The Regroupement Droit, changement et gouvernance' research projects follow in the lines of the Centre de recherche en droit public’s (CRDP) interdisciplinary legal research programs.

Regroupement researchers therefore essentially work on the Law’s contemporary forms, the conditions in which they emerge and their relations with other forms of normativity and social regulation. This work is divided into three main research areas:

  • Law and new social relations
  • Law and information and communications technologies
  • Law, biotechnologies and environment

A majority of the projects undertaken by Regroupement researchers are located at a crossroads between many disciplines. While research on law, and information and communications technologies requires input from legal theorists, communications theorists, computer engineers and political scientists; research on law and new social relations often involves law, sociology, economic analysis, criminology and anthropology. Likewise, a number of projects in law, biotechnologies and environment bring together jurists, doctors, geneticists, philosophers, ethicists, sociologists and biologists. Furthermore inter-area collaboration often occurs since the boundaries separating the main research areas often overlap.

The Regroupement Droit, changements et gouvernance’ Research Areas

As mentioned above, the Regroupement’s work is divided into three research areas: Law and new social relations, Law, and information and communications technologies, and Law, biotechnology and community.

LAW AND NEW SOCIAL RELATIONS

Law and new social relations brings together researchers specialised in the study of the changes which accompany new legal forms and social customs. Scientific activities undertaken by this area’s researchers essentially address the constant need for the legal rule to adapt to changes in social relations, whether they concern redefining the relationship between majorities and minorities or between legal institutions and citizens, recomposing of the state-citizen relationship or establishing interpersonal or commercial relations.

These themes favour the development of fundamental legal research. Researchers therefore contribute to the development of legal theory in Quebec and abroad. Their work is, as need may be, inspired by sociology, political science, economic analysis of law, anthropology, history and philosophy. Law is seen as both a social product and a framework for social relations. The themes covered by these researchers include commercial customs and transactions, indigenous governance, legal ethics, new state governance forms and access to justice. Law and new social relations researchers are currently undertaking the following projects:

LAW AND INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES

The Internet and new information and telecommunication technologies present major legal challenges since they helped redefine many of the notions upon which legal rules were traditionally founded. Furthermore, these technologies also contribute to the transformation of the judicial process. In this perspective, this area’s researchers attempt to shed light on the following  issues:

  • The Internet’s legislative framework, i.e. the rules which inform actors on what can and cannot be done, as well as the rules that help resolve conflicts;
  • The study of the structure behind the different regulation mechanisms which interact in the realm of information technologies, which goes beyond simple legal analyses based on state and formal paradigms;
  • The development of information systems aimed at maintaining our legal values, granting universal access to the legal system, letting courts reach their full technological potential and, if possible, making the legal system better as a whole;
  • The development of computer tools aimed at facilitating conflict resolution while reflecting on the changes that need to be brought to the judicial realm following the coming of the “numeric age”.

In order to find answers to these questions, the Law and information and communications technologies researchers have undertaken the following research projects:

LAW, BIOTECHNOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT

The Law, Biotechnologies and Environment area of research examines the different aspects of health and biotechnology law. Constant evolution in the fields of biotechnology and health generates legal, ethical and sociological questions in relation to consent to healthcare and to research, to the allocation of health resources and to the use of medical and research data in work related issues. These questions stem from different research fields: the healthcare system, genetics, xenotransplantations, genetically modified organisms and stemcell research among others.
Studying these questions has permitted the Law, Biotechnology and Community researchers and their collaborators to undertake numerous research projects:

Lex Electronica

Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la société et la culture Centre de recherche ne droit public