Sarah Vanuxem

After studying law and philosophy at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Sarah Vanuxem defended a thesis entitled Des choses saisies par la propriété (preface by Th. Revet, Institut de Recherches Juridiques de la Sorbonne, 2012). A lecturer at the Université Côte d’Azur Law School since 2012, her research lies at the crossroads of property law and environmental law, with forays into environmental philosophy, anthropology of nature and legal history. She has co-edited, with C. Guibet-Lafaye, the book Repenser la propriété, un essai de politique écologique (Presses Universitaires d’Aix-Marseille, 2015), written various articles and is, notably, the author of two essays: La propriété de la terre (Wildproject, 2018) and Des choses de la nature et de leurs droits (Quae, 2020).

Her research project at Villa Medici is entitled Du droit de déambuler. Rewriting legal fictions in the age of the Anthropocene, and is based on the study of the right to wander in response to ecological upheaval. To this end, she plans to keep a surveying diary in the language of law, fabricate legal tools to foster rights of passage, and write legal science fiction. In contrast to the generalized sedentariness favored by our industrial societies, Sarah Vanuxem will reinterpret the rules of law based on this fiction in which we would all be nomads. Because the right to walk the land is often claimed by certain collectives, she will follow the Italian beni comuni or “commons” movement, investigating the “Villa Borghese versus Rome” ruling, which recognized the ius deambulandi of Roman city dwellers in 1887. She will also join the pioneering “Stalker” group of Roman artist-walkers. For Wildproject, she will prepare a book based on the following themes: “vagabond”, “chasser, cueillir, pêcher, ganer”, “transhumer”, “se promener”, and “fuir et se réfugier”.