Target group

PhD students of the Law Faculty; Members of the Doctoral School of Arts, Humanities and Law

Level

Basic knowledge of German (secondary school) is an advantage, but not necessary to participate in the course. There is no placement test.

Objectives

Reading skills are the major objective of the course. At the end of the course, the participants can read legal texts in German. They also acquire a broad legal vocabulary through extensive vocabulary lists and exercises. We treat grammatical items necessary to understand German legal texts.

Content

Legal topics that are dealt with in this course include:

• Europarecht
• Privatrecht
• Gesellschaftsrecht
• Insolvenz
• Produkthaftung

Moreover, legal items specific for Germany are integrated, such as the structure of the German constitutional state and current legal topics.

The course discusses a number of specific grammatical items necessary to understand written materials and to reduce complex structures to their main point. A few examples include:

• the recognition of Kasus in order to define the function of sentences or parts of sentences;
• the recognition and understanding of regularly used structures in legal texts (Relativsätze, Partizipien, Gerundium, Konjunktiv, Passiv, etc.).

Schedule

The course is organised in the first semester of the academic year 2016-2017. Course hours are determined by the teacher and the course participants.

More information

UCT

Language

English/German

Evaluation criteria (doctoral training programme)

Examination

Number of participants

23

Registration fee

Free of charge for members of the Doctoral Schools

Registration procedure

To register, send an e-mail to doctoralschools@UGent.be, mentioning your name, surname, student number, faculty, department, Doctoral School, the title of the course, the course code and your current living address. You will receive an e-mail confirming your registration. There is no need to register at the University Language Centre.