The Individual in the City

I. General introduction

The “The individual in the city” research area is designed to host and develop a number of research projects focusing on the place, rights and duties of the individual within the city, whose life is shaped by “natural” legal and social aspects, at the crossroads of several disciplines (in particular civil law, but also health law, criminal law, social law, construction law and consumer law). Originally essentially civil law, this area of research now aims to transcend the usual disciplinary divides, to address, in a federative logic, various issues inherent to the human person, in interaction with his or her social milieu and societal environment (health, justice, digital, consumer law), or which structure legal relationships in society (such as the notions of transparency, interest, or appearance, which have given rise to collective work within the laboratory). This work is a natural extension of the Master's degree specializations, in particular, in private law, the Master's degree in Civil and Judicial Law.

Today, the area is essentially structured around three cross-disciplinary themes, developed through various collective works and research projects, but also fueled by doctoral work in progress:

• A “Individuals and vulnerability” theme, which brings together a number of issues relating to personal and social vulnerability. This theme focuses on one of the major challenges facing our society today, on many levels (national and international, but also local).
• A “Individuals and ethics” theme, which encourages reflection on the values and standards that determine our behavior. It includes work and research on bioethics (genome, organ donation, medically-assisted procreation, vaccination, ageing, vulnerabilities linked to business, etc.).
• The emerging theme of “Individuals and the digital”, which has its roots in older work (such as that on the notion of the file). The theme covers 21st-century justice, the digital revolution in the legal profession, digital transformation, artificial intelligence and many other phenomena that raise questions about the effects on the individual and his or her place in society. It is part of a more global orientation combining research and teaching (as illustrated by the prospect of a data school, bringing together the three departments of the component (law, economics, management) as part of the project associated with the new Madeleine site). This third theme, which is intended to encompass all digital-related issues (law and data management, artificial intelligence, algorithms, etc.), unites a number of researchers around collective projects or work.

These themes, which are not approached through a disciplinary prism, are not conceived in a compartmentalized way and interact with each other. They are also likely to reveal other themes for further reflection.

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II. Production

The area's output is expressed both through the collective work carried out within it (symposia, study days, conferences, collective works, funded research projects) and through the individual work of its researchers (articles in scientific journals, book chapters, conference presentations). This work is also extended by the supervision of theses related to the axis' themes.

Reflection on all these themes is multi-disciplinary and multi-partner. For several years now, the axis has been forging close links with research laboratories in law, sociology, linguistics, psychosociology, medicine and economics, all of which fuel exchanges and stimulate research. The desire to define research that is open to society, in line with local issues, has led researchers to forge partnerships with local institutions, and to pursue a popularization approach to reach out to the people in the city, the very object of the study. The axis' influence is also sought through the pursuit or emergence of national and international partnerships, which take the form of international symposia or membership of research networks.

The collective research developed by the area is also part of networks and is based on partnerships with other laboratories and research teams, both within and outside the University of Orléans (LEO, LLL) (CERCRID (Saint-Etienne), CRISS (Valenciennes), IRJI François Rabelais (Tours), QualiPsy (Tours), MAVIVH (Tours), CEJESCO (Reims), CRJP8 (Paris 8), IRDA (Paris 13), IDP (Valenciennes) and with non-academic institutional partners (hospitals (CHR d'Orléans, Clinique de Chaingy, CHRU Trousseau de Tours, Necker Paris, CMPP), or jurisdictions (Court of Appeal, Judicial Tribunal, Commercial Tribunal, Administrative Tribunal, Conseil des Prud'hommes), in particular. 

Individuals and Vulnerability

Research cycles, scientific events and published symposium proceedings

• "Vulnérabilité et langage", research cycle with the LLL laboratory (since 2021)
• Lecture series on labor law and human resources (since 2018)
• "De la réparation à la sanction. L'amende civile. Regards croisés", study day organized on Friday November 25, 2022 at the Orléans Court of Appeal
• "Les risques climatiques", CRJ Pothier doctoral students' conference organized on March 10, 2022
• "Vulnérabilités", symposium organized by the CRJ Pothier at the University of Orléans on April 7 and 8, 2016

Research contracts and funded research projects

• "Vulnérabilité et entreprise", a research project funded by the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme Centre Val-de-Loire (2022 / 2023), under the direction of S. Mauclair and S. Le Normand, in collaboration with the Loire Linguistics Laboratory and the Orleans Judicial Court.

