Laurie Friant

Laurie Friant is a Lecturer in Law at the University of Poitiers (France) and a member of the French panel of experts for the compensation scheme for victims of sodium valproate. 

Laurie’s research focuses on Health Law and include gender and feminism perspectives. Before becoming a lecturer, she got a post-doctoral contract to take part in a French research project entitled 'Gynaecological and obstetric violence: a legal perspective' (Institut des sciences juridique et philosophique de la Sorbonne (ISJPS), Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne). A report will be published at the end of 2023.

She has also written an article on this subject, which will be published shortly. Its aim is to study the emergence in France of gynaecological and obstetric violence as a public issue and debate, and the role played by women in this and the successes achieved.

She also has an interest in Tort Law and its socio-legal dynamics. She wrote her PhD on compensation for damage caused by health products (published as La réparation des dommages causés par les produits de santé, contribution à l’étude des fondements et mise en œuvre de la socialisation des risques, Presses Universitaires Savoie Mont Blanc, 2020). In this work about France, Laurie notes that the victims of health products are ranked in a hierarchy, according to implicit and debatable criteria. A administrative scheme has been set up for some of them, while others, even though their situation is identical in every respect, have only Tort Law to rely on for compensation. They also observe that France has reached an unprecedented degree of risks spreading, making the noble principle of responsibility a kind of fiction. In view of this, she proposes to fully embrace the paradigm shift that has taken place and to introduce a no-fault scheme that would benefit all victims of health products.

Laurie also as an interest in Comparative Law and she’s a member of the European Liability and Insurance Research Group (GRERCA).