FRANCE Law and Practice Contributed by: Thierry Marembert, Cécile Labarbe and Céline Serpagli, Kiejman & Marembert
Kiejman & Marembert 260 Boulevard Saint-Germain 75007 Paris France
Tel: +33 01 4555 0900 Fax: +33 01 4555 2988 Email: courrier@kiejman-marembert.com Web: www.kiejman-marembert.com
1. General 1.1 General Characteristics of the Legal System The French legal system is based on civil law, estab- lished by statutes (issued by the Parliament or some- times by the government). French courts may con- strue law but have no right to issue general rulings. No court decision has the authority of a precedent: no court is bound to follow the position of a superior court in a different case. Although criminal investigations and administrative disputes follow an inquisitorial approach, criminal tri- als and all other disputes are based on an adversarial model. Proceedings generally consist of a combina- tion of written submissions and oral arguments. 1.2 Court System The French court system has a double pyramid struc- ture with two separate orders: • administrative, for most disputes involving the state, local communities and the entities linked to them; and • judicial, for all other disputes, including civil, com- mercial and criminal. Both orders have a three-level structure: • first-level courts; • appeal courts, which review the full merits of the dispute for a second time (ie, law and facts); and
• Supreme Courts ( Cour de cassation for the judicial order and Conseil d’Etat for the administrative one), which only review the legal arguments at stake. Within the administrative order, courts are organised on a territorial basis. Within the judicial order, organisa- tion is purely territorial for appeal courts but the first- level courts are structured with regards to both terri- tory and subject matter. Tribunaux judiciaires (judicial tribunals) have jurisdiction over most matters, includ- ing criminal, tort law, family, real estate and intellectual property, but not over commercial and labour matters, which go to the tribunaux de commerce (commercial tribunals) and Conseils de prud’hommes (labour tri- bunals), respectively. The commercial tribunals are composed of judges elected from among businesspeople, whereas the labour tribunals are composed of judges elected from among both employers and employees. The other courts consist of “professional judges” (ie, holding professional credentials). The Paris Court of Appeal has special jurisdiction over decisions of the French antitrust authority ( Autorité de la Concurrence ) and the financial markets authority ( Autorité des marchés financiers ). The Paris Commercial Court and the Paris Court of Appeal also have international chambers intended for transnational commercial disputes, which may be designated by a jurisdiction clause in a commercial contract. Before these international chambers, English may be used in oral arguments if both parties agree.
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