Thinking through Conflicts : Georges Sorel’s Work as a Hydraulic Engineer in Perpignan

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This article draws on recently uncovered archives documenting the years when Sorel worked as an engineer, namely as head of the Hydraulic Service for the East-Pyrenees (1880-1892). Occupying that position enabled him to witness conflicts between the domains of administration and justice, which led him to articulate a series of crucial law-oriented questions: how does law relate to other forms of social regulation, what were the types of sources one could draw from, and what were the political implications of resorting to private law? Criticizing French hydraulics policy allowed him to analyze the new forms of state intervention – administrative and regulatory. He denounced ideologies which supported that type of policing – scientism and the “fraternity” born of the idealism of 1848. According to him, the mission of private law was to work against “arbitrary administrative action”, an idea he defended using an economics-based outlook. Sorel was a primary stakeholder in some of the major economic and political conflicts of his time. It is only after considering his life experience that one can really appreciate his written work.