Introduction

The Institute Library collects material for a very large number of jurisdictions, including the British Isles, the Commonwealth, USA and western Europe, besides maintaining an extensive international law collection. Without unlimited financial resources the coverage cannot be complete for all jurisdictions, and naturally enough the Common Law countries tend to take precedence. Nevertheless, a collection of the domestic law of the countries of western Europe has been built up over the years.

As with all jurisdictions, priority is normally given to primary sources (statutes, cases) though with the greater importance of what the French call "doctrine" or scholarly legal literature in continental legal systems, the definition has to be broadened to include standard texts on the major fields of law.  The IALS Library has a good comprehensive collection on the law of France: legislation, codes, law reports, print and electronic finding tools, academic treatises, and several academic law journals.  The database LexisNexis Juris Classeur offers academic users on-site access to comprehensive electronic collections of legislation, case law, commentary and journals.

 

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Primary sources: codes and statutes

French legislation, including codes, is officially published in the Journal officiel de la République française, which began publication in 1869. Earlier years from 1794 are covered by the Bulletin des lois , which ran on concurrently with the J.O. until January 1931.

The Bulletin des lois (1789-1931) is available in the Institute Library, but we do not hold the Journal officiel, and we have relied on other sources described below. Professor Szladits comments:

"[the J.O.]..is useful mainly to find the text of very recent legislation or to verify the exact wording... Other tools will be used to find the rules of French law because of the sheer volume and indexing inadequacies of the J.O. "

The Journal Officiel (lois et décrets) is now available for free in full text, from 1998 onwards, on the Droit.org website. Browse and search options are available.  Recent years are also available on the Journal Officiel website and on Légifrance.

Currently the Journal officiel is published in five series. These include Lois et décrets (law and decrees) and Débats parlementaires (parliamentary debates) for both the Assemblée nationale and the Sénat

Additionally, the Directorat des Journaux Officiels publishes ministerial Bulletins issued by various government departments (e.g. Environment, Health, Employment), as well as editions of "codes", not necessarily codes in the strict sense but compilations of legislation on particular subjects gathered together, and "brochures", which reproduce statutes on subjects not covered by the codes.

However, French lawyers habitually use commercially published sources for both codes and other statutes.

The most generally used editions of the codes are the Codes Dalloz,which are pocket-sized volumes with extensive annotations to cases plus, more importantly, the text of other statutes either on related topics, or which modify articles of the code itself. As with the codes published officially, they are sometimes simply collections of separate laws on a particular subject, for example the Code administratif , Code pénal, Code de la santé publique, etc.

They are almost all re-issued every year, and the Institute has a standing order for all of them.

For other legislation, sources include the Actualité législative Dalloz (from 1918 to 1983 called Bulletin législatif Dalloz ; not in IALS), and the three "general collections" (recueils généraux): These are:

Recueil Dalloz, formerly known as Recueil Dalloz-Sirey , 1965-1996, a merger of Recueil Dalloz (IALS: current series complete from 1845) and Recueil Sirey (IALS complete)

Semaine juridique or Juris-Classeur Périodique , 1926- ; (IALS from 1946), often cited as JCP

Gazette du Palais , 1881- ; (IALS complete)

These periodicals are each a combination of law reports, statutory texts, and articles on legal subjects. While statutory coverage is not complete, texts not reproduced are indexed with reference to the Journal officiel.

Academic users of IALS Library can find full text legislation, both Journal Officiel and codes, on LexisNexis Juris Classeur on the Electronic Law Library. 

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Law reports

There is only one "official" series of French law reports, which the Institute Library holds from 1986:

Bulletin des arrêts de la Cour de Cassation. - Paris: Imprimerie des Journaux Officiels, 1798-

The Library holds Chambres civiles (1986-) and Chambre Criminelle (1986-), i.e. two concurrent series. The Bulletin forms part of the Journal Officiel de la République française.

Some "grands arrêts" and "arrêts sélectionnés" are published on the web site of the Cour de Cassation.

