| Court of Cassation of France | |
|---|---|
| Cour de Cassation | |
.svg) Logo | |
 The Court of Cassation building on theÎle de la Cité in Paris seen from theSeine | |
 Interactive map of Court of Cassation of France | |
| Established | 1791; 234 years ago (1791) |
| Jurisdiction | France |
| Location | Paris |
| Authorised by | Constitution of France |
| Appeals to | Constitutional Council |
| Website | www |
| President of the Court of Cassation | |
| Currently | Christophe Soulard |
| Since | January 7, 2022; 3 years ago (2022-01-07) |
| This article is part ofa series on |
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TheCourt of Cassation (French:Cour de cassation,[kuʁd(ə)kasɑsjɔ̃]ⓘ) is thesupreme court for civil and criminal cases inFrance. It is France's highest court.[1] It is one of the country's four superior courts, along with theCouncil of State, theConstitutional Council and theJurisdictional Disputes Tribunal.
It primarily hears appeals against the decisions ofcourts of assizes andcourts of appeal (appeals-in-cassation). The Court only reviews questions of law (but not questions of fact) and bears ultimate responsibility for a uniform interpretation and application ofstatutory law throughout France. It also filters out appeals challenging the constitutionality of statutes before forwarding them to the Constitutional Council, reviews lower court verdicts on request of theEuropean Court of Human Rights and hears several other types of cases.
The Court is organized into three civil chambers, a commerce chamber, a labour chamber, a criminal chamber, a prosecutorial service and various other bodies. The Court usually rules in panels of three or five judges; the most significant cases are adjudicated by plenary sessions.
The Court was established in 1790 as the Tribunal of Cassation during theFrench Revolution; its original purpose was to act as a court of error with revisory jurisdiction over lower provincialprerogative courts (parlements).[2] However, much about the Court continues the earlierParis Parlement. Several other countries havecourts of cassation based on the French model.
The Court is located in thePalace of Justice in the1st arrondissement of Paris.
The Court is made up of justices, thePublic prosecutor's office,and an Administrative Office of Courts[clarify]. In addition, a separate bar of specially certifiedbarristers exists for trying cases at the French Court.
Overall, the Court consists of nearly 85 trial judges (conseillers) and about 40 deputy judges[a] (conseillers référendaires), each divided among six different divisions (chambres):
Each division is headed by a presiding justice[b] referred to in French as aprésident, or President of Division. The Chief Justice bears the title of thepremier président, or President of the Court, who supervises the presiding justices of the various divisions. The Chief Justice is the highest-ranking judicial officer in the country and is responsible for administration of the Court and the discipline of justices. The current Chief Justice isBertrand Louvel [fr]. The Court also includes 12masters (auditeurs), the lowest rank of justice, who are primarily concerned with administration.
There is, in addition to the abovementioned six divisions, a separate organization known as the Divisional Court (chambre mixte). The Divisional Court adjudicates where the subject matter of an appeal falls within the purview of multiple divisions. The Bench of the Divisional Court seats the Chief Justice and a number of other judges from at least three other divisions relevant to a given case. Any participating division is represented by its Presiding Justice and twopuisne judges.
Finally, afull court (Assembléeplénière) is called, presided over by the Chief Justice or, if he is absent, by the most senior presiding justice. It also seats all divisional presiding justices and senior justices, assisted by apuisne judge from each division. The full court is the highest level of the Court.[3]
Theprosecution, orparquet général, is headed by the Chief Prosecutor (procureur général).[c] The Chief Prosecutor is a judicial officer, but does not prosecute cases; instead, his function is to advise the Court on how to proceed, analogous to the Commissioner-in-Council's[d] role within theConseil d'État (lit. Council of State, but function may vary). Duties include filing motions to bring cases before the Court "in the name of the law" and bringing cases before the French Court of Justice (Cour de justice de la République), which tries government officials for crimes committed while in office. The Chief Prosecutor is assisted by two Chief Deputy Prosecutors (premiers avocats généraux) and a staff of about 22 deputy prosecutors (avocats généraux), and two assistant prosecutors (substituts).
