The French judicial system is divided into two major independent jurisdictional orders based on the principle of dual jurisdiction:

1. The administrative order covers disputes involving the administration (State, local authorities, public services) and is competent to handle disputes related to administrative actions (example: refusal of a building permit by the city hall).
2. The judicial order covers disputes between private individuals and is composed of civil courts and criminal courts (examples: dismissal without real or serious cause, physical or verbal assault).

In the same case, it is sometimes necessary to distinguish between situations. In expropriation matters, for example:

• The administrative judge is competent to assess the legality of a declaration of public utility as it is an administrative act;
• The judicial judge is competent to determine the amount of compensation.

In case of doubt about the competence of judicial or administrative courts, the Tribunal des conflits (Conflicts Tribunal) intervenes. It can be referred to in one of the following situations:

• Negative conflict: both jurisdictions (administrative and judicial) declare themselves incompetent to judge the case.
• Positive conflict: both jurisdictions (administrative and judicial) declare themselves competent to judge the case.
• A third procedure called conflict prevention allows the administrative judge or the judicial judge to directly refer to the Conflicts Tribunal when the court seized of the case has a doubt about its competence.

The Conflicts Tribunal does not judge the case on its merits; it only designates the competent jurisdiction.

I. The Courts of the Administrative Order

The Administrative Tribunal

The Administrative Tribunal is the court of common law for administrative litigation. It judges disputes between individuals and administrations. Thus, litigation concerning administrative decisions and liability actions against public authorities fall primarily under its jurisdiction.

It is competent to settle disputes related to the functioning and organization of administrative public services (example: if access to a public service is conditioned on the prior removal of a headscarf).

This concerns administrative acts or decisions, such as refusals of building permits or refusals of residence permits.

However, in case of a ‘voie de fait’ (act of excessive power), that is, when the administration severely infringes on private property or a fundamental freedom due to the gravity and brutality of its act, the administration loses its jurisdictional privilege. The case is then brought before the judicial order.

Similarly, only ministerial acts (with general scope) and regulatory acts of national competence bodies fall directly under the jurisdiction of the Council of State.

Specialized Administrative Courts

The administrative order includes numerous specialized courts dealing with four particular types of litigation:

• Disciplinary, such as the High Council of the Judiciary.
• Foreign, in particular the National Court of Asylum (CNDA).
• Financial, such as the Court of Accounts.
• Social, on January 1, 2019, the Social Security Affairs Tribunals (TASS), Disability Dispute Tribunals (TCI), and Departmental Social Assistance Commissions (CDAS) were dissolved. Their litigation has been transferred to the social division of specially designated judicial tribunals, or to administrative tribunals depending on the nature of the dispute.

The Administrative Court of Appeal (CAA)

The Administrative Court of Appeal is competent to re-examine judgments rendered in the first instance by administrative tribunals and for which one of the parties is not satisfied, if the appeal has been deemed admissible.

The Council of State

The Council of State is the supreme court of the administrative order and as such, verifies the proper application of laws by administrative courts. It has two missions:

• A contentious mission which consists of hearing appeals against decisions of the administrative courts of appeal;
• A consultative or administrative mission which consists of rendering opinions.

All disputes involving a public entity (the State, regions, departments, municipalities, public institutions) or a private entity entrusted with a public service, generally fall under the jurisdiction of administrative courts and, in the last resort, the Council of State.

The Council of State can sometimes judge on appeal: this is the case, for example, for emergency orders concerning liberties issued by the administrative tribunal judge (Article L. 521-2 of the Administrative Justice Code).

It can also judge on appeal when, having ruled in cassation to annul a decision of an administrative court of appeal, it decides to settle the case on the merits rather than referring it back to another court. Thus, the Council of State can substitute itself for the administrative court of appeal when it considers that ‘the interest of good administration of justice justifies it’ (Article L. 821-2 of the Administrative Justice Code).

