Publish at February 08 2016 Updated March 18 2025
The former French Minister of Justice, Jacques Toubon, reacted strongly a few months ago, expressing surprise that the law did not feature more prominently in school curricula.
After all, there are a number of subjects in which young people can be given a rudimentary grounding in the law.
At many school levels, law courses are a compulsory part of the curriculum. For example, in the STMG (Sciences et technologies du management et de la gestion) stream, law is a significant part of the specialization curriculum. The aim is twofold: on the one hand, to provide a grounding in the rules of law that apply in everyday life, and on the other, to provide the keys to understanding legal limits from a more professional, management-oriented perspective.
The Première program covers general notions such as the birth and application of law in its various jurisdictions. The final year's program takes a more practical approach, focusing on contracts, labor law and commercial law. In this way, young people likely to face their first job are able to understand their contracts at a minimum.
After the baccalaureate, BTS (brevet de technicien supérieur) courses often include a legal component in their training, especially when the prospects are in sales (Négociation Relation Client, Management des Unités Commerciales) or human or financial management(Comptabilité et Gestion des Organisations, Assistant de Gestion...). In each case, the program is built around the most useful practical applications to train professionals with a minimum legal framework in mind.
However, the law is still frequently evoked in the school context, including in junior high schools, through civic education or civic, legal and social teaching, which disappeared in 2013 in favor of moral and civic teaching, now taught in schools. Less a narrow discipline than a sharing of values, the latter should enable learners to acquire the right reflexes for a civic-minded vision of everyday life and community life, right from junior high school. It's not a lecture, then, but rather an exercise in reflection, criticism, autonomy, analysis and openness.
In the literary stream of the general baccalaureate, law is tackled in the"Law and major issues of the contemporary world" option, through a dossier that again involves analysis and understanding of a specific case, followed by questioning that extends to the skills targeted by the program. Once again, the aim is to give young people the opportunity to become enlightened citizens today.
Finally, without knowing it, or at least without having analyzed it, our young people are constantly immersed in the law, and more precisely in their rights, which they often know very well: respect, protection, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly... on the other hand, they more easily forget the associated duties: punctuality, correct dress and language, not using mobile terminals in class, not cheating... This last point is often surprising: if they vaguely know the rule, they are not always aware of the seriousness of the penalties incurred, nor of the damaging consequences for their future.
A reminder of the rules can be very useful in putting things back in their proper place, and removing the temptation for some dilettantes to play with fire.
Illustration: Sebastian Duda Shutterstock 160390574
References
Défenseur des droits calls for "law courses" in secondary schools - BFM TV
http://www.bfmtv.com/societe/le-defenseur-des-droits-plaide-pour-des-cours-de-droit-au-college-et-au-lycee-888412.html
Option droit et enjeux du monde contemporain - Éducation Nationale
http://www.education.gouv.fr/pid25535/bulletin_officiel.html?cid_bo=58960
STMG curriculum - Éducation Nationale
http://eduscol.education.fr/ecogest/enseignements/ecogest/im_ecogest/3-stmg-droit.pdf
L'enseignement du droit au lycée - Dominique Catoir - Canopé
http://www.educ-revues.fr/EM/AffichageDocument.aspx?iddoc=34430
Law and major issues of the contemporary world - Éducation nationale
http://eduscol.education.fr/cid59321/droit-et-grands-enjeux-du-monde-contemporain.html
Specialized teaching of law and major issues of the contemporary world in the literary series - Éducation nationale
http://www.education.gouv.fr/pid25535/bulletin_officiel.html?cid_bo=57524
Rights and obligations of high school students - Public service
https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F1364
Students' rights in schools - eArtSup - Yaël Hassid - CIDJ
http://www.cidj.com/ecole-lycee-universite-tout-savoir-sur-le-reglement-scolaire/droits-des-eleves-dans-les-etablissements-scolaires
BTS accounting and management - ex BTS accounting and management of organizations (CGO) - L'Étudiant
http://www.letudiant.fr/etudes/bts/comptabilite-et-gestion.html
BTS Assistant de Gestion PME-PMI (AG) - L'Étudiant
http://etudiant.aujourdhui.fr/etudiant/info/bts-assistant-de-gestion-pme-pmi-ag.html
National Education, the EMC reform: http://www.education.gouv.fr/cid90776/l-enseignement-moral-et-civique-au-bo-special-du-25-juin-2015.html
Moral and civic education (EMC) in the Special Official Bulletin of June 25, 2015 - Éducation Nationale
http://www.education.gouv.fr/pid25535/bulletin_officiel.html?cid_bo=90158
What do you risk if you cheat at the bac? - Service public
https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F22211
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