law and french law

aine-maire

hey,

thinking of doing law with french law in ucd...

would anyone doing this course like to tell me about it??

at the mo it's no.1 on my cao...but i'm so confused!

thanks in advance

Tea-a-Maria

Well,I'm doing law with history,so I share a fair few classes with that degree.Also,one of my friends is doing it,so I know some of the modules.

You need at least a B3 in French to get in AFAIK,but apparently you might find the going tough with a grade like that.

In first year, you study Constitutional Law,Contract Law,Tort,Common Law and the Point of Law.You also study French Constitutional Law.I'm sure there are others, but unfortunately I can't remember them.:o

Law is a course with not that many hours,but you need to do quite a bit of reading of case law etc to keep up.Some of it can be quite dense to read and there's a lot of legal speak and Latin terms,but you pick them up eventually.

Numbers wise,it's quite small,I think there's around 30 doing the course.

Hope that helps.:)

aine-maire

oh cool, thanks

yeah, I know that it's supposed to be really difficult, but what appeals to me is doing law with something else... Because I'm kind of afraid that it may be sort of monotonous alone!

aine-maire

oh cool, thanks

yeah, I know that it's supposed to be really difficult, but what appeals to me is doing law with something else... Because I'm kind of afraid that it may be sort of monotonous alone!

Tea-a-Maria

That's the very same reason I chose Law with History.It's a good angle to take on things.As it happens,I nearly prefer the Law part of my course to the History part,but having the variety is good.:)

r14

Hi,

I just finished a Law and French Law degree and I really think it is worth the extra effort over and above regular Law.

The UCD course is, imo, much better than the TCD course. TCD spend more time looking at French language while in UCD we focused more on French Law. In TCD your year abroad runs during third year so you miss out on some core subjects like EU law that you need if you want to do Kings Inns or FE1s. They do those subjects in France and then have to request the professional bodies to recognise their French marks for the purpose of entrance exams etc.

I agree that if you are the type of person who scrapes a B3 in French it may not be for you but that said French legalese is as different from normal language as English legalese is. Once you start having classes through French and getting the confidence to speak up your French improves a lot and it becomes manageable.

I did the course when it was not semesterised so it may have changed but when I was there we did French Public Law in first year (constitutional law) and French Private Law in second year (Tort).

Third year was spent in France. I went to Paris and it was the best time of my life. Lots of hard work over there but a lot of fun. Other places you can go are Toulouse, Aix en Provence etc. A really good time and employers do appreciate a year abroad.

Final year was just a bit of fun because there wasn't a huge amount more to teach us that we hadn't already done in France.

You really don't miss out on many courses that the regular Law crowd do and it only takes a little bit more work. Employers like the different slant that experience in the civil law gives you and it also helps with understanding EU law, which for many can be impossible to get to grips with.

My class was only 9 people and as far as I know the years below me were an average of about 12-15 so not that big, but remember the majority of your classes will be with the regular law crowd so you won't be isolated.

Basically I have never regretted my choice and I had a great time in UCD so I'd say go for it.

Hope this helps and feel free if you have any more questions.

Aprilsunshine

hey there I def agree with r14

it was my first pref on cao and I was nervous when I got it - but it was worth all the work.

Paris was the most amazing experience ever and my french improved more than I thought it could.

Final year is a laugh - you already know everything from France so its a guaranteed first really.

You only have one or classes away from the plain law crowd so you mix with everyone but you also get close to your little french class.

Good luck!

aine-maire

r14 wrote: »

The UCD course is, imo, much better than the TCD course. TCD spend more time looking at French language while in UCD we focused more on French Law. In TCD your year abroad runs during third year so you miss out on some core subjects like EU law that you need if you want to do Kings Inns or FE1s. They do those subjects in France and then have to request the professional bodies to recognise their French marks for the purpose of entrance exams etc.

Third year was spent in France.

Um...if 3rd year is spent in France on the UCD course also how do you not miss out on those 'core subjects like EU law' as well?

Thanks a million though, it's my first choice now and I'm feeling way less apprehensive about it!

r14

When I did it law was a three year course so you didn't miss out on any subjects by spending a year abroad. I see they're changing it to a four year course now and incorporating the year abroad as your 3rd year which makes it a bit more complex.

Looking at the UCD website you get all the fe1 subjects done by the end of 2nd year except for equity which is done in 4th year. So the year abroad doesn't interfere with those subjects. In Trinity EU law is done in 3rd year so if you did a year abroad you missed out on that one and had to do it yourself or else do it in France through French.

Semesterisation makes everything very complicated but so long as you know the requirements for Blackhall or the Bar and choose your subjects to suit you'll manage.

Johnee

r14 wrote: »

In Trinity EU law is done in 3rd year so if you did a year abroad you missed out on that one and had to do it yourself or else do it in France through French.

.

Its done for most students in 2nd year in Trinity. The Law/French students tend to do in 4th year when they get back as one of their options. So its not correct to say that have to do it themselves, or do it in France through French.

They have the option of doing it in France if they want, but the majority will do it back in Dublin in 4th year.

OP, make sure to check all these things out for yourself rather than rely on internet chat - both Trinity and UCD law are planning some big changes at the moment so clarify with them what the system will be for you when you go in. At the moment, its a bad idea to rely on what's happened in the past.

Aprilsunshine

In terms of what the previous post says about EU law, my experience was that all the TCD students were forced to do EU law in France (some failed it there unfortunately) having missed it in 2nd year and needing to do other things in 4th year.

It may have changed since because that was obviously a poor system.

UCD is changing though and the BCL is now 4 years so that could affect French law.

I still wouldn't hesitate to recommend it in UCD as a degree - very interesting and highly regarded by employers.