Individuals and Ethics

Research cycles, scientific events and published symposium proceedings

• Sciences, conscience et droit, lecture series under the direction of C. Laurent-Boutot and C. Leveleux-Teixeira (since 2018, in partnership with Orléans Hospital Center and the Faculty of Science and Technology): “Le don d'organes. Principes législatifs et réalités médicales”, December 20, 2018; ”La procréation dans tous ses états. Sciences et droit face au désir d'enfant”, January 23, 2019; ‘Le transhumanisme - Homme augmenté ou humanité trahie?’, April 2, 2019; ‘La vaccination: entre protection et contrainte’, November 25, 2021).
• Les Ateliers du droit des affaires ( series of conferences and study days, under the scientific direction of Géraldine Goffaux Callebaut and Sandie Lacroix de Sousa - 2017-2019, with the support of the Orléans Bar)
• La liberté contractuelle du banquier à l'aune des droits fondamentaux, conference / debate organized by CRJ Pothier on Thursday, November 22, 2018 at the Faculty of Law, Economics and Management (University of Orléans).
• Le génome en mal de Droit(s), symposium organized in partnership with IRDA at Université Paris 13 - Sorbonne Paris Cité on February 14, 2019 (A. Cheynet de Beaupré, Valérie Depadt and Didier Guével (dir.)) ; Revue juridique Personnes & Famille (RJPF), Lamy, Dossier spécial, July-August 2019
• Droit(s) et apparence vestimentaire. Du singulier au pluriel, symposium organized at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France on November 9, 2018; C. Aurérin, G. Goffaux Callebaut, D. Guével (dir.), Droit(s) et apparence vestimentaire. Du singulier au pluriel, Mare et Martin, collection “libre droit”, 2020La transparence, un droit fondamental?, colloquium organized at the University of Orléans on October 12, 2018; V. Barbé, O. Levannier-Gouël, S. Mauclair (dir.), La transparence, un droit fondamental ?, éditions L'Epitoge, 2020
• La notion d'intérêt(s) en droit, symposium organized by the CRJ Pothier at the University of Orléans on October 12 and 13, 2017; V. Barbé, C. Guillerminet, S. Mauclair (dir.), La notion d'intérêt(s) en droit, éditions I.FJ.D., collection “colloques et essais”, 2020

Individuals and the Digital

Collective works

• V. Barbé, S. Mauclair (dir.), Intelligence artificielle et droits fondamentaux, L’Epitoge, 2022, vol. XXXII
• V. Barbé, S. Mauclair (dir.), Vers un droit de algorithme ?, Mare et Martin, collection « Droit et Science Politique », 2022

Research cycles, scientific events and published symposium proceedings

• La régulation des algorithmes en matière bancaire et financière, symposium organized on Wednesday, April 6, 2022 at Hôtel Dupanloup by CRJ Pothier and LEO (under the direction of S. Lacroix-De Sousa)
• RGPD, un an après ?, conference organized on April 1, 2019 by Sandie Lacroix-De Sousa and Fouad Eddazi at the Loiret Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
• Les Ateliers du droit des affaires (series of conferences and study days, under the scientific direction of Géraldine Goffaux Callebaut and Sandie Lacroix de Sousa - 2017-2019)
• Droit et cyberisques, conference / debate organized by the CRJ Pothier on Thursday, January 24, 2019 at the Faculty of Law, Economics and Management (University of Orléans), in collaboration with the Laboratoire d'Économie d'Orléans
• Le fichier, symposium organized on November 26 and 27, 2015 by the CRJ Pothier at the University of Orléans; F. Eddazi and S. Mauclair (dir.), Le fichier, LGDJ, Lextenso, 2017

Research contracts and funded research projects

• PARJUNUM, a research project funded by the Mission Droit et Justice on the digital legal path of the litigant, 2020/2022 (S. Mauclair and A. Damiens (dir.)), in collaboration with the Orléans Court of Appeal, the Maison de la justice et du droit and the Orléans Judicial Court.