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, established by statutes (issued by the Parlia - ment or sometimes by the government). French courts may construe 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 adminis- trative disputes follow an inquisitorial approach, criminal trials and all other disputes are based on an adversarial model. Proceedings generally consist of a combination of written submissions and oral arguments. 1.2 Court System The French court system has a double pyramid structure 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, commercial 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 organ- ised on a territorial basis. Within the judicial order, organisation is purely territorial for appeal courts but there is a combination of territorial and subject matter structure for the first level. Tribunaux judiciaires have jurisdiction over most matters, including 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 tribunals), respectively. The commercial tribunals are composed of judges elected from among businesspeople, whereas the labour tribunals are composed of
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