Universitat Internacional de Catalunya
Juridical Infotechnology and Communication Skills
Other languages of instruction: Catalan
Teaching staff
PART A: Juridical Infotech
Questions and doubts can be solved in the spaces established for it during the face-to-face meetings or by sending an email to the teacher.
The student has also the possibility of arranging a face-to-face meeting with the teacher to receive specific support.
PART B: Communication Skills
Student will arrange face-to-face meetings with the teacher by sending an email to the following address:
rmjimenez@uic.es
Introduction
The subject is divided into two different and independent parts.
One part is dedicated to Legal info-technology (part A) and the other is communication techniques (part B).
Each part is to be done simultaneously having their own methodologies, areas, timetables, etc.
For questions related to the evaluation of each part and the subject as a whole, please consult the section of this document that addresses grading.
PART A: Legal Info-technology
The subject is centered on the skills, techniques and instruments from the ICT world for the efficient production of fomal documents in the legal realm.
Special emphasis is placed on good practicies and the use of efficient production methods that ICTs provide us as well as the criteria for formal quality and visual harmony of the documents that can be found in organisations in the legal world.
Part B: Communication Techniques
This subject is intended to provide students with the tools and knowledge on oral and written communication that university learning requires and encourages an advanced level of language mastery, the objective of any good lawyer.
Pre-course requirements
None
Objectives
PART A: Legal Info-technology
- Development of habits of rigor and formal quality in document presentation.
- Proficiency in the use of new technologies, especially in relation to obtaining legal information.
- Management of legal databases.
- Ability to handle supplementary sources of legal information in digital media.ç
- Understanding the practical importance of legal issues: searching and analyzing case law are essential for successfully overcoming the subject.
- Familiarity with reading and analyzing court judgments and resolutions.
- Ability to draft formal legal documents.
- Acquisition of the skill of autonomous learning: being able to address various legal issues or problems from different jurisdictional or legal domains.
PART B: Communicaton Techniques
Objective of knowledge:
-- Know the rules of grammar and syntax in one's own language and be able to identify the mistakes most commonly made.
-- Define and identify the techniques and strategies for presentations and for argumentation.
-- Know the main resources available for oral expression.
Objectives for attitudes and abilities:
-- Text analysis in order to be able to discern the ideas presented and be able to analyse them critically.
-- Be able to write with clarity, rigor and accuracy.
-- Develop the habit of reading.
-- Constantly developing work, being professional and responsible and being mindful of meeting deadlines.
-- Oral expression of ideas clearly and in front of others.
Competences/Learning outcomes of the degree programme
- 01 - To acquire the ability to understand main ideas and participate in conferences or professor led lectures in their academic context.
- 02 - To acquire the ability to understand, analyse and synthesise
- 03 - To be able to express one's ideas and arguments in an orderly and coherent way both in oral and written form (written and oral techniques)
- 04 - To turn in documents that have been formally and thoroughly prepared to high standards
- 10 - To acquire the ability to skillfully use computer systems and ICTs.
- 11 - To acquire skills for autonomous learning
Learning outcomes of the subject
PART A: Legal Info-technology
Once the student has successfully completed this part of the subject, , he or she will present the following learning outcomes:
1. Have developed habits for neatness and a formal quality when presenting documents.
2. Have acquired good skills of use of the most common IT tools.
3. Know how to put together formal documents for the legal world.
PART B: Communication Techniques
1. Acquired the ability for oral and written communication.
2. Developed skills for expressing oneself in public.
3. Developed the ability to synthesise and analyse information received in class and from complementary material provided by the professor.
4. Have acquired analytical skills and be able to arrive at valid conclusions.
5. Have developed skills for neatness and formality when presenting documents.
6. Been able to overcome the intitial difficulties of speaking in public.
7. Have acquired the skills for autonomous learning.
Syllabus
PART A: Juridical Infotech
Topic 1: Introduction - Utility and Limits of Infotechnological Means as Tools for Obtaining Legal Information and for Practical Legal Work.
1.2. Main Utility: Quick access to relevant legal information for addressing or resolving any legal problem or issue that arises in the field of domestic or community law.
1.1. Risks and Limitations.
Main Limitation: The need for a prior mastery of key legal concepts relevant to the raised issue.
