Research

The unit focuses its research on two areas related to innovation in relation to law. One area aims to identify and understand, given new offerings and behaviors on the market, what legal innovations have been created.
The other area analyzes the legal framework for innovative objects resulting from digital technologies.

The team's research forms an important basis for the Master's and University Diploma courses it offers: consumption, distribution and competition, intellectual and digital property, and food.

Stipulation Compliance Analysis Tool

Law and Justice Research Institute Project
Coordinated by the Innovation, Communication, and Market Laboratory
(UR_UM213), University of Montpellier and CNRS

Purpose of the research

Developing an automated system to check compliance with general terms and conditions of sale or use available online This interdisciplinary project aims to build a computer system capable of both identifying general contractual terms and conditions on websites and analyzing the provisions they contain in order to trigger an alert when they do not comply with regulations, case law, or institutional opinions. The project's initiators started from the observation that the information contained in the general terms and conditions of sale or use is too often poorly understood by the individuals that the law intends to protect (mainly consumers), and that the supervisory authorities currently lack the means to analyze them systematically. The aim is to move from a control system based exclusively on sampling practices (where agents target behaviors within a global set in order to analyze them) to a systematic analysis focused on potentially dangerous practices, thereby broadening the scope of constraints. The aim is to develop a computer tool to make the legal information they contain accessible. This tool could analyze the compliance with current regulations of products or services available on the market whose privacy policy is online. The ultimate goal of such a system is to filter all contractual practices exposed online.

As a first step, before any systematic mechanism for monitoring websites and the terms and conditions they contain (using web crawlers), the project is developing a tool for analyzing the provisions submitted to it individually. It aims to address two challenges: providing as accurate a response as possible (the "accurate" response being the one that most closely approximates what a judge would have given, assuming that the function can be reduced to an abstraction) and, since the aim is to propose these solutions both to specialists (the DGCCRF has a similar project) and to consumers who are subject to the law, providing all the explanatory elements of this solution. This research project involves several research laboratories associated with different disciplines. The project is led by the Innovation, Communication and Market Laboratory, in collaboration with the Montpellier Laboratory of Computer Science, Robotics and Microelectronics and the LHUMAIN laboratory.

Participating in the project are Mr. Malo Depincé, Professor at the University of Montpellier, specializing in consumer law and contract law; Ms. Gwenaëlle Donadieu, Doctor of the University of Montpellier, specializing in consumer law and contract law; Mr. Laurent Fauré, Assistant Professor at the University of Montpellier 3, specializing in linguistics; Mr. Mathieu Lafourcade, Associate Professor at the University of Montpellier, specializing in computer science, artificial intelligence, and natural language processing; Ms. Anne Laurent, Professor at the University of Montpellier, specializing in computer science/AI data; Ms. Agnès Robin, Associate Professor at the University of Montpellier, specializing in intellectual property law.

HUman at home project

This project brings together 13 scientific laboratories working in an interdisciplinary manner and in collaboration with industry and institutions to explore and anticipate new uses and behaviors, while seeking to prevent and guard against ethical and practical abuses that could exist in the homes of the future.  This longitudinal in vivo experiment is an opportunity to question not only human-machine uses and interactions in a connected apartment, but also, more broadly, the components and conditions of well-being or good living in a connected environment.

CommonData

The project aims to initiate a collective reflection among different disciplinary fields within the Montpellier scientific community on the legal and social dimensions of scientific data and on the practices of researchers and institutions. Due to developments in science and technology and their socio-economic environment, the production of "research data" constitutes a growing part of scientific activity, which increasingly takes the form of research "data." Scientific activity most often requires the creation of data sets, both digital (measurements, surveys, recordings) and physical (collections). After initially facilitating action, particularly in terms of data acquisition and management, digital technology has also established itself in research as a powerful means of data analysis and has become integral to many research activities.

