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Last Resort

Chambers of Dilbadi Gasimov · Strasbourg

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Judicial atlas · October 2026 · Strasbourg

Last resort.

Justice, in section. Which court the case belongs to, who does not have the last word, and where the remedy stops — in France, outside France, and in the United States.

The pyramidWhich courtThe United StatesSearch

A reading text, not advice. Special time limits — immigration, interim relief, crime, insolvency — prevail over the general ones given here. The English version describes French procedure; it is not a second statute book.

  1. 01

    The right order

    Taking an administrative dispute to the ordinary courts, or the reverse, risks a finding that the court lacks jurisdiction. The Tribunal des conflits decides which order hears the case.

  2. 02

    The right level

    An appeal rehears the case on the facts and the law. Cassation and the Conseil d’État, at the top, review the law. That is not a third trial.

  3. 03

    The right court, outside France

    Luxembourg answers the judge during the case. Strasbourg is seized afterwards, once domestic remedies are exhausted, within four months of the final domestic decision. Neither is a French court of appeal.

  4. 04

    The United States

    Federal and state, not ordinary and administrative. Any judge may set aside an unconstitutional statute. The Supreme Court chooses most of the cases it hears.

A courthouse drawn in ink: colonnade and pediment, no people.
A plate, not a map of jurisdiction. The diagrams below do that work.

01 · Architecture

Two orders, one bridge, one Constitution

Read downwards: from review of the law, at the top, to the first-instance judge. Most files start at the bottom. Select a court to open its note.
Two pylons, one burgundy and one grey, joined by a bridge, a lantern hanging above, between the two.
Two orders, one bridge. Ordinary courts on the left, administrative courts on the right. The Tribunal des conflits is the bridge. The Constitutional Council belongs to neither.
Ordinary courts Administrative courts Across both

Ordinary courts

Private and criminal

Summit— States whether the law was correctly applied

Appeal— Re-examines fact and law

First instance— Where the file begins

Administrative courts

Review of the administration

Summit— Cassation, sometimes first judge or appeal judge

Appeal— Where the route is open

First instance— The action against the administration; the CNDA comes directly under the Conseil d'État

Note

Choose a court.

Each note states the court’s office, how it is seized, who sits, what comes next, and the real work of counsel. The Constitutional Council and the Tribunal des conflits belong to neither order: they cross both.

02 · Bearings

Nine distinctions that prevent a wrong turn

These are not decorative maxims. Each one matches a possible inadmissibility, or a choice of strategy.
  1. 01

    Two orders, not a single palace

    The judicial order decides disputes between persons and pronounces on criminal matters. The administrative order reviews the administration. To seise the wrong order leads to a declaration of lack of jurisdiction, and to time lost. The Tribunal des conflits unties the division between them.

  2. 02

    An appeal retries the case. Cassation does not

    The court of appeal and, in its own order, the administrative court of appeal return to the facts. The Court of Cassation and the Council of State, when it sits as a court of cassation, review the rule of law. They do not hear the witnesses again.

  3. 03

    Bringing an appeal no longer stops the civil judgment

    In proceedings begun since 1 January 2020, a first-instance civil judgment is in principle enforceable as of right. The appeal is no longer suspensive. Where the case so requires, one must ask the First President to stay enforcement.

  4. 04

    The authority that prosecutes does not judge

    The prosecution makes its submissions in the name of society. It is organised on hierarchical lines. The bench, which is independent, decides. The victim is not represented by the prosecutor. If joined as a civil party, the victim may be represented by counsel of his or her own, though this is not mandatory.

  5. 05

    The adversarial principle does not take the same form everywhere

    In criminal proceedings, the oral hearing is central. In civil proceedings, the procedure before the judicial court is written where counsel is mandatory, and oral in other cases, such as before the labour court or for claims of up to €10,000. Before the administrative judge, the case is conducted first by written submissions. The hearing there is the moment of the public rapporteur's conclusions, not a second inquiry.