General characteristics of administrative litigation procedure:

• Written procedure, meaning that the essential part of the case consists of written submissions.
• Inquisitorial nature of the procedure, meaning that in administrative courts, it is the judge himself who is in charge of the investigation.
• Respect for the adversarial principle.
• Public hearings, meaning that administrative trials are open to the public.

Filing the appeal:

• A prior administrative decision is required. Sometimes, a lack of response from the administration is considered a refusal after a period of two (2) months. However, the rule is reversed in certain situations, for example, for building permit applications, where silence means acceptance.
• Deadline: generally, an appeal to an administrative court must be filed within two (2) months following the notification of the decision.
• Emergency procedures: these are called interim relief. There are several types (for example: the suspension interim relief, which allows for the suspension of an administrative act for a period determined by the judge pending a decision on the legality of the act).

II. The courts of the judicial order

When a victim of damage acts in civil court, they can obtain compensation for the harm caused, particularly in the form of damages. A criminal trial, on the other hand, allows for the punishment of the perpetrator of an offense. Generally, the judicial judge is the guardian of individual liberties and private property.

The courts of the judicial order are composed of two levels allowing for a judgment in the first instance, and a re-examination of the case by a higher court in case of contestation of the first judgment.

1. Courts of first instance

For civil courts, the competent court is determined according to the nature of the case and its amount.

For criminal courts, it is the type of offense (contravention, misdemeanor, crime) that determines the competent court.

For defendants who are under eighteen (18) years old at the time of the facts, a specific system applies: juvenile justice.

Civil courts

Common law civil courts:

• Local court/Judge for protection disputes:

The local court has jurisdiction to settle civil disputes of everyday life involving amounts less than 10,000 euros, such as disputes relating to the return of security deposits, unpaid debts, or poorly executed work. The Council of State has annulled (decision No. 436939, 437002 of September 22, 2022) Article 750-1 of the Code of Civil Procedure which imposed, on pain of inadmissibility, an obligation to resort to an amicable dispute resolution method for certain disputes where the financial stake was less than 5,000 euros.

A judge for protection disputes is created in each local court and within the judicial court to rule on:

• Consumer credit;
• Personal over-indebtedness;
• Residential property lease contracts;
• Protection of adults;
• Eviction of persons without right or title.

• Judicial court:

The judicial court is the result of the merger of the district court and the high court. It is the only common law court of first instance in civil, criminal, and commercial matters competent for disputes not assigned to another court, regardless of the value of the dispute.
It can therefore rule on different types of cases, particularly those concerning property rights, personal rights (civil status, filiation for example), successions, as well as any civil matter.

Some courts are specialized, known as courts of exception:

• The labor court has jurisdiction for all disputes arising from private employment contracts or apprenticeship contracts.
• The commercial court is specially competent to settle disputes between merchants or concerning commercial acts.

Criminal courts

• Police court:

It judges the least serious criminal offenses: minor offenses of the five classes for which the law provides for a fine not exceeding 3000 euros. The court can impose a fine but also additional penalties such as license suspension or vehicle immobilization, for example. The judgment can be contested by appeal if it’s a 5th class offense. To contest offenses from the 1st to 4th class, only an appeal to the Court of Cassation is possible.

• Criminal court:

The criminal court is the main criminal jurisdiction, it judges offenses for which the penalty can go up to ten (10) years of imprisonment: involuntary homicides, drug trafficking, sexual assaults, thefts, frauds, etc. The criminal court is seized by the public prosecutor, by the investigating judge at the end of a judicial investigation, or by the victim through direct citation.

• Court of Assizes:

The Court of Assizes is competent to judge crimes, which represent the most serious offenses and are most severely punished by the Penal Code, with penalties of at least ten (10) years of criminal imprisonment: murders and assassinations, rapes, organized gang trafficking in particular.

• Criminal Court:

The departmental criminal courts, competent for crimes punishable by fifteen (15) or twenty (20) years of imprisonment, were created on an experimental basis in 2019 (Law No. 2019-222 of March 23, 2019, on programming 2018-2022 and justice reform). They will be generalized on January 1, 2023, their implementation aiming to relieve the overburdened Courts of Assizes.

