“There is one single Court of Cassation for the whole Republic” (French Judiciary Code, art. L. 411-1).
The French Court of Cassation (Cour de Cassation) has several divisions, each dealing with different areas of law. There are five civil divisions and one criminal division.
Whatever the case matter, the Court of Cassation is very specific in the types of appeal it can handle. The role of this court is one of verification, whereby it ensures that the judgments delivered by a first instance court or a court of appeal (the lower courts) have correctly interpreted and applied the law.
It does not re-examine the facts of the case, but uses a single, specially-designed technique (known as the cassation process) to verify the judgment being appealed, and ensure the law has been applied consistently, in line with the grounds of the appeal.
There are two main grounds on which an appeal can be brought before the Court of Cassation:
• Statutory: the Court of Cassation ensures the meaning and scope of the law has been correctly applied (e.g. it checks for any violation of a point of law, ultra vires or insufficient legal reasoning);
• Disciplinary: the Court of Cassation ensures that the lower court judges correctly followed all procedural requirements relating to their decisions (e.g. it checks for failure to comply with the adversarial principle, insufficient grounds to a decision or misrepresentation of a written document).
This verification by the Court of Cassation is an essential part of the French legal system, because it ensures the law is applied equally across the whole of the country.
The Court of Cassation has five civil divisions, each with its own particular jurisdiction.
The First Civil Division hears appeals relating to civil status, family law, inheritance, donations, wills, divisions of property and liquidation, civil contracts and obligations, contractual liability, nationality, private international law, consumer rights, associations, arbitration, separation of powers, and literary and artistic property.
Cassation for civil law matters
The Court of Cassation has five civil divisions, each with its own particular jurisdiction.
The First Civil Division hears appeals relating to civil status, family law, inheritance, donations, wills, divisions of property and liquidation, civil contracts and obligations, contractual liability, nationality, private international law, consumer rights, associations, arbitration, separation of powers, and literary and artistic property.
The Second Civil Division deals with appeals relating to terrestrial insurance, compensation for victims of crime and persons infected with HIV, civil procedure, criminal liability, social security, personal debt, and civil enforcement procedures.
The Third Civil Division hears appeals relating to buildings insurance, residential leases, commercial leases, rural leases, expropriation, property sales and ownership, joint ownership, property subdivisions, town planning, contractor agreements and works agreements, architectural liability, property development and entrepreneurs, property mortgages and liens, and land registration.
The Commercial, Financial and Economic Division deals with appeals relating to bills of exchange, banking, equity trading, competition, tax law, maritime law and maritime insurance, insolvency proceedings, goodwill, commercial obligations and commercial contracts, distribution contracts, commercial bonds, industrial property, commercial companies and civil procedure for home search warrants.
The Social Chamber deals with all matters of labour law, such as the right to employment and training, the rights and obligations of parties to an employment contract, employee representation elections, dismissals and redundancies, collective employment relations and employee representation.
In civil matters, taken in the broadest sense (civil, commercial, employment litigation etc.), and except in special cases (where special deadlines or different formalities may apply), the procedure for bringing an appeal before the Court of Cassation is as follows.
The appeal must be lodged within two months from when the lower court ruling is notified. The appeal must be formulated by a specialist Council Lawyer, and filed with the Court Registry.
The appellant then has a further four months from when the appeal is filed within which to submit further pleadings (a mémoire en demande, or statement of case) setting out the grounds of the appeal.
This statement is served upon the respondent, who then has two months in which to submit the case for the defence (mémoire en défense) and, if applicable, lodge its own cross-appeal against the disputed ruling. If the disputed ruling has not yet been executed by the appellant in the Cassation appeal, this deadline may be restarted by the act of filing an ex parte application for the case to be struck off the case list.
Once the deadline for the defence has passed, a Cassation Judge is appointed to examine the appeal more closely (known as the Reporting Judge, or conseiller rapporteur). This judge submits a report, and the case is then referred to an Advocate-General who may issue an opinion, which may or may not state the reasoning behind the opinion.
Finally, a date is set for the hearing, and the Court delivers its decision approximately one month later.
In criminal law, the Court of Cassation’s Criminal Division has a similar role to the civil divisions, especially for appeals lodged against criminal court rulings relating to the guilt of the accused or the damages awarded to any civil parties. Like the civil divisions, the Criminal Division ensures the law has been correctly interpreted and applied, and that the grounds given by the lower court judges for their ruling are coherent and sufficient, without any flagrant disregard for the clear and precise meaning of any documents in the case.
A person who has received a criminal sentence may submit an appeal before the Criminal Division without the need for a Council Lawyer. However, only a very small number of appeals brought in this manner, without the help of a Council Lawyer, succeed, mainly because of the specific nature of the cassation process and the ability of these specialist lawyers to provide an objective opinion as to the credibility of the appeal and its chances of success.
In criminal cases, except in special circumstances (where different deadlines or formalities may apply) and if a specialist Council Lawyer has been instructed, the appeal procedure is as follows.
The appeal must be lodged within five days from when the lower court ruling is announced. The appeal must be filed with the registry of the court that delivered the ruling, either by the appellant or his/her barrister. The Council Lawyer is not responsible for filing the appeal.
The Council Lawyer then has one month to inform the criminal registry of the Court of Cassation that he or she will be representing the appellant.
The Criminal Division will issue a deadline for the Council Lawyer to submit further pleadings (Statement of Case), setting out the grounds of the appeal.
Once this statement has been filed, and if there is a respondent, they will be given their own deadline within which to submit a case for the defence.
A Cassation Judge is then appointed to examine the appeal more closely (a Reporting Judge, or conseiller rapporteur). This judge submits a report, and the case is then referred to an Advocate-General who may issue an opinion, which may or may not state the reasoning behind the opinion.
Finally, a date is set for the hearing, and the Court delivers its decision approximately one month later.
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