Specific risks related to procedural forms and models and contracts.
Additional risks associated with inadequate use of infotechnological tools.
Topic 2 - Specific Utility of Each Infotechnological Tool in Different Phases of Practical Legal Work.
2.1. Logical Steps of Legal Advisory and Legal Assistance.
2.2. Utility of Infotechnological Tools in Each Described Logical Step.
Topic 3 - Various Infotechnological Tools in Detail. Techniques and Best Practices for Their Proper Use.
3.1. General search engines.
3.2. Databases and query tools of different parliaments.
3.3. Databases and other tools for consulting reports and opinions of advisory bodies and other state bodies and institutions regarding pre-legislative or pre-regulatory texts.
3.4. Legislation databases.
3.5. Case law databases.
3.6. Doctrinal and bibliographic databases.
Topic 4 - Development of Strategies to Improve Performance and Utility of Searches Through Normative, Case Law, and Doctrinal Databases.
4.1. Practical exercises for determining the status quaestionis regarding controversial legal issues and questions.
Topic 5 - The Instrumental Use of Procedural and Contractual Model Forms and Databases.
5.1. Practical exercises for the preparation of procedural and contractual documents.
PART B: Communication Skills
1. Introduction
Think, read, write.
The horizon of intellectual life: love of wisdom and seek after truth (class notes). The four most important values at UIC.
2. Language
Levels of language, degrees of knowledge and assessment (Jiménez, 2023). Varieties and language registers. Legal and administrative language (class notes).
4. Rhetoric
Pragmatic logos (class notes). Rhetoric: definition. End of rhetoric (class notes). Rhetoric communication. Areas of application (Spang, 2006)
Aristotle’s Rhetoric (book I, chapters I-III): logos, pathos, ethos (book excerpts).
Persuasion. Strategies to persuade. Rhetoric as a system of communications elaboration. Areas and genres of rhetoric communication. Quality criteria of rhetoric communication. Discourse construction. Styles (Spang, 2006)
5. Written expression
Methods to generate and organise the ideas (Jiménez, 2023)
Simple and clear language (Jiménez, 2023)
Accurate language (Jiménez, 2023)
The argumentation (Jiménez, 2023)
Correct language (Jiménez, 2023)
Most common lexical, morphological and syntactic mistakes
Text review (Jiménez, 2023)
6. Academic writing
Academic writing. Structural and linguistic characteristics of academic texts. Academic genres. Source citation.
7. Verbal expression
Vocalisation and intonation. Expressive reading. The debate. Preparation of short speeches. Recording a speech.
Teaching and learning activities
In person
PART A: Juridical Infotech
The learning methodology combines face-to-face meetings with individual exercises.
Summarizing, the methodology consists of the following activity cycle:
1. Face-to-face meetings to set the conceptual approach, introduce and situate the student.
2. Autonomous work of the student about the basic techniques and functions, through exercises.
3. Face-to-face meetings to explain and practice the advanced and complex functions.
4. Practical exercises to develop skills of autonomous learning by the student.
5. Exams based on complex case oriented to the integrated praxis.
In the virtual space for the course the student the plan for the course will be released, week by week. All the activities can be found in the virtual space for the course, with a clear indication of deadlines.
REMARK: IT IS STRONGLY FORBIDDEN TO USE ANY ELECTRONIC DEVICE DURING THE TESTS AND EXAMS OF THIS PART, APART FROM THE COMPUTER ASSIGNED TO THE STUDENT BY THE TEACHER. THIS APPLIES SPECIALLY TO MOBILE PHONES, TABLETS, AND WATCHES, BUT MORE GENERALLY APPLIES TO ALL DEVICES.
PART B: Communication Skills
The methodology consists of the following activities:
1. Lectures to set the conceptual approach, introduce and situate the student.
2. Autonomous work of the student on the basic techniques and functions, taking simple exercises.
3. Practical exercises to develop skills of autonomous learning by the student.
4. Practical complex exercises which allow the student to integrate the plurality of functions in a unified praxis. These cases will be solved iteratively, and each student will submit at least two versions of each exercise, after a revision of the first submission in class.
