The Interdisciplinary Seminar for Legal Studies
Founded in 1974 by Professor Michel van de Kerchove, the Séminaire interdisciplinaire d’études juridiques (Interdisciplinary Seminar for Legal Studies) develops a critical, contextual and interdisciplinary approach to law. The Seminar is open not only to all members of the Université Saint-Louis – Brussels but also to any scholar interested in legal theory and convinced that humanities and social sciences can offer innovative insights into legal concepts and practices.
Since its creation, the Seminar has completed a variety of collective research projects on timely topics such as the nature of legal reasoning, the evolution of the judiciary’s role, the relationship between rights and interest, the image and uses of nature in law, the development of negotiated law, the relationship between law and literature, human rights theory, the paradigm of translation applied to European law(s), the theory of the sources of law, the role of law in (the transition to) a post-growth society, and feminist approaches to law.
The Seminar currently works on five main topics: the relationship between law and literature, feminist approaches to law, the evolution of legal teaching and research, the place of law in a post-growth society and, more generally, the mutations of contemporary law, with a specific emphasis on the fading away of the public (law) – private (law) divide.