  6. 06

    A doubt in criminal proceedings benefits the person prosecuted

    The presumption of innocence governs the burden of proof. An acquittal is not a favour: the court acquits where the facts are not established, are not attributable to the person prosecuted or do not constitute an offence. The defence does not have to prove innocence.

  7. 07

    Counsel's professional secrecy is a matter of public policy

    It covers confidences and, in principle, communications between counsel. It is not a preference of the client, which the client could lift at will. Counsel owes that secrecy, including under the pressure of a case.

  8. 08

    Two Europes, two calendars

    The European Union, twenty-seven States, has its Court in Luxembourg. An individual reaches it, as a rule, through the national court, which may, and sometimes must, refer a question for a preliminary ruling during the proceedings. The Council of Europe, forty-six States, has its Court in Strasbourg. One seises it afterwards, once domestic remedies are exhausted, within four months of the final domestic decision. They are neither the same judges nor the same moment.

  9. 09

    Two ways of counting the days

    In civil procedure, the day that starts the time limit does not count, and the last day counts until midnight. A clear-day limit, which statute provides for certain acts, such as the appeal in cassation in criminal matters, also sets aside the day of expiry: ten clear days are not ten squares on the calendar. If the person lives abroad and the court sits in metropolitan France, certain civil time limits — the appeal, the appeal in cassation — gain two months. One reads the calendar in the text that provides for it, not in a habit.

03 · Actors

Each has an office. And a prohibition.

Naming each person correctly is not enough: one must not expect of a person what their status forbids. The plates show the office. The diagram says who comes before whom.
An empty armchair by a window, on which lie a black robe and a light robe with bands; on the table, an open register tied with a ribbon, a brass seal, a closed book and a pen.
Two robes do not make two judges. The file between them belongs to neither.

Plates of the offices

Chain of offices

Criminal

Not every file passes through the investigating judge. A simple misdemeanour may go from the prosecutor to the trial court. The chain shows offices, not a mandatory route.

A judge in a black robe, seated behind the bench, hands resting.
The bench. The judge sits above the room and decides. The police inquiry is directed by the prosecutor, and the judge does not carry the case in place of the parties.

A judge, irremovable, and independent

Judge of the bench

Does

The judge states the law upon the dispute of which the court is seised, gives reasons for the decision, and answers only what is asked, subject to those matters in which statute confers a wider office, such as family law or criminal law.

Does not

In civil matters, the judge does not build the parties' file. The proceedings are, in essence, party-driven. The judge does not direct the investigators, except for the investigating judge, who delegates acts to them by letters rogatory. The judge does not negotiate the sentence with the defendant. That, where it arises, is the office of the prosecution, afterwards subject to the judge's review.

04 · Courtroom

The room, according to the case

The seats change from one courthouse to another. The diagram keeps the most readable order, seen from the room. Select a seat. Change the hearing: some roles appear, others disappear.
An empty courtroom: the bench and its three chairs, the clerk’s desk below, two tables on either side behind railings, and the public benches.
An empty room, not to scale. The seats below change according to whether the hearing is civil, criminal or administrative.

Criminal hearing

An outline of a correctional court. At the assizes, jurors sit with the professional judges. At the police court, and for many misdemeanours, a single judge sits.

The bench, facing the room

The bench

President

The president questions the defendant, conducts the taking of evidence, and gives the floor in an order which leaves the defence to speak last. The president is not the adversary of the person prosecuted.

05 · Paths

Three roads, from the first act to the remedy

Civil, criminal and administrative proceedings are not three costumes for the same trial. Writing, speech, time and the burden of proof do not sit in the same place.
An open file, seen from above, closed with a ribbon and a wax seal, with stained sheets and a paper knife. The sheets carry no readable text.
The path is first a bundle of papers. The judge may base the decision only on what was put before the court in argument.