5. Exams based on complex case oriented to the integrated praxis.
6. Discussion.
REMARK: IT IS STRONGLY FORBIDDEN TO USE ANY ELECTRONIC DEVICE DURING THE TESTS AND EXAMS OF THIS PART. THIS RULE APPLIES SPECIALLY TO MOBILE PHONES, TABLETS, AND SMARTWATCHES, BUT MORE GENERALLY APPLIES TO ALL DEVICES.
| TRAINING ACTIVITY | COMPETENCES |
| Classroom activities in order to follow up on students (both individual and in a group) Student independent study Individual projects Individual and group projects Presenting concepts and their practical application in the classroom | 02 03 04 09 12 13 |
| Classroom activities in order to follow up on students (both individual and in a group) Individual projects Student can study and work independently Individual and group projects Study and work in a group Presenting concepts and their practical application in the classroom | 02 03 04 05 09 11 12 13 |
| Classroom activities in order to follow up on students (both individual and in a group) Student independent study Individual projects Individual and group projects Study and work in a group Presenting concepts and their practical application in the classroom | 02 03 04 05 09 11 12 13 |
Evaluation systems and criteria
In person
Rules for both parts
In order to pass the course is essential to pass each part (A & B) separately. Therefore, the final mark will be calculated only if the mark of each part (A & B) is higher or equal to 5 (out of 10).
In that case, the final mark will be calculated according to this formula:
50% Juridical infotech mark + 50% Communication skills mark.
Therefore, truancy of Continuing Education Conferences will have a direct negative impact on the overall mark for the subject. The quantity if this negative impact depends on the number of conferences that have not been attended, adding up to a point (out of 10) on the final grade. For example: if you miss a conference the impact will be 0.4 points, if you miss two conferences the impact will be 0.7 points and if you miss the three conferences the impact will be 1 point. This regulation will not apply to Erasmus or exchange students, neither to students of the double degrees.
Since truancy of continuing education conferences penalizes, it is numerically possible for a student to pass both parts of the subject and fail the course due to the aforementioned penalty.
In case of failing one or more parts, the mark will be the average of the two if it is less than 4 (out of 10) or 4 if it is more than 4 (out of 10).
In the repeat exams (and followings) the final mark will be calculated according to the following formula: 50% Juridical infotech mark, 50% Communication skills mark. Therefore, continuing education conferences will not have any repercussion on the mark in this case.
The student will have to attend the repeat exam only of the part or parts he has failed in the first call.
The final exam will take place in different days or schedules for the two parts (A &B), in both the first and the repeat exam.
Following there is a detailed description of the evaluation system for each part.
If the student fails to attend the final examination of one of the parts of this course, the mark will be "no show", independently of whether it has approved or failed the other part.
Exam reviews will be done at the scheduled time and day. Nothing will be reviewed outside of this period.
PART A: Juridical Infotech
Final Grade Composition:
The final grade will consist of the continuous assessment score (70%) and the final exam score (30%).
Specifically, it is composed of:
- 30% Attendance and Participation.
- Mandatory attendance in person and attentiveness during explanations.
- Each absence deducts 0.2 from the final grade.
- 40% Evaluated Practices.
- Mandatory completion of designated practices during the class period.
- Failure to complete the practices results in a score of 0 for that session.
- 30% Final Exam.
Attendance and Participation:
- Obligatory attendance in person with attention to explanations.
- Each absence deducts 0.2 from the final grade.
Evaluated Practices:
- Three evaluated practices scheduled during the course, acting as partial exams.
- Individual completion and timely submission are crucial.
- Non-completion results in a score of 0 for that practice.
- Evaluation scale: 0 (not submitted, unacceptable, or copied) to 3 (very good).
Final Exam:
- Comprehensive assessment covering various topics addressed in class.
Ethical Behavior Warning:
- Fraud, including plagiarism in practices, exams, or any evaluative content, results in penalties ranging from 0 on the exercise to 0 for the course and loss of opportunity.
- Penalties depend on the severity of plagiarism, attitude, means employed, recurrence, etc.
- Random anti-plagiarism checks.
Use of Artificial Intelligence:
- Any use of AI tools, regardless of the practice (class, evaluated practices, or final exam), results in a score of 0 for the course and loss of opportunity.
Second Chance:
- In the second chance, attendance does not count.
- Evaluated practices and the final exam contribute equally (50% each).
