FRANCE Law and Practice Contributed by: Thierry Laloum, Jordan Pontal, Julie Sarny and Gabin Dupont-Guianvarch, Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP
9.7 Expedited Proceedings The Administrative Justice Code sets out a range of procedures for a claim to be expedited in urgent situations. The three main interim pro -
The administrative court always informs the parties of the time limits within which they must submit their various statements. Hearing and Judgment Once the administrative court considers that the case is ready for trial, it closes the investigation and sets a hearing date. Following deliberation, the administrative court issues its judgment, generally a few days (or weeks) after the hear - ing date. 9.6 Initial Sifting Process There is no initial sifting process at first instance and on appeal, claims are directly investigated by administrative courts and lead to a ruling on the case. However, there is an initial sifting process on appeal in cassation ( pourvoi en cassation ). In order to prevent an excessive volume of actions against administrative court of appeal’s deci - sions, appeals in cassation before the Council of State are subject to a prior admission procedure. The Council of State may refuse to admit appeals in cassation that are inadmissible, or that are not based on any serious grounds. In such a case, the appeal in cassation is rejected by a Council of State’s decision without having been the sub - ject of any adversarial investigation. In practice, the Council of State refuses to admit more than two-thirds of appeals in cassation, but this rate can vary from year to year. Should the Council of State allow the appeal in cassation, the appeal is subject to an ordinary investigation procedure and to the procedural stages described in 9.5 Procedural Stages .
cedures are presented below. Interim Suspension Procedure
The interim suspension procedure ( référé sus- pension) allows the claimant to obtain the sus - pension of an administrative act. Two specific admissibility conditions and two substantive conditions must be met for the administrative court to order the suspension of the challenged administrative act. • Admissibility conditions: (a) the claimant must lodge an appeal on the merits requesting the annulment of the administrative act; and (b) the appeal on the merits must itself be admissible. • Substantive conditions: (a) there must be an emergency to suspend the challenged administrative act, which is the case when the administrative act jeopardises in a sufficiently serious and immediate way public interests, or the situation of the claimant or the interests the claimant intends to defend; and (b) the claimant must provide grounds that can raise serious doubt as to the legality of the challenged administrative act. When an interim suspension procedure is ini - tiated, the administrative court must render a decision without undue delay. Interim Fundamental Freedoms Procedure The interim fundamental freedoms procedure ( référé liberté ) allows the claimant to obtain all measures required to protect a fundamental
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