Alain SUPIOT

Professor Alain Supiot obtained his PhD in 1979 at the University Montesquieu of Bordeaux and became Professor in law in 1980. 

Alain Supiot was successively professor at the University of Poitiers and Nantes, Senior Member of the Institut Universitaire de France (2001-2012), before being elected in 2012 to the Collège de France. From 1998 to 2000, he chaired the "Conseil national du développement des sciences humaines et sociales". He spent several years of overseas research (1981: Berkeley Institute of Industrial Relations; 1989/90: European Institute of Florence; 1997/98: Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin).He was a member of the Global Commission on the Future of Work (ILO)

He founded in 2007 the Nantes Institut for Advanced Study, whose he was Director from 2008 to 2013.

He is a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy and Doctor honoris causa of the University of Louvain La Neuve, University of Buenos-Aires, University of Liège  and of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. In 2025 he received in Bangkok the "Bob Hepple Award for Lifetime Achievement in Labour Law" delivered by the Labour Law International Network (LLRN)

Alain Supiot has published alone or in collaboration with other researchers 31 books, many of which have been translated into diverse foreign languages. His research focuses mainly on two complementary domains: labour law and social security and theory of law. His main books published in English are:

• Homo Juridicus: On the Anthropological Function of the Law,2007, Verso.
• The Grandeur and Misery of the Social State, 2013, Fayard/Collège de France.
• The Spirit of Philadelphia: Social Justice vs. the Total Market, 2012, Verso.
• Governance by Numbers. The Making of a Legal Model of Allegiance 2017, Hart.