His research has consistently focused on the relations between techno-scientific developments, legal theory and positive law. This endeavour combines a 'relational' approach to developments in positive law and to their rationale, with a meta-scientific perspective that explicitly leaves open the possibility for a 'plurality of truths'. The latter perspective has spun from his long-standing interest in the so-called 'new sciences' (chaos, complexity, self-organisation), and his personal work in epistemology and sociology of the sciences, and most particularly from his work in theory of the social sciences. This theoretical framework has been applied so far in his research into - legal aspects of informatics (law of informatics) - uses of informatics and articial intelligence by the legal system (informatics of law - the role of psychiatric expertise in the legal system - (the role of the scientific experti in) environmental law - copyright, patents, trade marks.
Serge Gutwirth participates in the international research programme "Analyse comparative et perspective du statut juridique de l'environnement" which is financed by the EU, DG XII - and directed by the Centre d'etude du droit de l'environnement (Prof. Ost at FUSL). Other partners in this project are the Institut du droit de l'environnement (Prof. Untermaier from the Université Jean Moulin, Lyon III) and the Forschungstelle für Umweltrecht (Prof. e. Rehbinder, J.W. Goethe Universität, Frankfurt). At the Erasmus University, he supervises the organisation of seminars in methodology of law. These are currently focusing on the foundations of environmental law.