Bruno Deffains

Bruno Deffains serves as Professor of Economic Sciences at Paris-Panthéon-Assas University, where he directs the Master's program in Law and Economics, the Center for Research in Economics and Law (CRED), and the Digital Transformation of Law and Legaltech University Diploma. His academic leadership extends to the Yale-ESSEC-Paris 2 Summer School in Law and Economics and the Legal Security Index initiative. Affiliated with the Faculty of Law, he bridges economic theory with legal practice through extensive research and institutional engagement.

• Doctor of Economic Sciences (1991)
• Accreditation to Supervise Research (Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches, 1993)

Deffains' research centers on the Economics of Law, examining how legal frameworks influence economic outcomes across diverse domains. His work in Public Economics investigates tax compliance and redistribution mechanisms, while Industrial Economics research analyzes competition policy and market regulation. Recent scholarship explores digital transformation's impact on legal practice, compliance systems, and the cognitive functions of law. He employs rigorous economic modeling to dissect liability rules, dispute resolution mechanisms, and the comparative performance of legal traditions, consistently linking theoretical insights to real-world policy challenges in antitrust, corruption, and judicial efficiency.

His publication trajectory reveals deepening engagement with contemporary legal-economic intersections, evolving from foundational work on liability and legal origins toward cutting-edge analysis of digitalization and compliance. The consistent thread across his oeuvre is the application of microeconomic principles to institutional design, with increasing emphasis on behavioral dimensions and technological disruption in legal systems.

• Institut Universitaire de France Fellowship (2013)

As academic director of the Law and Economics Master's program and CRED research center, Deffains oversees numerous doctoral theses and research initiatives. His role in the trilateral Summer School with Yale Law School and ESSEC cultivates international scholarly exchange, while leadership in the French Association of Law and Economics and European Association of Law and Economics demonstrates sustained commitment to field-building. External responsibilities include chairing the Commercial Practices Examination Commission and advising the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights, reflecting policy-relevant scholarship grounded in empirical economic analysis.

Deffains leads the Center for Research in Economics and Law (CRED), a prominent research unit specializing in institutional analysis of legal systems. Through the Summer School in Law and Economics and Digital Transformation initiatives, he fosters interdisciplinary collaboration between economists, legal scholars, and practitioners. His directorship of the Legal Security Index project connects academic research with practical legal metrics development, while involvement with the Club des Juristes' digital pole positions him at the forefront of technology-law convergence debates.