Emory Law School Website

Guide created by Amy Flick

French Law

• Range 379
• Civil Law
• See Claire Germain's guides in Germain's Transnational Legal Research (Ref. K 85 .G47) and on LLRX
• Gaullist Constitution of 1958
• Bicameral legislature, strong executive, regional governments
• Lois:  Parliamentary statutes
• Règlements, décrets:  regulations
• Caselaw in theory not precendential, does have influence on development of law
• By French law (ordinance no. 2004-164), French acts and regulations must be published on the internet to be enacted, as of June 2004

Sources of French Law

• Journal Official:  Official gazette.  On Legifrance, html with links to pdf.
• Recueil Dalloz:  New legislation and selected court decisions with commentary
• Codes:  Dalloz (Commercial versions, in print collection beginnLegifraning with 1948).  Civil, Commerce, Pénal, Administratif.  Also in English on Legifrance.
• Court de Cassation (highest court).  Selected decisions.
• Lexis has Journal Officiel, La Semaine Juridique.
• Institute for Transnational Law:  English translations of French, German, other national decisions and some statutes.