The project's initiators started from the observation that the information contained in general terms and conditions of sale or use is too often poorly understood by the individuals that the law intends to protect (mainly consumers), and that the regulatory authorities currently lack the means to analyze them systematically. The aim is to move from a control system based exclusively on sampling practices (where agents target behaviors within a global set in order to analyze them) to a systematic analysis focused on potentially dangerous practices, thereby broadening the scope of constraints. The aim is to develop a computer tool to make the legal information they contain accessible. This tool could analyze the compliance with current regulations of products or services available on the market whose privacy policy is online. The ultimate goal of such a system is to filter all contractual practices exposed online.
As a first step, before any systematic mechanism for monitoring websites and the terms and conditions they contain (using web crawlers), the project is building a tool to analyze the provisions submitted to it individually. It aims to address a twofold challenge: providing the most accurate response possible (the "accurate" response being the one that most closely resembles what a judge would have given, assuming that the function can be reduced to an abstraction) and, since the aim is to propose these solutions to specialists (the DGCCRF has a similar project) as well as to consumers who are subject to the law, providing all the explanatory elements of this solution. This research project involves several research laboratories associated with different disciplines. The project is led by the Innovation, Communication and Market Laboratory, in collaboration with the Montpellier Laboratory of Computer Science, Robotics and Microelectronics and the LHUMAIN laboratory.

Participating in the project are Mr. Malo Depincé, Associate Professor at the University of Montpellier, specializing in consumer law and contract law; Ms. Gwenaëlle Donadieu, PhD from the University of Montpellier, specializing in consumer law and contract law; Mr. Laurent Fauré, Associate Professor at the University of Montpellier 3, specializing in linguistics; Mr. Mathieu Lafourcade, Associate Professor at the University of Montpellier, specializing in computer science, artificial intelligence, and natural language processing; Ms. Anne Laurent, Professor at the University of Montpellier, specializing in computer science/AI data; Ms. Agnès Robin, Associate Professor at the University of Montpellier, specializing in intellectual property law.

Steering committee

Francesca FRONTINI, Senior Lecturer in Language Sciences, UMR Praxiling / Paul-Valéry Montpellier University
Benoît HUMBLOT, Lecturer and Researcher in Private Law, EPF, LICeM / University of Montpellier
Pierre-Yves LACOUR, Senior Lecturer in History, UMR CRISES / Paul-Valéry Montpellier University
Julien MARY, Scientific Advisor at MSH SUD

Coordinator

Agnès ROBIN, Senior Lecturer in Private Law, LICeM / University of Montpellier

ACC CARE Program

Assessment of the impact of legislative and regulatory measures on access to medical care in Occitanie in areas characterized by insufficient healthcare provision or difficulties in accessing medical care.

Research project led by Cécile Le Gal Fontés

General description of the project

Our French healthcare system appears to be effective but still unfair, particularly in terms of regional equality of access to medical care (1). This situation is reflected in particular by the proliferation of underserved areas or areas already experiencing medical desertification (characterized by an insufficient number of healthcare professionals and infrastructure). Two million French people are currently affected by medical desertification, and inequalities between regions continue to grow (2). In recent years, multiple legislative and regulatory measures have been adopted by the latest health policies, seeking to reduce regional inequalities in access to care and thereby improve continuity of care in the aforementioned areas (3). These measures have focused in particular on the development of telemedicine, incentives for healthcare professionals to set up in vulnerable areas, the development of healthcare coordination structures (health networks, multi-professional health centers (MSP), health centers, regional platforms, Regional Professional Health Communities , etc.) and the development of digital tools to promote continuity of care and optimize resources (telemedicine, DMP (4), DP (5), etc.).

As part of a three-phase project, we propose to assess the impact of the deployment of various measures on regional inequalities in access to healthcare in order to optimize resources.

In the first phase (end of July 2024), we conducted a pilot study in areas defined as "under-served" by the Occitanie Regional Health Agency (ARS). The aim of this stage was to estimate and describe changes in patient consumption profiles over three chronological periods (before the deployment of the systems, during their gradual implementation, and after the running-in period) in the Occitanie region. Better coordination and the deployment of digital tools such as the DMP and teleconsultations are expected to improve access to care. This should result in an increase in healthcare consumption in these areas. This initial study received initial regional funding (decision of October 29, 2019, Occitanie Region). This first phase ended in September 2023 with the analysis of the data and the drafting of the activity report. Two publications are currently being submitted (RGDM and RDSS) and a conference is in preparation (scheduled as part of the ALASS, July 2024, Liège).

The second phase of the project involves establishing an international French-speaking network to assess the various measures implemented in these countries and study their impact on regional inequalities in terms of access to healthcare. This comparative analysis could lead to proposals for optimizing French policy to combat this public health issue.

Finally, the last phase will consist of proposing joint international studies aimed at evaluating the common legislative and regulatory measures that have been validated (due to their effectiveness) during the previous stages. It will focus on studying their impact in each of these countries. The determinants of the effectiveness of the measures tested, if proven, will be highlighted.