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Parte general del Derecho Civil y Derecho de la persona (GED70043)

General information

Type:

BAS

Curs:

1

Period:

S semester

ECTS Credits:

7 ECTS

Teaching Staff:

Group Teacher Department Language
Ed: 1 Jorge Castiñeira Jerez Derecho ESP

Group Teacher Department Language
Ed: 2 Jorge Castiñeira Jerez Derecho ESP

Previous Knowledge

Students need to have completed the Introduction to Private Law course.

Workload distribution

Classroom-based training activities: 50%: Lectures 30% and participatory sessions 20%
Guided and independent study: 50%

COURSE CONTRIBUTION TO PROGRAM

This course seeks to establish the necessary foundation for Bachelor in Law students to acquire a sound training in the area of Private Law and thereby develop an awareness of the importance of Law as a regulatory system for social relationships. In this course we will study some of the fundamental concepts in Law, concepts which are essential for any lawyer in addition to the specific branch of law they eventually specialise in. This course essentially explores a discipline that engages closely with the core elements of our legal system (and of any legal system) in so far that this aspect of the system, linked to its abstraction and secular value, is implicit in all attempts to undertake a rigorous, reflective and critical training in the field of Law.

Course Learning Objectives

The course's specific aims will enable those students that pass to:

1. Acquire a global vision and understanding of the programmed course content.
a) Content should not just be memorised.
b) Students have to assimilate the content through reflection, relating the different contents without compartmentalising it, emphasising the foundations and aims of the different norms and institutions more than their application in contingent positive law.
c) Students have to intensify their knowledge of the course's core content as selected by faculty based on the programme.

2. Develop their ability and use of appropriate techniques to process, read and understand legal texts.

Competences

1. Knowledge acquisition, comprehension and structuring

Relation between Activities and Competences

1
Final exam  
Ongoing assessment  

CONTENT

1. INTRODUCTION. SOURCES OF PRIVATE LAW

Topic 1. Private Law. Public Law and Private Law: distinguishing criteria. From Private Law to Civil Law. The special Private Rights. Civil Law: concept and content. Civil Law as Common Law. Historical development of civil rights in Spain. Civil codificiation. The Spanish Civil Code. The system of complilation. The development of Civil Law after the 1978 Spanish Constitution: State Civil Law and Autonomous Community Civil Rights.

Topic 2. The sources of Private Law: concept and classes. Organisational principles of the sources system. The Law: concept and character (remission). Custom as a source of law: concept and traits. Requirements. Types. General principles of Law: concept and nature. Types. Functions. Equity: concept, functions and regime. Jurisprudence: concept and significance in our sources system.

Topic 3. Efficacy and application of legal regulations. The legal duty to fulfil regulations. Illegal acts. Ignorance of the law and error in Law. Voluntary exclusiong from applicable law. Defrauding law: concept, delimitation and effects. The implementation of laws.The repeal of laws. The retroactive application of the law: degree and limits of application. Legal interpretation: concept,reach and types. Hermeneutic criteri established in Article 3-1 in the Spanish Constitution. Gaps in laws and in Law. Analogies.

2. THE LAW CONCERNING THE PERSON

Topic 4. The physical person. Legal age and legal effects. Legal concept of the person and components: Legal capacity and capacity to act. Acquisition and loss of legal perosnality (remission). The person's age and legal transcendence. Achieving adulthood. Underage people and the corresponding legal regime. Emancipation: concepts and effects. Types of emancipation: requirements for each. Legal situation of emancipated persons.

Topic 5. Incompetency and assistance. Prodigality. Incompetency: concept. Requirements. Proceedings. Effects. Incapacity of minors. Institutions to protect people: assistance and others. Prodigality: concept. Petition and proceedings. Effects.

Topic 6. Nationality and civil residency. Marital status. The Civil Registry. Nationality: concept and attribution criteri, acquisition and loss of Spanish nationality. Civil residency: concept and significance. Acquisition and recovery of civil residence. Marital status: concept and tests. Civil Registry: concept and regime

Topic 7. Residence and absence. Residence: concept and importance. Types. Absence: concept and meainging. Phases and legal situations of absence. Effects of the declaration of absence. Declaration of death: concept, requirements and effects.

Topic 8. The legal person. Association. Foundations. The legal person: concept, nature and types. Acquisition of personality and ability. Bodies and representatives. Association: general ideas. Legal regime for association. Foundations: concept and legal regime.

3. PRIVATE AUTONOMY. SUBJECTIVE LAW

Topic 9. Private autonomy. Legal relationship and subjective law. Autonomy of will as a general principle in Law. Concetp and content. Institutional limits. The legal relation: concept and traits. Types. Subjective law: theoretical construction and traites. Types. Structure: subject, object and content. Legal responsibilities.

Topic 10. The exercise of rights and dynamics. Representation. Dynamics of subjective rights. Birth, acquisition, transferral, modification, extinction and loss. Waiver of rights. General ideas regarding the exercise of rights. Subjective requirements: capacity and legitimation. Representation. Conceptual perspective and delimitation. area of application. the representative legal relation. Business concluded in representation. Types of representation: A) legal and volutnary representation; b) direct and indirect representation. Direct representation: concept and traits. Requirements. "Contemplatio domini". Power: concept, the relations created and content. Power of attorney: concept, traits and legal regime. Representation without (sufficient) power: concept and legal regime. Ratification.

Topic 11. Limits to the exercise of subjective rights. Extrinsic limits: conflicting rights. Intrinsic limits to the exercise of subjective rights. Natural limits: configuration of the right. Limitations stemming from the general "good faith" principle. The abuse of Law. Concept. Requirements or elements of abuse of Law. Consequences of this abuse.

