BMET 24A14 - Parliament, Public Policies, Technologies and Science in Europe

The aim of this seminar is to explore how scientific issues are integrated and dealt with in the legislative process within the European Parliament and national parliaments in Europe. The aim is to analyse the interactions between science, society and political bodies in terms of legislation, focusing on the evolution of laws influenced by major scientific issues.

It is one of the research activities of the Infoparl Project of the Parliamentary Studies Research Chair at the University of Luxembourg, as part of the agreement with the Luxembourg Chamber of Deputies.

Interest of the approach:

This approach enables students to understand how constantly evolving scientific issues are integrated into legislative debates and influence political decisions. The theoretical framework, based on a critical, legal, sociological and philosophical analysis, aims to give them an overview of the complexity of laws influenced by science. The seminars cover issues ranging from artificial intelligence, biotechnology and bioethics to crisis management, demonstrating the diversity of the challenges facing legislators.

The interest is twofold:

Democracy and science: the study of the integration of science into the democratic process allows us to grasp the tensions between scientific expertise, social issues and political decisions at European level and in a comparative manner across Europe ;

Critical analysis of legislation: By adopting a critical approach, this seminar encourages students to reflect on the ethical and societal implications of legislative choices and the conditions under which they are made in fields as complex as biotechnology and artificial intelligence.

Before each session, students must have read the proposed texts and thought about the questions posed by the teacher. In groups of 2, they will present a short 10-minute commentary on the texts proposed for each session. 20% of the mark

Students in groups of two will present their research on one of the subjects covered in the course in the form of a note of no more than 10 pages and an oral presentation using a PowerPoint model provided by the teaching staff. The 30-minute presentation in English or French, on 23 April at the Secretariat General of the European Parliament in Luxembourg, must include a presentation of the subject, a review of the literature, the construction of three hypotheses, the justification of a methodology and the expected results, the potential limits of the research and its prospects. 80% of the mark