The jurisprudentially activity of French Council of State (17-sept-07)

By: Edith Podraza

Studying the jurisprudentially activity of French Council of State could easily mean that we will, again, study the Jurisprudence, and establish if it is source of law or not. In reality, the purpose of this work is different. Considering the jurisprudentially activity of French Council of State was inevitable in a context where this Highest Court of the administrative jurisdictional order meets more and more competitors in its mission of making law.

We could study the influence of European Court of Human Rights or the one of the Justice Court of European Community on French Council of State, but our work is mainly dealing with the activity of jurisdictions created in 1987 : the Administrative Courts of Appeal. Indeed, these Courts were created to release French Council of State in its mission of making the jurisprudence. And today, these Courts of appeal know a great activity in setting the jurisprudence, in such a way that we can wonder if, after twenty years of practice, these Courts are not competing with French Council of State in the activity of making law.
By a pragmatic analysis of different stratagems used by French Council of State to continue to have a monopoly of making law, we can see that the Highest Court of the Administrative jurisdictional order is always present and very active on the jurisprudentially scene, as such as the decline of the prescriptive activity of French Council of State is not again topical, even if the Courts of Appeal take up a greatest space in this activity of making law.