Kara Sears
French case law can be found through a variety of sources, including online databases, academic libraries, and journals. The official French government database Légifrance provides free access to constitutional texts, codes, consolidated laws, and judicial decisions. Cases from the Cour de Cassation, France's highest court for ordinary courts, are available on Légifrance as far back as the 1960s. The University of Texas at Austin's Institute for Transnational Law offers English translations of selected French court decisions, while the University of Minnesota Law Library provides a small collection of translated cases. The IALS Library at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies holds a comprehensive collection of French legal materials, including legislation, codes, law reports, and journals. Journals such as La Semaine Juridique and Bulletin des Arrêts de la Cour de Cassation cover a range of legal topics and often include case notes and analysis. Additionally, the Council of Europe's CODICES database provides access to constitutional cases from France's Conseil Constitutionnel, with some summaries and full texts available in English translation.
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What You'll Learn
- Search official databases, e.g. Legifrance, Jurisprudence Judiciaire, Jurisprudence Administrative
- Find journals with case notes/analysis, e.g. La Semaine Juridique, Revue de Droit Public
- Explore academic libraries, e.g. Georgetown, Oxford, University of Texas, IALS
- Consult French legal codes, e.g. Dalloz, Codes Dalloz, Recueil Dalloz
- Review court structure and jurisdiction, e.g. l'ordre administratif, l'ordre judicaire
Search official databases, e.g. Legifrance, Jurisprudence Judiciaire, Jurisprudence Administrative
The French legal system is divided into two branches: the judiciary and administrative justice. Each branch has its own Supreme Court—the Cour de Cassation and the Conseil d'Etat, respectively—which is responsible for publishing judicial and administrative case law. These decisions are accessible to the public via two separate databases. Over three million decisions are handed down by French courts each year.
Legifrance is the French government's official website on French law, managed by the French Secretary-General (legal and administrative information directorate). It contains national law, including the constitution, criminal code, and other codes, laws, and regulations published in the French legal gazette (Journal officiel de la République française). It also provides access to case law, including constitutional law, regular cases (droit judiciaire), and administrative cases. Additionally, Legifrance offers deliberations and opinions issued by independent administrative authorities and ministries, as well as circulars and instructions on applying laws, decrees, and rules.
Jurisprudence Judiciaire and Jurisprudence Administrative are two separate databases that provide access to judicial and administrative case law, respectively. These databases ensure that the decisions of the Cour de Cassation and the Conseil d'Etat are made accessible to the public. While full names of parties involved in the cases are automatically concealed, additional information can be concealed at the request of a magistrate to protect privacy.
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Find journals with case notes/analysis, e.g. La Semaine Juridique, Revue de Droit Public
French law reports may appear very brief, technical, and single-voiced to those used to common law judgments. French case notes, or notes d'arrêts, are essential to the full understanding of the actual decision. These case notes are written by legally trained commentators who have often had access to the court file on the case and/or worked closely with a lawyer or judge involved.
La Semaine Juridique is a weekly law journal that covers all aspects of French law—civil, public, commercial, and social. It has several editions, including:
- Administrations et collectivités territoriales
- Entreprise et Affaires
- Notariale et Immobilière
- Social
- Édition Générale
Édition Générale covers the following topics:
- Construction - Immobilier
- Droit civil
- Droit des affaires
- Droit européen
- Droit international
- Droit pénal
- Droit public
- Droit rural
- Droit social
- Fiscalité
- Patrimoine
- Pratique Professionnelle
Revue de Droit Public is the first French legal journal to cover the administrative, constitutional, political, European, and international domains. It includes articles of doctrine in administrative law, constitutional law, European law, and more.
Other journals with case notes/analysis include:
- L'actualité juridique: droit administratif (AJ or AJDA in citations)
- Revue trimestrielle de droit civil (RTDC, RTDciv, Rev. trim.dr.civ in citations)
- Revue du droit public et de la science politique (RDP or rev.dr.publ. in citations)
- Revue de science criminelle et de droit pénal comparé (RSC or Rev.sc.crim in citations)
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Explore academic libraries, e.g. Georgetown, Oxford, University of Texas, IALS
Georgetown Law Library
The Georgetown Law Library provides access to French case law through the database Dalloz, which offers case law for various French courts, including the Court of Cassation (Cour de cassation) and the Constitutional Court (Conseil constitutionnel). Additionally, the library provides access to the French-language database CILP, which indexes articles published in over 650 legal publications.
