| Calvo de la Uz, Isaías Juan | | Pereira Saez, Maria Carolina | | Rivas Pala, Pedro | | Serna Bermudez, Pedro | | Vergara Lacalle, Oscar |
|
E-mail |
| isaias.calvo@udc.es | | c.pereira.saez@udc.es | | pedro.rivas@udc.es | | pedro.serna@udc.es | | oscar.vergara@udc.es |
|
| General description |
The aim of this course is to provide students with a global vision of the world of law, both in terms of certain general content and in terms of the skills and competences of the lawyer.
Normally we will not speak of "lawyer" but of "jurist", because the latter term designates the legal professional, while the former only mentions one of the possible law-related professions, not precisely the most characteristic, although perhaps the best known and, of course, the most widespread numerically.
The general contents are a priority in this course, while the skills or competences must be acquired by the law student throughout his/her career and then in the professional practice and postgraduate training.
From the point of view of knowledge or content, the aim is firstly for the student to acquire a detailed knowledge of the main dynamic processes that make up the life of the Law and the concepts that allow them to be understood, as well as the structural elements of the legal order. Secondly, it is intended that the student acquires a global vision of the Law as a social practice, of the elements that make up this practice and of its most outstanding characteristics. In other words, as far as the contents are concerned, this course will try to answer two fundamental questions: a) What is Law? b) How is legal life structured, what dynamic processes normally take place within it, how do these processes develop and what concepts allow an adequate understanding of them.
In this course we will deal with concepts and notions used or presupposed in practically all branches of Law and Legal Science.
With some exceptions, this course will not analyse specific aspects of Spanish Law, but those notions, structures and processes that are generally shared by all sectors or branches of Law, even by orders or legal systems belonging to other countries and/or other times.
It remains now to say something about the skills or competences that are sought to be developed in this course. The Law is part of social life, but the Science of Law is not exactly a social science, because the jurist faces the unique and concrete social questions and problems, not general ones, as would be the case of the political scientist, the economist or the sociologist. Moreover, and above all, the main instrument of the jurist is the texts: his contact with social reality is mediated by the handling of written texts of different nature: legislation, case-law and dogmatic or scientific texts. Moreover, the facts that constitute a legal case must not only be analyzed and evaluated in the light of the texts just mentioned, but they themselves must be told in an orderly fashion (thus adopting the form of a text or narrative) in order to be addressed and resolved. Therefore, from the point of view of skills or competences, the object of the course is to initiate and advance students in the following specific competences, which they will have to develop throughout the degree program: a) Reading and understanding of legal texts ( scholarly, legislative and case-law). b) Capacity for critical analysis of established law. c) Capacity for oral and written expression. d) Capacity for legal argumentation and familiarity with the way of reasoning characteristic of jurists.
In addition, it is reasonable to think that the work on this subject will strengthen the development of other more generic skills or competencies, but no less important: a) Analysis and synthesis ability. b) Problem-solving ability. c) Information management ability. d) Ability to work autonomously and in teams, and to make organizational decisions in this regard. In order to develop the previous competences, the course has been designed so that the students work on it every day or, at least, every week, with different intensity and dedication according to the topics. The constant personal work of the students and, to a lesser extent, the team work, are decisive to overcome the course successfully. Finally, this course also aims, but indirectly, to raise certain attitudes in students, both intellectual and ethical: a) The sense of justice, in connection with the idea that the law exists to achieve certain purposes. b) The critical attitude. c) The sense of conceptual rigour and of reasoning. |
Subjects
