28 July 2021
Lessons from the French Citizens’ Climate Convention
On July 6, the French Prime Minister announced that the government was abandoning the bill to enshrine in the Constitution the preservation of the environment. He invoked the Senate's inertia to justify renouncing the bill, which needed to be adopted in the same terms by the two houses of parliament. The climate referendum that had been announced by the President of the Republic in December 2020 was thus abandoned. The decision was not a surprise, as many doubted the political feasibility or the actual willingness to implement it. Continue reading >>
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18 March 2021
French Response to COVID-19 Crisis: Rolling into the Deep*
To cope with the COVID-19 crisis, the French Parliament adopted the Act n° 2020-290 creating a new regime of exception: the state of health emergency. It is concerning as it confers more powers and large leeway to the executive branch than the traditional state of security emergency, and as it offers the opportunity to restrict widely rights and liberties with almost no checks and balances. Continue reading >>
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16 June 2020
The French Loi de Vigilance: Prospects and Limitations of a Pioneer Mandatory Corporate Due Diligence
The French Loi de Vigilance is the result of a remarkable mobilization of trade unions, civil society and parliamentarians. It combines hard law with (international) soft law standards on business and human rights and introduces an unprecedented corporate duty of vigilance in French tort law. Continue reading >>09 April 2020
From One State of Emergency to Another – Emergency Powers in France
2 years and less than 5 months after the end of the two-year state of emergency triggered on the wake of the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris, a brand new “state of health emergency” was activated in France on the 23rd March to cope with a new attack led, this time, by a small and invisible enemy, Covid-19. The so-called “state of health emergency” currently constitutes the legal framework and basis of the measures in force to cope with the epidemic, including nationwide lockdown. What is this new regime? Is it a threat to individual freedoms? What are its limits and guarantees? Was it legally necessary? Continue reading >>
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09 August 2017