In 1984, a research team in the history of justice was formed at the University of Lille 2 in the form of a U.A. (Unité d'Accueil, or reception unit), which took the name Centre d'Histoire Judiciaire. Its founders, as stated in the preface to the first issue (1986) of the unit's journal, Les Épisodiques, wanted to focus ‘their attention on the modes of creation, evolution and reproduction of the legal system, no longer limited to the simple normative system, but also including justice in its historical perspective and in its relationship to the political, social and economic environment’. Together, they formed the first management team from 1984 to 1992, with Professor Jean-Pierre ROYER as Director and Professor Renée Martinage as Deputy Director.
In 1988, the Centre for Judicial History was recognised as an UPRESA (Associated Higher Education Research Unit) by the CNRS and then became a UMR (Joint Research Unit) in 2003. The philosophy of the unit's founders, who had always taken care to place the study of law in the context of its relationship with the judicial system and with litigants, has always been preserved. However, the research topics, as well as the geographical and chronological scope, have evolved.
