233041 SE Addressing the law from an STS perspective (2026S)

The course addresses the law as a field of inquiry in STS. The study of the law has long been the preserve of legal scholars, whose focus has primarily been on the doctrine and the principles of law. In the last decades however, STS has renewed research topics and approaches to the law and have engaged in dialogue with Socio-Legal Studies (SLS) on the complex relation between the law and the material dimensions of social life. The course offers insights in four research topics.
- The first topic is the making of law. How are legal facts established and enunciated? STS notably emphasizes the material work underlying the fabrication of legal writings (corpus of jurisprudence, legal documents…). Questions arise at the intersection of STS and SLS: what is this materiality about, and how does this focus on materiality capture the specificity and the power of law?
- The second topic is about the modes of presence of the law in the social world. STS notably brings attention to the passage of law through a variety of objects, some mundane, like road signs, others less, like material references to pollutants prohibited by the law. STS thus brings in an understanding of how the law materializes in, and contributes to the shaping of, social life.
- The third topic is the relation between science and the law, for instance when science is mobilized in lawsuits. STS explores the material production of scientific evidence like DNA profiles in criminal justice, or scientific data in toxic tort cases. What is at stake here is the truth power of science and the law, two major institutions in contemporary liberal societies.
- The fourth topic is the legal status of natural entities (a river, a mountain, a forest). This topic resonates with current political and ontological debates on the protection of the “environment” and biodiversity, and triggers dialogue between STS and legal studies.

Aims
The course has two main objectives:
1. To examine how STS contributes to understanding of the law as a socio-material construct, and reflection on the crucial, yet sometimes contested, power of the law in contemporary liberal societies.
2. To explore how STS sheds light on the intersection of science and the law, in the current context where the law is often called upon for regulating science, and conversely, where science increasingly puts the law to trial.

Methods
The course alternates reading of STS and SLS articles relating to the four topics, and lectures. The course will have a strong interactive dimension. On each topic, students are expected to read, present, comment, and discuss a few pre-circulated articles. After these reading sessions, the lecturer will wrap-up the main lessons from the articles and the discussion in class and raise broader questions relating to the topic.