Barristers (avocats), though not technically officers of the court, play an integral role in the justice system. Except for a few types of actions, advocate counsel in the form of a barrister is mandatory for any case heard at the Court or Council of State. Barristers with exclusive rights of audience and admitted to practice law in either senior court are titledavocat au Conseil d'État et à la Cour de Cassation, oravocats aux Conseils ("Counsel at Senior Court") for short. Admission to the Supreme Court bar[e] is particularly difficult, requiring special training and passing a notoriously stringent examination. Once admitted, bar members can advise litigants on whether their actions are justiciable, that is, issuable and exceedingde minimis requirements—an important service since the court hears appeals only on points of law and not issues of fact. Membership is restricted to 60 total positions and is considered a public office.
In May 2019,Jean-François Ricard was appointed General Counsel at the Court of Cassation to exercise the function of anti-terrorism public prosecutor at theTribunal de grande instance de Paris, heading a new National Terrorism Prosecution Office (Parquet national antiterroriste [fr]; PNAT), beginning on 25 June 2019.[4] He leads a team of 25 magistrates.[5]
The Court's main purpose is to review lower court rulings on the grounds of legal or procedural error. As the highest court of law in France, it also has other duties.
The Court has inherent appellate jurisdiction for appeals (calledpourvois en cassation) from courts of appeal or, for certain types of small claims cases not appealable to appellate courts, from courts of record. The Supreme Court reviews the appeal on the record and may affirm or set aside lower court rulings; if set aside, the ruling is said to becassé (French for "quashed"), hence the French name ofCour de cassation, or "Quashing Court". The Court adjudicates by strict appeal, or appealstricto sensu, which is limited to review of the decision and of the decision-making process on a point of law, and may only allow the appeal in cases of serious error; fresh evidence is not admissible. The typical outcome of a successful appeal is setting aside of the lower court's decision and remittal for reconsideration.
An intermediateappellate court, theCour d'appel, hears general appealsde novo on points of law and procedure as well as errors of fact and reasoning. The Court of Cassation only decides matters of points of law or procedure on the record, as opposed to factual errors. Lower courts may petition the Court for aninterlocutory order during the proceedings on any new and complex point of law; any such order, however, is not final or conclusive.
A case is heard by a bench of three or five relevant divisional justices. For either civil or criminal appeals, the bench seats by three judges unless the Chief Justice or the divisional presiding justice orders a full bench of five judges. Furthermore, any one of the three judges originally assigned to the bench may order it expanded to five. If the case falls in the legal areas handled by more than one division, the Chief Justice may order the divisional court, rather than a Bench, to consider the case.
The Court can affirm a decision from below by dismissing the appeal (rejet du pourvoi) or overturn or amend the decision by allowing the appeal (accueil du pourvoi).[6] If it finds that the lower court erred, it sets aside the lower court decision and remits the case with its opinion to an appellate court for reconsideration (cassation avec renvoi). If only a portion of a ruling is overturned, it is calledcassation partielle, or partial setting aside. Sometimes, the Court may overturn a lower court ruling and judge the caseex proprio motu without being petitioned (cassation sans renvoi), as long as the merits and facts of the case are on record.[citation needed]
When overturned, the case is remanded to a second appellate court, in other words not the appellate court whose decision is being appealed; never to the same judges. The decision of the Bench of the Court of Cassation or Divisional Court is not binding on the lower court, and the appellate court has full discretion to decide the case, but the higher court's ruling has persuasive authority. The appellate court's ruling may again be appealed to the Court of Cassation. If so, the Full Court hears and judges the case. It may, again, uphold an earlier decision or reverse it and remand the case to another appellate court. In the latter case, the determination of the Full Court is binding; the facts, however, may be reviewed by the court retrying the case.
Published judgments are extremely brief, containing a statement of the case—citing relevant statutory authorities—and a summary of ruling. The ruling does not contain aratio decidendi in the style ofcommon-law jurisdictions.[f][7] Instead, it is left to legal experts to explain the importance of rulings. The Court often drastically changes the way theCivil Code or other statutory laws are interpreted. Legal digests, such as theRecueil Dalloz, and treatises written by legal scholars analyze and explain rulings through precedents. Much of this information is available through online databases.
Unlike common-law jurisdictions, there is no doctrine of binding precedent (stare decisis) in France. Therefore, previous decisions of higher courts do not bind lower courts in the same hierarchy, though they are often followed and have persuasive authority. Instead, the French legal system subscribes to the legal doctrine ofjurisprudence constante according to which courts should follow a series of decisions that are in accord with each other and judges should rule on their own interpretation of the law.
