Jurisdictions/FR

French Legal System

Jurisdiction code: fr. Language: fr (always required). Corpus size: 60M+ documents.

Court hierarchy

France has four judicial orders: judicial (judiciaire), administrative (administratif), financial (financier), and constitutional (constitutionnel). Each has its own apex court.

court_level mapping (T1 tag)

court_level	Court (court tag)	Order	Notes
supreme	Cour de cassation (cour_cassation)	Judicial	Controls law, not facts
supreme	Conseil d'Etat (conseil_etat)	Administrative	Also government advisor (avis are not arrets)
supreme	Cour des comptes (cour_des_comptes)	Financial	Apex since 2023 reform; 1st instance (contentious chamber) + cassation over CAF
appellate	Cour d'appel (cour_appel)	Judicial	Rejudges facts + law
appellate	Cour administrative d'appel (cour_administrative_appel)	Administrative
appellate	Tribunal superieur d'appel (tribunal_superieur_appel)	Judicial	Overseas territories
appellate	Cour d'appel financiere (cour_appel_financiere)	Financial	Created 2023; appeals from CRC and CdC contentious chamber
first_instance	Tribunal judiciaire (tribunal_judiciaire)	Judicial	General civil/criminal
first_instance	Conseil de prud'hommes (conseil_prudhommes)	Judicial	Labor
first_instance	Tribunal de commerce (tribunal_commerce)	Judicial	Commercial
first_instance	Tribunal administratif (tribunal_administratif)	Administrative
first_instance	Chambre regionale des comptes (chambre_regionale_des_comptes)	Financial	Local authorities
first_instance	Cour de discipline budgetaire et financiere (cour_discipline_budgetaire_financiere)	Financial	Abolished 2023 (integrated into CdC); historical decisions 1954-2022
constitutional	Conseil constitutionnel (conseil_constitutionnel)	Constitutional	QPC can invalidate provisions
null	Tribunal des conflits (tribunal_conflits)	Sui generis	Arbitrates judicial vs. admin jurisdiction
null	CNIL (cnil)	Independent authority	Data protection
null	CADA (cada)	Independent authority	Access to admin documents

Source-to-court mapping

Multiple data sources cover overlapping courts. Always search by court tag, not source.

Source	System	Courts covered
cass, inca	Judicial	Cour de cassation
capp	Judicial	Cours d'appel
judilibre	Mixed	Cour de cassation + admin courts + cours d'appel (deduplicated)
jade, ce_opendata	Administrative	CE, CAA, TA, Tribunal des conflits
jufi	Financial	CdC, CRC, CDBF, CAF (~3,500 decisions, 1954-present)
constit	Constitutional	Conseil constitutionnel
cnil	Independent authority	CNIL sanctions
cada	Independent authority	CADA opinions

Financial order — 2023 reform

Before 2023:

• Cour des comptes = appellate over CRC
• CDBF = separate disciplinary court

After 2023:

• Cour des comptes = apex (supreme): contentious chamber (absorbed CDBF) + cassation over CAF
• Cour d'appel financiere (CAF) = new appellate court
• CRC = first instance (unchanged)
• CDBF = abolished, historical decisions remain searchable

Legislation types

Normative hierarchy

Constitution > treaties/EU law > loi > ordonnance ratifiee > decret > arrete > circulaire (not binding on courts)

Text types

Type	Description	Tag example
Code	Consolidated legislation organized by topic	tags={"code": "Code civil"}
Loi	Parliament statute	tags={"nature": "loi"}
Loi organique	Organic law (constitutional-tier procedure)	tags={"nature": "loi_organique"}
Ordonnance	Government act under parliamentary authorization	tags={"nature": "ordonnance"}
Decret	Executive regulation	tags={"nature": "decret"}
Arrete	Ministerial/prefectoral order	tags={"nature": "arrete"}
Circulaire	Administrative interpretation (NOT in corpus)	See circulaires.gouv.fr

Codification prefixes

Prefix	Origin	Example
L.	Legislative (Parliament) — highest within a code	L.1234-5
R.	Regulatory (decret en Conseil d'Etat)	R.1234-5
D.	Regulatory (decret simple)	D.1234-5
A.	Ministerial order (arrete)	A.1234-5
No prefix	Old codes not recodified (Code civil, Code penal pre-1994)	1240

L. > R. within the same code. Same number with different prefix = different articles (L.1234-5 != R.1234-5).

Legislation sources: LEGI vs JORF

Source	Content	Notes
legi	Consolidated legislation (versioned, with enforcement_status)	Preferred; shown in default search
jorf	Official gazette (original publication, no versioning)	Hidden from default search; use tags={"source": "jorf"}

Same text exists in both with different IDs (LEGITEXT / JORFTEXT). ~4% of JORF texts have no LEGI counterpart (nominations, old texts).