Topic 12. Extinction of rights for a period of time. The period of time: importance and calculation. The extinctive prescription. Concept and foundations. Subjects and object. Requirements. Start of the prescription and periods. Interruption and suspension of the prescription. Waiver of the prescription gained. Expiry: concept and foundation. Positive regime.

Relation between Activities and Contents

1 2 3
Final exam      
Ongoing assessment      

Methodology

Common activities and methodology

The teaching methodology applied in this course rests on students' own learning and in-class sessions. The latter consist of lectures and participatory sessions. With support from the bibliography and other material, continuously and progressively learning is essential to achieve the course objectives. Participatory sessions will begin once students have obtained the minimal foundations required. Students must prepare the course content prior to each class and in accordance with the syllabus, using the material and the means indicated by faculty. This prior independent study has to enable students to understand and take part in the weekly sessions (attend classes with a required reading and understand it). The activities detailed below will all occur in-class. Assessing students' performance thus requires clearly and continuously demonstrating their comprehension to faculty.

In terms of material, regardless of any instructions, dossiers or other material faculty may provide, students have to work on and prepare their own folder of materials based on one of the texts (see bibliography), detailing and adding all the additional and complementary knowledge they acquire through the different activities.

Activities designed to achieve the competencies for this course:

In-class activities will consist of the following:
1. Lectures

Faculty will give lectures to introduce students to the most fundamental and/or controversial issues included within the course content. Correctly staying abreast of these lectures requires prior independent study by students. This is fundamental to comprehend that presented in class.

2. Participatory sessions

Two types of activities are carried out in these sessions: On the one hand, we will examine case studies, that is, an application of an issue students will have to work on and resolve on their own using the relevant material. On the other, students will have to attempt to resolve the so-called "questionnaires". These consist of specific questions for students to offer well-argued responses. In both cases, students will receive statements to resolve beforehand. They will be required to prepare them on their own to then comment and discuss them in class. During each session, faculty will grade students on their attendance and participation, especially the quality and rigour of their comments and the solutions they provide for the case studies or questionnaires.

It is important to stress that student participation in these sessions will represent their ongoing assessment mark whose weight in the overall mark for the course is described above. Faculty will use the course website to indicate if the weekly assignment has to be turned in prior to class.


Competence development through the activities.

Activities to contribute to competence 1: case studies and resolution of exercises/questionnaires; final exam.

ASSESSMENT

ASSESSMENT BREAKDOWN

Description %
Final exam 50
Ongoing assessment 50

Assessment criteria

Assessment:

Course marks will be range from 0 and 10. Assessment activities include a final exam (50% of the overall course mark) and ongoing assessment (50%).

Students have to earn a minimum mark of 5/10 on the final exam for it to be computed with the other component.

Final exam
It will consist of three parts:
a) 20-30 multiple-choice questions with four possible answers each for students to choose from. Correctly answered questions are tallied, while unanswered or null questions are not computed and incorrect answers deduct points (a third of the value assigned to the correct answer).
b) Short-answers: these will require students to reflect on and develop their answers, not provide a response based on simple content memorisation.
c) Problem-solving activity: this component consists ofexercxises similar to resolving case studeies, analysing jurisprudence and resolving exercises/quiestions raised in class.

Ongoing assessment.

This mark is awarded accumulatively as the course progresses. During the course the students will be assessed for each of their contributions (voluntary or requested by faculty) in practical case study activities, jurisprudence analysis and the completion of exercises/questionnaires. At the end of the course the mark for this component is obtained by averaging all the marks received.

Each mark can range from 0 to 10. Unjustified absences or failing to participate in participatory sessions will result in a 0 as the mark. If duly justified, that activity will not be assessed. At the faculty's sole discretion, repeatedly failing to participate in assessment activities (albeit justified) may render it imposible to assign a mark for this component of the overall mark and, consequently, not passing this course.

Class attendance is essential.
Students who do not:
1. Pass the course after the FIRST SITTING OF THE EXAM due to not attending class, not completing the set activities or copying them will not be able to RE-SIT THE FINAL and will therefore have to re-take the course again and complete the set activities specified by facultyl.
2. Have the level of required competences will be able to move on to the next year of the programme so long as they pass this course but they will not be able to complete the final degree project without having acquired the required competence levels for the programme.

Bibliography

Short bibliography:

- DÍEZ PICAZO; GULLON BALLESTEROS; Sistema de Derecho Civil, Tomo I, Madrid,
Tecnos, latest edition.
- LACRUZ BERDEJO, J.L.; SANCHO REBULLIDA, F.A.; DELGADO ECHEVARRÍA, J.;
RIVERO HERNÁNDEZ, F. Elementos de Derecho civil. Tomo I (three volumes) Barcelona.
Ed. Dykinson, latest edition.
- VAQUER ALOY (Coord.), Dret Civil. Part general i dret de la persona, Barcelona, Atelier, latest edition.

Timetable and sections

Group Teacher Department
Ed: 1 Jorge Castiñeira Jerez Derecho

Timetable Ed: 1

From 2015/2/2 to 2015/5/13:
Each Wednesday from 13:00 to 15:00.
Each Monday from 10:45 to 12:45.

Wednesday 2015/5/20 from 10:00 to 13:00.

Group Teacher Department
Ed: 2 Jorge Castiñeira Jerez Derecho

Timetable Ed: 2

From 2015/2/2 to 2015/5/13:
Each Monday from 13:00 to 15:00.
Each Wednesday from 10:45 to 12:45.

Wednesday 2015/5/20 from 10:00 to 13:00.