Charly Derave

Biography

Charly Derave is a full-time researcher at the Perelman Centre for Legal Philosophy. He graduated with highest honours from the Université libre de Bruxelles with a master’s degree in law in 2018. He began his professional career as a lawyer working with Anne Feyt and Patricia Minsier before joining the Centre on 1 October 2020.

He has held a doctorate in legal sciences since June 2026.

Conducted under the supervision of Professor Isabelle Rorive, his doctoral research was entitled « L’âge automatisé du droit. Enquête sur les dispositifs juridiques et sociotechniques de surveillance de la population déployés en Belgique à l’épreuve de la Covid‑19 ». Charly examined five surveillance systems deployed by the Belgian public authorities during the Covid-19 pandemic: manual tracing of people presumed to be infected and their contacts, the passenger locator form, digital tracing of people presumed to be infected and their contacts, vaccination records and the health certificate.

First, the thesis used an empirical approach and a common analytical framework to document the initial and subsequent processing of health data on which these systems relied. It provided a detailed mapping of that processing, revealing automated information flows that structured an especially dense and complex sociotechnical network. Second, Charly conducted a cross-cutting analysis of the principle of legality in its formal, substantive and procedural dimensions. In doing so, the research went beyond legal technique alone to reveal the deeper transformations that the automated age of law brings to the very nature of legal rules, of which these systems provided an illuminating reflection.

As part of a collective research project conducted by the Centre, Charly also studies the new forms of normativity arising from the predictions, recommendations and decisions of artificial intelligence systems.

Charly is also a research associate with the Equality Law Clinic, co-founded in 2014 by Emmanuelle Bribosia and Isabelle Rorive. His research addresses structural discrimination experienced by trans and intersex people. It also examines the interaction between procedural mechanisms in non-discrimination law and artificial intelligence practices.

He has been an alternate member of the board of directors of the Institute for the Equality of Women and Men since 26 May 2021, a member of the editorial board of Justice-en-ligne and Questions-Justice since January 2023, and a member of the board of directors of the Ligue des droits humains since June 2026.

Last updated: August 2026.