Dirkvan den Auweele and Randall Lesaffer general history of the last two centuries of Belgium and Europe, stressing political and ideological developments. Most universities have more general historical introductions as optional courses for the second year. In the majority of the universities an introduction into natural law, often a part of a more general course in political philosophy, is obligatory. In the last three years of the curriculum, there are only optional lectures in Roman law and legal history left. At the Flemish Catholic University of Leuven there are three seminars provided, one in Roman law, one in the history of public law and one in the history of private law - where students are expected to prepare a paper. The French speaking Free University of Brussels organizes an optional seminar in legal history for the last year. It must be said that in general the number of optional lectures has diminished, especially in Flanders. At the university of Gent, where the decrease has been most spectacular, this was clearly in consequence of the reducing of the professors teaching Roman law and legal history to one single scholar. Most other universities in Belgium still have one or two professors of legal history, and one or two for Roman law. At the Flemish Catholic University of Leuven there are still five professors teaching in these domains. The university has however to provide for its department of Kortrijk. At the Flemish Free University of Brussels there is an optional lecture in the historical development of the Belgian social security system. In Liege there is a lecture on the Roman origins of the European legal systemin the postgraduate programme in European law. Flemish speaking Leuven organises a lecture on Continental Legal History in English for its postgraduate foreign students taking part in the Master of Laws programme of its Centre for Advanced Legal Studies and for Erasmus students in the normal curriculum. This lecture is also taken by some 20 % of the Belgian students. There is also a lecture in English on European Legal History in the interdisciplinary postgraduate programmof the Arts faculty called European studies- junior programma. At the French speaking Free University of Brussels and the Flemish Catholic University of Leuven there is an obligatory introduction into the history of penal lawin the last two years of the curriculum leading to a licentiate’s degree in criminology. This lecture is optional at Gent. Finally it must be stressed that Roman law is nowhere obligatory on the curriculumof students in ancient history or classical philology, which might be said to be an anomaly. The curricula of medieval and modern history mostly only hold lectures in institutional history, which are in some cases the responsibility of professors of legal history. As in Belgium, Dutch law school curricula were thoroughly reformed during the last decade which led to a reduction of time spent on Roman law and legal history. The curriculumin the Netherlands differs a lot fromuniversity to university. After one year of study, the students take a general examination. 268
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