International Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Law

The International Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Law, the ICIRL, promotes and supports research on law, human rights, the rule of law and democracy, on the one hand, and cultural diversity, on the other hand. It builds on the work undertaken since 1993 by Personne, culture et droits, an international interdisciplinary research team which was an important contributor to an ongoing international dialogue on the universality of human rights and their implementation in a context of cultural diversity.

The ICIRL works in an interdisciplinary context with social, political and university actors to conduct research projects in a North-South context where the ideals of the universality of human rights, the rule of law, democracy and the respect of cultural diversity come into play.

Human rights and their claim to universal validity are often criticized as products of Western culture by those who seek to attach greater importance to indigenous cultural values. This conflict between universality and diversity lies is at the heart of the relations of the Western world with the Muslim and Arab worlds and with other developing countries. A better understanding of the underlying factors which allowed human rights to take hold in the Western world should allow us to understand how culture can both facilitate and obstruct the implementation of human rights regimes in other countries. Studying cultural diversity in the legal context should also help us to understand those human rights that are only cultural practices.

Research Programs

  • Democracy, elections and culture
  • Rule of law and freedom of religion
  • Poverty, homelessness and migration

Researchers

Director of the ICIRL

Henri Pallard
Professor, Department of Law and Justice, Laurentian University

Laurentian University

Rachid Bagaoui
Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Laurentian University

Dale Brawn
Associate Professor, Department of Law and Justice, Laurentian University

Michel Giroux
Associate Professor, Department of Law and Justice, Laurentian University

Carol Kauppi
Professor, School of Social Work, Laurentian University

Ali Reguigui
Professor, Department of French Studies, Laurentian University

Jorge Virchez
Associate Professor, Department of Geography, Laurentian University

Adjunct Professeurs

Hassan Abdelhamid
Professor, Faculty de Droit, Ain Chams University, Cairo, Egypt; Adjunct professor, Department of Law and Justice, Laurentian University, Sudbury (Ontario), Canada​​

Yadh Ben Achour
Ancien doyen et Professeur agrégé, Faculté des Sciences Juridiques, Politiques et Sociales, Université de Carthage, Tunis, Tunisie; Adjunct professor, Department of Law and Justice, Laurentian University, Sudbury (Ontario), Canada

Guillaume Bernard
Maître de Conférences, Institut catholique d'enseignement supérieur, La Roche-sur-Yon, France; Adjunct professor, Department of Law and Justice, Laurentian University, Sudbury (Ontario), Canada

Jean-Marie Breton
Ancien Professeur des Universités et Directeur du Centre de Recherches et d’Études Juridiques sur l’Environnement, le Tourisme et l’Aménagement, Université des Antilles et de la Guyane, Point-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe; Adjunct professor, Department of Law and Justice, Laurentian University, Sudbury (Ontario), Canada

Martial Mathieu
Professeur des Universités, Faculté de droit, Université Pierre Mendès France (Grenoble 2), Grenoble, France; Adjunct professor, Department of Law and Justice, Laurentian University, Sudbury (Ontario), Canada

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha
Professor Catedrático, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal; Adjunct professor, Department of Law and Justice, Laurentian University, Sudbury (Ontario), Canada​​

Jiayou Shi
Faculty de droit, Renmin University, Beijing, China; Adjunct professor, Department of Law and Justice, Laurentian University, Sudbury (Ontario), Canada

Stamatios Tzitzis
Director of research, National Centre for Scientific Research, Paris, France; Associate Director, Institute of Criminology of Paris, Panthéon-Assas University (Paris II), France, Adjunct professor, Department of Law and Justice, Laurentian University, Sudbury (Ontario), Canada

Neville Hewage
Director, Ontario International Development Agency (OIDA), Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Visiting Professor and Inaugural Conference of the ICIRL

El Houssain Abouchi
Professeur habilité, Faculté des sciences juridiques, Université Cadi Ayyad, Marrakech, Maroc

Publications

Publications by Personne, culture et droits (PCD)

Henri Pallard et Stamatios Tzitzis (dir.), Droits fondamentaux et spécificités culturelles, L’Harmattan, Paris, 1997. www.editions-harmattan.fr

Pierre Arsac, Jean-Luc Chabot et Henri Pallard, État de droit, droits fondamentaux et diversité culturelle, L’Harmattan, Paris, 1999. www.editions-harmattan.fr

Henri Pallard et Stamatios Tzitzis (dir.), Minorités, culture et droits fondamentaux, L’Harmattan, Paris, 2001. www.editions-harmattan.fr

Henri Pallard et Stamatios Tzitzis (dir.), Les Droits fondamentaux devant la mondialisation, coll. Diké, Presses de l’Université Laval, Québec, 2003. http://www.ulaval.ca/pul/

Books in which other articles by PCD were published

Jacques-Yvan Morin (dir), Les Droits fondamentaux, Éditions Bruylant, Bruxelles, 1997. www.bruylant.be

Jacques-Yvan Morin et Ghislain Otis (dir.), Défis des libertés et droits fondamentaux, Éditions Bruylant, Bruxelles, 2000. www.bruylant.be

Gérard Chianéa (dir.), 2001, L'Odyssée des droits de l'Homme, 3 volumes, L’Harmattan, Paris, 2003. www.editions-harmattan.fr