Civil

The outline concerns proceedings before the judicial court. Family, employment and commercial cases follow its spirit, with their own formations and, at times, a mandatory attempt at conciliation.

  1. A formal notice, negotiation, mediation, conciliation. Certain matters require a prior attempt. A written agreement, made enforceable, may be worth more than a judgment that is hard to recover. Counsel is already of use here: to characterise the claim, to watch the limitation period (a mere formal notice does not, in principle, interrupt it), and not to admit what must not be admitted.

06 · Sketch

Draw the path of a file

Tick what the file already contains. The diagram redraws itself. This is not a strategy. It is the map on which a strategy can be set.

Civil file

  1. Step 1

    Before the judge

    Formal notice, negotiation, exhibits. For some claims — up to 5,000 euros, or neighbour nuisance, among others — an attempt at conciliation, mediation or participatory procedure is mandatory.

  2. Step 2

    Seising the court, then case management

    Service by a commissaire de justice. Exchange of pleadings and exhibits: in proceedings begun since 1 September 2025, by agreement between the parties as a rule; failing that, under the supervision of the case-management judge.

  3. Step 3

    Judgment

    In proceedings begun since 1 January 2020, provisionally enforceable as of right, save exceptions. An appeal does not stay enforcement; the first president of the court of appeal may stop it in limited cases.

  4. Step 4

    Appeal, then cassation

    One month for a contentious appeal. Two months for the appeal in cassation, which does not retry the facts.

The civil file turns on seising the court, the exhibits, then enforcement, which may begin before the appeal judgment since the first-instance judgment is in principle provisionally enforceable.

07 · Europe and beyond

Four courts. None is a French appeal.

Strasbourg, Luxembourg and The Hague do not sit on the same pyramid. The moment they are seized, the person who may do it, and the effect of the decision have nothing in common.
Map of western Europe, without country names; its three markers, without a legend, do not mark the seats of the courts.
An atlas plate, without a printed legend. The seats are read beside it: geography does not replace jurisdiction.

  • Strasbourg

    European Court of Human Rights. After domestic remedies.

  • Luxembourg

    Court of Justice of the Union. During the case, through the judge.

  • The Hague

    International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court. Two houses, two offices.

  • Lyon

    INTERPOL’s General Secretariat. The Commission for the Control of INTERPOL’s Files, an independent body, is not a court.

  • Paris

    Court of Cassation, Conseil d’État, Constitutional Council.

Strasbourg

European Court of Human Rights

Who seizes
A person, after the domestic remedies
When
Four months from the final national decision
Effect
It finds a violation. It does not annul the French judgment. Just satisfaction is possible. Enforcement is supervised by the Committee of Ministers.

Luxembourg

Court of Justice of the European Union

Who seizes
The national court; an individual acts directly only against the Union itself, before the General Court
When
During the proceedings, by a preliminary reference
Effect
It interprets Union law, or rules on the validity of a Union act. The same French court then applies that answer. It is not an appeal.

The Hague

International Court of Justice

Who seizes
States only
When
Where they have accepted its jurisdiction
Effect
The judgment binds the States parties to the dispute. A private person has no application before it.

The Hague

International Criminal Court

Who seizes
The Prosecutor, a State Party, or the Security Council
When
For genocide, a crime against humanity, a war crime or the crime of aggression
Effect
It tries persons, as a complement to national systems of justice. It intervenes only if the State with jurisdiction is unwilling or unable genuinely to carry out the investigation or prosecution.
An imaginary brick and stone palace, with a tower, a garden and a canal. No one in the avenue. It is neither the Peace Palace nor the building of the International Criminal Court.
An imaginary building. In The Hague, two courts sit without being the same: the International Court of Justice, between states, and the International Criminal Court, against persons.

France is in the Union, twenty-seven states, and in the Council of Europe, a distinct organisation, whose Convention binds forty-six states. The European Court of Human Rights sits in the Human Rights Building in Strasbourg, the city of these chambers. The Hague is the other address: a French appeal in cassation is not taken there.