Majorfelonies (indictable offences), calledcrimes in French, are tried by jury in acountyCourt of Assizes. In the past, their decisions were not open to appeal in an intermediate appellate court, and before 2001, could only be appealed to the Supreme Court. The Court would review the case on points of procedure and law only, and when handing down a reversal, which was uncommon except for capital punishment cases, vested a secondCourt of Assizes to retry the case. An argument in favor of this system was that allowing appeals to be tried by active judges after having been decided by a jury would in essence denypopular sovereignty. Since 2001, Assize court rulings may be appealed on points of fact to a Court of Assizes in another county, vested by the Court, and before a larger jury. The case is then fully retried. For procedural issues, appeals to the Supreme Court are still possible since assize courts, which operate by jury trial, would not be competent to hear them.[citation needed]
Where no appeal has been made but the government disagrees with the lower court's interpretation of the law, it may order the Chief Prosecutor to "lay an appeal before the Court in the interest of law" (former un pourvoi dans l'intérêt de la loi), i.e., appeal tocertify a question of general public importance. The Chief Prosecutor may do sosua sponte or at the Court's behest in either civil or criminal cases. The Court will then issue anadvisory opinion which has no bearing on the lower court's ruling since it was satisfactory to all parties involved and no motion was made to appeal. If the government is dissatisfied with the law as stated by the courts, it may ask Parliament to rewrite the law, as long as no constitutional issue is involved.
The Court publishes an annual report on the French court system. The report includes a section with suggested changes to laws concerning the legal system, includingcriminal procedure. The Court awardsdamages to defendants exonerated afterincarceration. Some high-level members of the court areex officio members of special ad hoc courts; the investigatory commission of the High Court of Justice (Haute Cour de Justice), which may be convened to try theFrench President forhigh treason; theFrench Court of Justice (Cour de Justice de la République), which may be convened to try current or former cabinetministers for crimes committed while in office; and the National Judicial Council (Conseil supérieur de la magistrature), which serves as a court of judicial discipline and disciplinary counsel. The High Court of Justice has never been convened during theFifth Republic and the French Court of Justice, only rarely.
The Court is not the only court of last resort in France. Cases involving claims against government bodies, local authorities, or the central government, including alldelegated legislation (e.g.,statutory instruments, ministerial orders), are heard by the administrative courts, for which the court of last resort is theConseil d'État. In cases where there appears to be concurrent jurisdiction or a conflict of laws between the judicial and administrative courts, whether both retain jurisdiction ("positive dispute") or decline jurisdiction ("negative dispute"), the Jurisdictional Disputes Court (Tribunal des Conflits) decides the issue. The Court is composed of 4 members from both senior courts and occasionally, to break a tie, the justice minister who, if present, presides.
Neither court has thepower to strike downprimary legislation, such as acts of Parliament. The courts can, however, refuse to apply any statutory provision they consider inconsistent with France's internationaltreaty obligations. Constitutional review lies in theConstitutional Council, which can strike down any law that it deemsunconstitutional. Before a law is enacted, theFrench President, the speaker of either house of Parliament, or, more commonly, 60 parliamentarians from the same house may petition the Council for review. Some laws, mostly constitutional laws (loi organique), come before the Constitutional Council for review without first being petitioned. Courts may adopt a restrictive approach to applying statute. A 2009 reform, effective on 1 March 2010, enables parties to a lawsuit or trial to question the constitutionality of the law that is being applied to them. The procedure, known asquestion prioritaire de constitutionnalité, is broadly as follows: the question is raised before the trial judge and, if it has merit, it is forwarded to the appropriate supreme court (Council of State if the referral comes from an administrative court, Cour de Cassation for other courts). The supreme court collects such referrals and submits them to the Constitutional Council. If the Constitutional Council rules a law is unconstitutional, the law is struck down and no longer has legal force; this decision applies to everybody and not just the appelant in the case at hand.[8][9]
TheEuropean Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has jurisdiction over claims of government violations in breach of theEuropean Convention on Human Rights in any ECHR member country, which includes allEU member countries. Before the ECtHR grants appeal, a claimant must have exhausted all available judicial recourse in the violating country; in France this means following the appeals process to either of the senior courts. Even so, the ECtHR hasoriginal jurisdiction, notappellate jurisdiction.
Additionally, French courts may petition theEuropean Court of Justice tocertify a question of law concerningEU law.
Media related toCour de cassation (France) at Wikimedia Commons
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