About the French Database
Columbia Global Freedom of Expression has partnered with l’Observatoire de la liberté d’expression (LibObs) hosted by Université du Québec à Chicoutimi to curate the French-langage version of the Global Case Law Database on freedom of expression and to contribute to the selection and analysis of the most significant judicial decisions in the French-speaking world.
Established in 2022, LibObs is a research and dialogue platform dedicated to uniting scholarly efforts, media monitoring and fostering science-society dialogue. LibObs is a multidisciplinary and an interuniversity consortium composed of around thirty member researchers from ten Quebec universities, representing various fields such as law, political science, sociology, philosophy, arts and literature, media and communication, and religious studies. LibObs receives support from the Government of Quebec, the Foundation of the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi and the Interdisciplinary Research Center on Diversity and Democracy.
LibObs is co-directed by Geneviève Nootens, expert on contemporary liberal democracies, and Louis-Philippe Lampron, Human rights specialist in Canada and worldwide. Its team included Régis Coursin, coordinator and sociologist specializing in social movements, as well as Sylvain Rocheleau, a data scientist whose research focuses on the circulation of information.
Coordinator, Observatoire de la liberté d’expression, University of Quebec at Chicoutimi
Régis Coursin is a sociologist and historian. A specialist in transnational social movements, historical sociology of ideas and the French Revolution, his research over the past three years has focused on freedom of expression in Quebec and Canada, within the framework of the Observatoire de la liberté d’expression.
Co-Director, Observatoire de la liberté d’expression, University of Quebec at Chicoutimi
Louis-Philippe Lampron is a full professor at Université Laval’s Faculty of Law, co-director of Axis 2 of the Centre de recherche interdisciplinaire sur la diversité et la démocratie (CRIDAQ), and a researcher with several research groups, including the Centre for Free Expression (CFE) and the Observatoire de la liberté d’expression. His research interests generally focus on the protection of Human rights in Canada and international law. In recent years, Professor Lampron has taken a particular interest in legal issues relating to the implementation of fundamental freedoms and the right to equality, topics on which he has frequently spoken publicly and published several articles, as well as a few books including : En toute collégialité : chroniques d’une aventure syndicale universitaire (2025) and Maudites Chartes : 10 ans d’assauts contre la démocratie des droits et libertés (2022).
Co-Director, Observatoire de la liberté d’expression, University of Quebec at Chicoutimi
Dr. G. Nootens teaches political science at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi. She heads the Observatoire de la liberté d’expression, established in 2022 and gathering together scholars from several universities of the province of Quebec, Canada. Specialized in political theory and philosophy, Dr Nootens’s work focuses on contemporary liberal societies. She is the author and co-editor of several books, including Popular Sovereignty in the West. Polities, Contention, and Ideas (Routledge, 2013), Constituent Power Beyond the State. Democratic Agency in Polycentric Polities (Routledge, 2022), Dominant Nationalism, Dominant Ethnicity. Identity, Federalism, Democracy (Peter Lang, 2009, co-edited with André Lecours) and Contemporary majority nationalisms (McGill-Queen’s, 2011, co-edited with A-G Gagnon and André Lecours). She has published papers in Nations and Nationalism, Contemporary Political Theory, and Global Constitutionalism. She also has chapters in several edited books, including National Cultural Autonomy and its Contemporary Critics (Routledge, 2005), After the Nation ? (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), Political Autonomy and Divided Societies. Imagining Democratic Alternatives in Complex Settings (Palgrave Mcmillan, 2012), and Minorities and Territory : Rethinking Autonomy as Strategy (Oxford University Press, 2015). She is a member of the scientific board of the Institut québécois de réforme du droit et de la justice.
Data scientist, Observatoire de la liberté d’expression, University of Quebec at Chicoutimi
Sylvain Rocheleau is a data scientist and founder of the Observatoire de la circulation de l’information (OCI). His work focuses on the development of knowledge-based systems aimed at improving our understanding of the circulation of information, the influence of public relations on journalism, the redundancy of information and media access for public interest groups.