The decisions of the Conseil d'Etat are published under its patronage by Sirey as:

Recueil des décisions du Conseil d'Etat, du Tribunal des Conflits et des jugements des tribunaux administratifs , 1821- ; (IALS from 1905)   Known by the name of its 19th century editor: "Lebon".

Summaries of important decisions are available on the web site of the Conseil d'Etat , under "Jurisprudence"

Other than the "official" series and web sites, the main source for decisions of all types of court are the three recueils généraux mentioned above. Among the web gateways, which offer some coverage of jurisprudence or case law , are Droit.Org and World Law: France

More than 300,000 decisions of the French courts are now available on Légifrance under Jurisprudence.  They include the decisions of the Cour de Cassation from the early 1960s onwards, and important decisions of the appeal courts. Users can search for decisions by the date of the decision, the court and by themes or keywords.  Decisions of the Conseil d'Etat and of the Conseil Constitutionnel are likewise available.

 

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Encyclopedias

There are two major encyclopedic works, each in loose-leaf format.

1. Encyclopédie juridique Dalloz, 2nd edition, published by Dalloz and divided into répertoires covering the main subject areas of law:

Répertoire de droit civil . 10 volumes plus tables

Répertoire de droit commercial . 5 volumes (not in IALS)

Répertoire des sociétés. 5 volumes

Répertoire de droit pénal et de procedure pénale . 5 volumes (not in IALS)

Répertoire de droit du travail . 3 volumes (not in IALS)

Répertoire de contentieux administratif . 2 volumes (not in IALS)

Répertoire de procédure civile . 4 volumes (not in IALS)

Répertoire de la responsabilité de la puissance publique . 1 volume (not in IALS)

Each répertoire is divided alphabetically into specific subject headings (rubriques), each with references to both statutes and cases, and each provided with a bibliography and index, with cross-referencing to related headings. There is an annual cumulative supplement updated by interim supplements January-April and January-August plus, of course, complete re-issue of heavily amended headings.

2. Juris-Classeurs , published by Editions Techniques, again in subject sets, but extending in all to over three hundred bulky A4 binders.       

The IALS holdings are as follows:

Droit administratif . 10 binders

Droit commercial . 9 binders

In addition, though not specifically on French domestic law:

Codes et lois: traités de l'Europe Occidentale . 7 binders

Droit international . 9 binders

Among the many series not held, one might mention:

Sociétés . 19 binders

Pénal . 13 binders

Fiscal . 20 binders

Academic users of IALS Library will find the full collection of Encyclopédies Juris Classeur on LexisNexis Juris Classeur on the IALS Electronic Law Library.  Fifty one collections are arranged by subject, an equivalent of over 300 volumes, and the whole encyclopedia can be searched or browsed. 

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Treatises

Holdings of treatises on French law tend to be standard works on broad subjects rather than in-depth studies of specific topics. However, within these limits the Institute possesses an impressive collection of textbooks on French law.

The main legal publishers are Dalloz/Sirey; Librairie Général de Droit et de Jurisprudence (LGDJ), Montchrestien, Editions Cujas, Librairies Techniques (LITEC); and Editions Techniques (Juris-Classeurs).  Titles are also published by Economica and Defrénois.  The following list of recent titles has been selected to illustrate briefly the range of subjects and publishers represented in the collection:

Lucas, A.   Traité de la propriété littéraire et artistique (3rd ed.)  Paris: LexisNexis / Litec, 2006

Guinchard, S.   Procédure civile: droit interne et droit communautaire (28th ed.)  Paris: Dalloz, 2006

Chérot, J.   Droit public économique (2nd ed.)  Paris: Economica, 2007

Rassat, M.  Droit pénal special (5th ed.)  Paris: Dalloz, 2006

Pradel, J.  Manuel de procédure civile (13th ed.)  Paris: Cujas, 2006

Calais-Auloy, J.  Droit de la consommation (7th ed.)  Paris: Dalloz, 2006

Chapus, René  Droit du contentieux administratif (12th ed.)  Paris: Montchrestien, 2006