Enforcement status

Value	Meaning	Safety
in_force	Currently in force	Safe to cite
deferred_enforcement	Enacted but not yet applicable	Flag future effective date
deferred_repeal	Still in force until a future date	Cite but flag upcoming repeal
repealed	Repealed	NEVER cite as current law
superseded	Historical version, newer exists	Cite the newer version
never_in_force	Modified before effective date	Never cite
expired	Lapsed by sunset clause	No longer applicable
annulled	Struck down by court (typically retroactive)	Never cite
transferred	Content moved to different article (renumbering)	Cite new location
denounced	Collective agreement repudiated	No longer applies
disjoined	Version split into multiple articles	Cite resulting articles
conditional	In force under specific interpretation (constitutional reservation)
pending	Adopted but awaiting ratification

Publication grades (official_grade)

Administrative courts (PUBLI_RECUEIL system)

Grade	Label	Courts	importance_level
A	Publie au Recueil Lebon	CE, Tribunal des conflits	highest_importance
B	Mentionne aux Tables du Lebon	CE, Tribunal des conflits	high_importance
R	Interet jurisprudentiel majeur	CAA, TA (equivalent of A)	highest_importance
C+	Interet signale	CAA, TA (equivalent of B)	high_importance
C	Inedit	All admin courts	low_importance
D	Interet limite aux parties	All admin courts	minimal_importance
Z	Interet limite aux parties	All admin courts	minimal_importance

Cour de cassation (post-2021, decisions after 2021-06-15)

Grade	Label	importance_level
rapport	Selectionne pour le Rapport annuel	highest_importance
bulletin	Publie au Bulletin des arrets	high_importance
diffuse	Diffuse sur Legifrance	low_importance
non_diffuse	Non diffuse	minimal_importance

Cour de cassation (pre-2021, decisions before 2021-06-15)

Grade	Former code	Label	importance_level
rapport	R	Rapport annuel	highest_importance
bulletin	P	Publie au Bulletin	high_importance
bulletin_information	B	Mentionne au BICC	medium_importance
internet	I	Diffuse sur internet	low_importance
diffuse	D	Diffuse aux bases	low_importance

Lower courts (cour_appel, tribunal_judiciaire, tribunal_commerce)

Grade	Label	importance_level	Notes
particular_interest	Arret d'interet particulier	highest_importance	~1,400 decisions out of 1.25M

Financial courts (CdC, CRC, CDBF, CAF)

Grade	Label	importance_level	Notes
recueil	Publie au Recueil des juridictions financieres	high_importance	~25% of decisions

Default importance by court level (when no grade)

Court level	Default importance_level
cassation (supreme)	medium_importance
appel (appellate)	low_importance
premiere_instance (first_instance)	minimal_importance

Formation / solemnity system

Formations are ranked by ascending solemnity. Higher solemnity = greater jurisprudential authority.

Cour de cassation

Formation	Solemnity tag	Notes
Formation restreinte (F, FRH, FRR)	reduced_bench	Minimum composition
Standard chamber (civ.1, civ.2, civ.3, com., soc., crim.)	standard_bench	Normal composition
Formation de section (FS)	grand_bench	Important questions
Formation pleniere de chambre (FP)	grand_bench	Full chamber
Chambre mixte (FM)	combined_chambers	Multiple chambers; outranks formation pleniere
Assemblee pleniere	full_court	All chambers; highest authority

Note: at the Cour de cassation, combined_chambers (Chambre mixte) outranks grand_bench (formation pleniere) — this diverges from the generic solemnity ordering.

Conseil d'Etat

Formation	Solemnity tag
Juge des referes	single_judge
Formation a 3	reduced_bench
Chambre seule	standard_bench
Chambres reunies / SSR	combined_chambers
Section du contentieux	grand_bench
Assemblee du contentieux	full_court

Case number formats

Court	Format	Example
Cour de cassation	YY-NN.NNN	24-14.752
Cour d'appel / TJ	YY/NNNNN	21/00091
Conseil d'Etat	NNNNNN (sequential)	486329
TA / CAA	YYLLNNNNN (year + court code)	24PA01233
Conseil constitutionnel	YYYY-NNN TYPE	2021-823 DC
Tribunal des conflits	CNNNN	C4321
Cour des comptes	S-YYYY-NNNN	S-2025-0381
CDBF	NNN-NNN	264-865

Cass. pourvoi digits 3-4 correlate with chamber (80-89 = criminal, ~10-25 = civil/commercial/social).

Labor law sources

Source	Content	Tag
kali	Official collective agreement texts (DILA/Legifrance)	tags={"source": "kali"}
acco	Filed company agreements	tags={"source": "acco"}

bargaining_level (T2 tag): enterprise (company agreement), sectoral (branch agreement). Also defined but not yet populated: inter_sectoral, territorial.

Each collective agreement has an IDCC number. IDCCs merge over time (e.g., metallurgy merged to IDCC 3248 in 2024).

Doctrine sources

Source	Content	Binding?
bofip	Tax administration interpretation (BOFiP)	Opposable to tax authority; NOT binding on courts
cnil	CNIL guidelines/recommendations	Soft law; widely followed as diligence standard
cada	CADA advisory opinions on document access	Advisory

What is NOT in the corpus

Gap	Alternative
First-instance decisions (TJ, CPH, TC)	Not systematically published
Academic doctrine (treatises, case commentaries)	Not available
Circulaires	circulaires.gouv.fr (not binding on courts)
Notarial practice and customs	Not available
Lower criminal court decisions	Sparse coverage (Cass. crim. is included)
Very recent enactments (< 48h)	Ingestion lag; flag for recent texts

Major reforms — renumbering traps

Reform	Effective	Key changes
Obligations (ordonnance 2016-131)	1 Oct 2016	1134->1103+1104, 1147->1231-1, 1382->1240, 1383->1241, 1384->1242. Contracts before 1 Oct 2016 use OLD articles.
Security interests (ordonnance 2021-1192)	1 Jan 2022	Reorganized Code civil Book IV (suretes)
Criminal justice for minors	30 Sep 2021	Code de justice penale des mineurs replaced 1945 ordonnance
Criminal procedure (loi 2024-364)	1 Jul 2024	Articles 63+ CPP (garde a vue) modified