- If practices are failed, additional assignments can be completed, but the final grade will not exceed 5 out of 10.
If the student has to present himself to the THIRD call, he will have to recover the two parts of the subject, even if one has already passed it.
PART B: Communication Skills
The competencies of this part will be evaluated according to two sub-parts: continuous evaluation and final evaluation.
CONTINUOUS EVALUATION
It consists in the evaluation of student’s progression and acquisition of the competencies, and it will be implemented through the following exercises: public speeches in the classroom, exercises from the virtual campus, written exercises submitted in the classroom, class participation and short exams about the readings.
Continuous evaluation will be 50 % of the final mark, distributed in its components according to the following rule:
1) public speeches and written exercises: 25 %
2) short exams of the readings: 15 %
3) short exercises: 10 %
Written exercises
The student has to accomplish with the specified norms of presentation and she will try to achieve an excellent level of formal neatness.
If the student submits an exercise one day late, it will be scored over 50 points instead of 100, if he submits it more than 1 day late the score will be a zero.
The exercises whose grading method is “done” or “apt” are mandatory.
Additionally, the following criteria will apply when scoring written exercises: -2 points (out of 100) for each misspell and for each syntactic or lexical mistake.
The detection of partial plagiarism will imply a mark of zero for the exercise. If a student cheats in an exam, the maark will be 0.
Public speeches in the classroom
The teacher will explain in the classroom the criteria and method of evaluation.
Readings
The student will read several books along the course. In the days the teacher will indicate, the student will take a short exam consisting of short questions about the books, to verify that the student has read them. These short exams will contribute to 15% of the final mark. The same criteria as above will apply for mistakes: misspells and syntactic and lexical mistakes will imply a penalty of -2 points (out of 100) for each mistake.
FINAL EVALUATION
It consists of a final exam which will contribute to the 50% of the final mark.
The following criteria will apply regarding mistakes: a penalty of -2 points (out of 100) for each misspell, syntactic or lexical mistake.
The final mark for the Communication skills part of the course
To sum up, the final mark will be calculated as follows:
50 % final exam
25 % continuous evaluation
15 % short exam of the reading
10 % shorts exercises
To pass the whole course the student will have to pass also the other part of the course (part A Juridical Infotech).
The student who does not appear on time for an exam and does not provide the appropriate documentation to justify the delay will be graded with a 0.
Exam reviews will be done at the scheduled time and day. Nothing will be reviewed outside of this period.
Repeat exam
The student will repeat those parts which he has failed in the first exam.
If the student has to present himself to the THIRD call, he will have to recover the two parts of the subject, even if one has already passed it.
Truancy
Two absences are allowed. From the third and on, a penalty of -5 points (out of 100) for the final grade will apply.
The use of cell phones or similar devices is forbidden in the classroom. Laptops and tablets can be used with the explicit permission of the teacher and just for tasks related to the process of learning for the course.
Bibliography and resources
PART A: Juridical Infotech
Recursos jurídicos TIC
Ajuda en línia de Microsoft Office (https://support.office.com/)
https://biblioguias.uic.es/derecho
https://www.poderjudicial.es/cgpj/
Cendoj: https://www.poderjudicial.es/search/indexAN.jsp
BOE: https://boe.es/
PART B: Communication Skills
(Required texts)
Dossier that students will acquire in the print shop of the UIC and documents provided in class or posted on the virtual campus.
Jiménez-Yáñez, Ricardo-María (2023). Escribir bien es de justicia. 3.ª edición. Cizur Menor: Aranzadi Thomson Reuters
Gil, Alberto (2013). Cómo convencer eficazmente. Madrid: Palabra.
(Reading book)
Lee, Harper. Matar a un ruiseñor. Barcelona: ediciones B.
(Complementary texts)
Aristóteles. Retórica. (2008). Madrid: Alianza Editorial.
Casado, Manuel. (2012). El castellano actual: usos y normas. 10.ª ed. revisada. Pamplona: Eunsa.
Cassany, Daniel (2002). La cocina de la escritura. Barcelona: Anagrama.
Jiménez-Yáñez, Ricardo-María (2020). Comunicar en la Universidad y en la vida profesional. Pamplona: Eunsa.
Weston, Anthony. (2011). Las claves de la argumentación. Edición actualizada. Barcelona: Ariel.