From government by laws to governance by numbers

Behind the semantic shift from "government" to "governance", legal analysis reveals a new way of managing people. The reason for power is no longer to be found in a sovereign authority transcending society, but in the norms that ensure its proper functioning. This is an attempt to synthesize the two opposing figures of the norm in the West since the rise of modern science. On the one hand, the legal norm, which draws its strength from a shared belief in a duty to be; on the other, the technical norm, which draws its strength from scientific knowledge of things. These are the foundations on which new ways of getting people to work with texts are flourishing, new legal techniques that aim for the efficient achievement of measurable objectives rather than obedience to just laws. This first-year lecture will provide an overview of these transformations in various branches of law.