The French law for the Protection of persons involved in biomedical research, known as "Loi Huriet", defines the frame in which biomedical experimentations on human subjects can take place. Insisting on the emergent character of the norms (laws, scientific standards...) for clinical research in France, this paper presents the general context in which such a law was promulgated. It gives an historical focus on its principal dispositions and underlines the conceptual issues raised by the public acknowledgment of the existence of scientific investigations on humans. This paper contributes to the debate on the meaning of the main notions of the French normative system applying to biomedical researches (protection of the person, individual direct benefice...)