University of Oxford Law Library
The University of Oxford's Bodleian Law Library is a research library for law, human rights, criminology, and socio-legal studies. While there is no single place in the library for French law specifically, the most likely places to look are in the Jurisprudence/KA and General/KB sections. The library's collections can be searched through SOLO, the portal for all resources accessible through the university.
University of Texas at Austin Law Library
The University of Texas at Austin Law Library provides a resource for French law materials in the fields of constitutional, administrative, contract, and tort law. However, specific information on accessing French case law is not readily available.
IALS Library
The IALS Library has a good collection of French law resources, including legislation, codes, law reports, print and electronic finding tools, academic treatises, and academic law journals. The library provides access to the databases Lexis360 and Le Doctrinal, which offer electronic collections of French legislation, case law, commentary, and journals. Additionally, the library receives updated print versions of the Code Civil and the Code Pénal, as well as other compilations of French law published by Dalloz, known as "Codes Dalloz". The library also provides access to the Journal Officiel de la République Française, which publishes statutes and regulations, through Lexis360 and Doctrinal.
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Consult French legal codes, e.g. Dalloz, Codes Dalloz, Recueil Dalloz
Dalloz is the main French legal publisher and provides online access to a legal database, its legal journals, online codes, and all its academic and professional books. All this content is available on subscription, depending on the consultation platform. The Dalloz portal is a legal database with a wide range of subjects, including civil law, social law, public law, international and European law, criminal law, commercial law, and IP-IT law. It includes:
- 60 annotated and commented Dalloz
- 33 journals with their archives since 1990
- Hundreds of studies from the Encyclopedia
- Templates and forms
- 1,200 guidance sheets
- More than 30 professional books
- More than 3,000,000 case law decisions
- More than 60,000 French and European international texts
The University of Minnesota Law Library notes that the main French legal publisher, Dalloz, has published commentary, cases, and legislation in a series of bulletins referred to generally as "Recueil Dalloz". These include:
- Recueil Dalloz (1945-1964)
- Recueil Dalloz Sirey de doctrine, de jurisprudence et de legislation (1965-1996)
The University of Texas at Austin: Institute for Transnational Law includes a limited number of translations of decisions from the Conseil d’État, Cour de cassation, and Conseil constitutionnel.
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Review court structure and jurisdiction, e.g. l'ordre administratif, l'ordre judicaire
France's legal system is divided into two main branches: l'ordre administratif and l'ordre judiciaire.
L'ordre judiciaire
L'ordre judiciaire, or the judiciary, is responsible for settling disputes between individuals (civil law) and between the state and individuals (criminal law). It also handles disputes between individuals and public entities, such as in cases of expropriation or traffic accidents involving administrative vehicles.
The judiciary is organised into three levels: first instance courts, appeal courts, and the Court of Cassation (Cour de Cassation). The first instance courts include the tribunaux d'instance (also known as tribunaux de police) and tribunaux de grande instance (also known as tribunaux correctionnels). These courts handle civil and criminal cases, respectively. The appeal courts, or cours d'appel, review decisions made by the first instance courts. The Court of Cassation is the highest court in the judiciary and can overturn decisions made by lower courts.
L'ordre administratif
L'ordre administratif, or the administrative law system, operates separately from the judiciary and handles disputes involving administrative decisions made by the state or local authorities. The Council of State (Conseil d'Etat) is the highest court in the administrative system and can overturn decisions made by lower administrative courts.
The administrative courts are also organised into three levels: first instance courts, appeal courts, and the Council of State. The first instance courts are known as tribunaux administratifs, while the appeal courts are called cours administratives d'appel. These courts handle appeals related to local administrative decisions and specialised administrative courts, such as the Cour nationale du droit d'asile (National Asylum Court) and the Cour des comptes (Court of Auditors).
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Frequently asked questions
The University of Texas at Austin's Institute for Transnational Law provides English translations of selected French court decisions on constitutional law, administrative law, contracts and commercial law, and tort law. The University of Minnesota Law Library also has a small collection of translated cases.
The official French government database Légifrance provides free online access to judicial decisions issued by the Conseil constitutionnel, the Cour de cassation, and the Conseil d’État. The Cour de cassation's cases (back to the 1960s) are also searchable at Legifrance.
The IALS Library has a good collection of French law materials, including legislation, codes, law reports, and academic treatises. The University of Minnesota Law Library also has a collection of French legal materials.
Yes, there are several online databases that include French case law, including Lexis360, Le Doctrinal, and the Council of Europe's Digest of Constitutional Cases (CODICES). The University of Minnesota Law Library also provides online access to Lexis360.
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