Laboratory of Legal Sociology (IHD)

Created in 1968, the Laboratory of Legal Sociology wishes to revisit the origins of the rule of law and its social perception.

With this perspective, the Laboratory has supported, and continues to do so, varied research work focused on pressure groups and lobbies, the feminisation of legal professions, the role and status of supreme jurisdictions and in particular the French Court of Cassation, the sources of law and legal sanctions.

It also takes a particular interest in the question of widespread legal pluralism, this major phenomenon of contemporary society that consists, on the one hand, of a normative pluralism (multitude of "formal sources" of law), to quote a popular expression; the existence, alongside law stricto sensu, of numerous other social rules, such as morality, religion, social practices, and, on the other hand, in a substantial pluralism (the existence, within substantive law, of a plurality of statuses, such as family and professional statuses etc.).