• Court of Justice of the Republic:

It can judge all members of the government, that is, the Prime Minister, ministers, and secretaries of state. It is competent only for criminal acts or offenses committed by them in the exercise of their functions. Offenses without direct link to the conduct of the Nation’s policy fall under the jurisdiction of ordinary criminal courts.

2. Courts of Appeal

Parties dissatisfied with the decision rendered by the courts of first instance can appeal to a Court of Appeal.

• Court of Appeal

The Court of Appeal is responsible for examining cases already judged by a court. It should be noted that some judgments are not subject to appeal. These include judgments rendered in last resort by the local court, by the police court when the sanction concerns minor offenses of classes 1 to 4 (art. 546 of the Code of Criminal Procedure) or by the labor court if the employee’s claims do not exceed 5,000 euros (art. D. 1462-3 of the Labor Code).

The deadline for appealing a judgment varies according to the courts: it is generally one month in civil matters, fifteen days for certain decisions (in non-contentious matters and for orders) and ten days in criminal matters.

• Court of Assizes of Appeal

The Court of Assizes of Appeal is competent to retry cases already decided by a Court of Assizes.

• Court of Cassation

The Court of Cassation only examines decisions rendered as a last resort (first instance decisions that cannot be appealed and decisions of the Courts of Appeal).
The Court of Cassation is the supreme court responsible for ensuring the proper application of the law by the courts. It is not competent to rule on the conflict between the parties but only to rule on the quality of the court decision.
The Court of Cassation has six specialized chambers: the nature of the legal question determines which chamber is called upon to settle the dispute. It has 3 civil chambers, a commercial chamber, a social chamber, and a criminal chamber.

The Court of Cassation has national jurisdiction, it is unique (art. L 411-1 of the Judicial Organization Code) and sits in Paris, within the Palace of Justice.
To appeal to it, the litigant must file an appeal in cassation. The Court of Cassation can then:

• Overturn the decision, the case is then referred back to a court to be retried;
• Reject the appeal, if it considers that it is not well-founded. The originally contested decision is then confirmed and becomes final.

In civil matters, the appeal must be filed within two (2) months (unless otherwise specified) from the notification of the contested decision. In criminal matters, the appeal must be filed within five (5) days from the pronouncement of the contested decision.

Before this supreme court of the judicial order, as for the administrative order, only specialized lawyers are authorized to plead: lawyers at the Court of Cassation and the Council of State, also called “lawyers to the Councils”.

As the objective of the Court of Cassation is to unify the interpretation of the law, it can also be referred to for an opinion by judges of the courts before they render their decision.

The Constitutional Council

The Constitutional Council was established by the Constitution of October 4, 1958. It is a court with varied competencies and is notably responsible for constitutional review, meaning it checks the conformity of laws with the Constitution.

The Constitutional Council is composed of nine members appointed for nine years. They are designated by the President of the Republic and the presidents of the parliamentary assemblies.

The Constitutional Council can be referred to:

• Before the promulgation of the law, by the President of the Republic, the President of the Senate, the President of the National Assembly, or sixty parliamentarians.
• After the promulgation of the law: this is the priority question of constitutionality (QPC). It is possible for any litigant to argue that a legislative provision infringes on the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. If the conditions of admissibility are met, it is up to the Constitutional Council, referred to by the Council of State or the Court of Cassation, to rule and, if necessary, to repeal the legislative provision (Article 61-1 of the Constitution).

APPLICABLE REFERENCES

Decree No. 2022-16, of January 7, 2022, relating to the evaluation and monitoring committee of the departmental criminal court; Decree No. 2022-17, of January 7, 2022, relating to the experimentation of the departmental criminal court; Law No. 2019-222 of March 23, 2019 on programming 2018-2022 and reform for justice; Constitutional Council No. 86-224 DC, January 23, 1987.