Law and justice are the pillars of any society. The scope of the socio-technical upheaval in all areas of human activity impacts and changes the relationship to the law of the contemporary world. Some, like the cyberneticians of the 1950s, foresee the replacement of the uncertainties of the legal system by the logical rigour of technology: the code becomes the law. Government and the regulation of techno-scientific innovation are therefore the focus of contemporary political thinking, particularly with regard to the increasing power of algorithms and their corollaries: automation, opacity, political control and accountability. This research group focuses on the main trends in the art of governing, modes of democratic participation and the representation of citizens in the digital age.

These and other issues are addressed in our research papers, published on 22 January 2018.

📘 Regal power and algorithms, towards algocracy

In the digital space, algorithms are everywhere and increasingly present in the sphere of public action (school guidance, public health, etc.). In a deteriorated security context and in search of greater efficiency to guarantee its authority, the temptation is great for the State to resort to such tools at the very heart of the regalian sphere of Justice, Police or National Defence.