Frison-Roche, M.  Droit de la concurrence  Paris: Dalloz, 2006

Caron, C.  Droit d’auteur et droits voisins  Paris: LexisNexis Litec, 2006

Laude, A.  Droit de la santé  Paris: Presses Universitaries de France, 2007

Dupuis, G.  Droit administratif (10th ed.)  Paris: Sirey, 2007

Rivero, Jean  Droit administratif (21st ed.)  Paris: Dalloz, 2006

Terré, F.  Droit civil. Les obligations (9th ed.)  Paris: Dalloz, 2005

Carbonnier, J.  Droit civil: tome 2: la famille, l’enfant, le couple (21st ed.)  Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2002

Mestre, J.  Droit commercial: droit interne et aspects de droit international (27th ed.)  Paris: L.G.D.J., 2006

Drago, G.  Contentieux constitutionnel français (2nd ed.)  Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2006

Malaurie, P.  La famille (2nd ed.)  Paris: Defrénois, 2006

 

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English language works on French law

Most of the Library's materials on French law are in French. This is a list of selected works in English:

Overviews

Bell, John, et al. Principles of French law OUP, 1998

Brown, L.N., et al. French administrative law OUP, 1998

West, Andrew The French legal system Butterworths, 1998

Dadomo, Christian & Farran, Susan The French legal system Sweet & Maxwell, 1996

Elliott, C., et al.  French legal system (2nd ed.)  Pearson / Longman, 2006

Bell, John French legal cultures Butterworths, 2001

Codes

The French civil code translated with an introduction by John H. Crabb (as amended to July 1, 1994) Rothman, 1995

The French penal code of 1994 as amended as of January 1, 1999. Translated by E.A. Tomlinson. Rothman, 1999 (American series of foreign penal codes, 31)

The French commercial code in English, 2006, translated by Philip Raworth.  OUP, 2006

Other works in English include

Newman, John Charles French tax & business law guide CCH Editions, 1994-

Nicholas, Barry. The French law of contract - 2nd edition. Clarendon Press, 1992

Elliott Catherine French criminal law Willan, 2001

Delvolvé, J., et al.  French arbitration law and practice  Kluwer Law International, 2003

Other sources for French texts in English include international publications such as those of the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation (for tax law and treaties), the International Labour Office (for employment laws), and the World Intellectual Property Organization (for copyright and patent legislation).

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Periodicals

The Institute has a current subscription to several French legal periodicals, excluding those on European law and public or private international law. These include the important series in wide areas of law such as:

Revue trimestrielle de droit civil

Revue trimestrielle de droit commercial et de droit économique

Revue de science criminelle et de droit pénal comparé

Revue administrative

as well as several specialized journals, for example:

Droit d'auteur

Droit maritime français

Revue français de droit aérien

Revue générale des assurances terrestres

We have the Journal des sociétés civiles et commerciales from 1935 till its merger into Revue des sociétés in 1974, but have not subscribed to the latter publication.

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On-line resources

The following offer, variously, annotated links and guidance to some primary and secondary sources of French law:

Bibliothèque Interuniversitaire Cujas de droit et de sciences économiques - the Cujas Library in Paris offers on its website links to several sites on French law, and a number of very useful guides to the major sources of the law of France.

Droit.org: Portail du Droit Français   - a gateway site on French law

Légifrance  short for Légifrance.gouv.fr, "le service public de la diffusion du droit", is an official French site offering comprehensive access to legislation and case law.

Vie-Publique.fr - a site published by La Documentation Française, giving access to many official publications and offering the possibility to track legislation in progress.

Intute Law Gateway - "providing guidance and access to global legal information resources on the internet". Possible to browse by jurisdiction and there are over fifty resources on the law of France.

World Law: France (a resource guide to French law on the WorldLii site)

Germain's French law guide (a comprehensive guide, archived on the LLRX site)

Another useful resource is the FLAG Foreign Law Guide (Search on France to discover which UK research and national libraries hold materials on French law).

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