Presentation

The Pothier Legal Research Center of the University of Orléans is a research unit (UR 1212) gathering about a hundred researchers around strong themes set into the contemporary reality of the law. As a multidisciplinary research laboratory, it is mainly composed of legal practitioners belonging to 3 different sections of the CNU (privatists, publicists and legal historians), as well as sociologists and managers.

Born out of the former Institute of Economic and Business Law, created in 1976 by Dean Elie Alfandari, the Pothier Legal Research Center was established under its current name in 1998. The change of name was prompted by a desire to broaden the scope of research beyond business law. This cross-disciplinarity, which is the laboratory's strength today, was further strengthened in 2014, following the merger with the Public Management Laboratory (Laboratoire Collectivités Publiques), itself a spin-off of the former Territorial Management Laboratory (Laboratoire Collectivités Territoriales),which had been created in 1976. The merger has enabled greater synergy between Orléans' research teams in private law, public law, legal history, public management and sociology.

Collective research at the Pothier Legal Research Center is currently structured around four themes: changes in the sources of law, standards and normativity, organizations and governance, heritage(s) and the individual in the city.
The collective research carried out on norms, which in recent years has contributed to the laboratory's influence through the emergence of what some colleagues, both in France and abroad, refer to as the “Orleans School”, has in particular given rise, under the leadership of Catherine Thibierge, to several substantial works ("La Force normative. Naissance d'un concept”, published in 2009, and ”La densification normative. Découverte d'un processus”, published in 2013). The theme of normativity is also the subject of ongoing collective projects and individual works.
The more emerging themes of “Heritage(s)”, “The individual in the city” and “Organizations and governance” are also nurtured by the individual research of laboratory members and the regular organization of scientific events, all of which are conducive to their development.

Firmly rooted in its institutional environment, the Pothier Legal Research Center also strives to build solid partnerships with French laboratories (e.g. IRDA, Paris XIII; CEPRISCA, Amiens) and foreign universities and research centers (e.g. Krakow, Poland; Macerata, Italy; Zaragoza, Spain).

Research structure

Cross-disciplinary collective themes

• Organizations and governance
• Changes in sources of law, standards and normativity
• Heritage
• The individual in the city

Disciplinary themes

• Private Law and Criminal Sciences
• Public Law
• International law
• Legal history
   

Training through research

Master’s degree 2nd year – Law department

Private law

• Wealth law and engineering
• Business and Tax Law
• Civil and Judicial Law
• French and International Business Law (Krakow)

Public law

• Local Cultural Heritage Management
• Law and Management of Local Public Policies
• Public Law and Litigation
• Political support professions
• Construction Urban Planning

Labor law

• Labor Law and Human Resources Management

Doctorate