During the proceedings

Union law

  1. 1

    The French dispute depends on a regulation, a directive or a treaty.

  2. 2

    The court may, and a court against whose decisions there is no judicial remedy under national law must, make a preliminary reference — unless the question is irrelevant, the Court has already answered it, or the correct application of Union law is so obvious as to leave no scope for any reasonable doubt.

  3. 3

    The national proceedings are stayed. Since October 2024, certain questions, in matters listed exhaustively, are decided by the General Court of the European Union rather than by the Court itself.

  4. 4

    The judgment binds the court which referred, and, more broadly, the courts of the Member States as to the interpretation given.

After the domestic remedies

The European Convention

  1. 1

    The French decision is final. The useful remedies have been exercised, or there was no effective remedy.

  2. 2

    The individual application is lodged within four months. That time limit, shortened by Protocol No. 15, is not open to debate.

  3. 3

    The Court filters admissibility: exhaustion of remedies, the time limit, a significant disadvantage suffered by the applicant, and an application that is not manifestly ill-founded. The great majority of applications end there.

  4. 4

    If it finds a violation, it may award just satisfaction. It does not quash the judgment. In criminal matters, and in civil matters concerning personal status, a re-examination of the national decision is sometimes possible afterwards, to be sought within the year following the Court's judgment.

Another legal universe

Between States, international crimes, and arbitration

  1. 1

    The International Court of Justice determines disputes between States. It does not receive an application from a private person disappointed by French proceedings.

  2. 2

    The International Criminal Court, at The Hague, tries individuals for the most serious crimes, where States have been unwilling or unable genuinely to do so. France is a party to the Rome Statute.

  3. 3

    An arbitral award is not a judgment of a State court. To have it enforced in France, exequatur must be obtained from a State court. For an award made in another State party, the New York Convention of 10 June 1958 also applies: in 1989 France withdrew the reservation that limited its application to commercial disputes.

08 · Institutions

Beyond the courthouse, the full map

Administrative justice, appeal and cassation, the Conseil d’État, the Constitutional Council, the National Assembly and the Senate, the courts of The Hague, United Nations organs, the Inter-American and African courts, special tribunals. Each has an office. Most are not seized like a French court.
An empty hemicycle, seen from above: benches in a half circle around a tribune.
The hemicycle votes statute. It is empty of judges. Apart from the High Court, which may remove the President from office, no individual case is called there.

Statute

The National Assembly and the Senate vote it. The Government regulates. None of the three judges a file.

The French case

Two orders. Appeal rehears. Cassation and the Conseil d’État review the law. The Constitutional Council judges the statute.

Outside France

Strasbourg, Luxembourg, The Hague, Geneva, San José, Arusha. Another map. Almost never an appeal.

Administrative justice

It reviews the administration. It tries neither a divorce nor a criminal offence. The time limit is often two months, sometimes a few days, and it is written on the decision.

Section of the administrative order

Beside, not on the same stair: the Court of Auditors and the regional audit chambers. The National Court of Asylum does not sit under the administrative court of appeal: its decisions go directly to the Conseil d’État in cassation. The Tribunal des conflits, higher on this page, says whether the dispute is administrative or ordinary.

Plates of this family

In each district

Tribunal administratif

Office
Administrative Tribunal. The ordinary court for decisions of the State, of local authorities and of public establishments. In an action for excess of power, it annuls or it dismisses. In full-jurisdiction proceedings, it may also award compensation.
How one gets there
A written application, in principle within two months. A prior administrative appeal is sometimes mandatory before the case reaches the court. In the law of foreign nationals, the time limit is often counted in days.
What it is not
It is not the court for a contract between two private persons, nor the court of an asylum claim against OFPRA.
Fuller note in the pyramid of courts

09 · United States

Two networks. Neither is a French order.

The federal courts and the fifty states each have their own tribunals. This is not the distinction between ordinary and administrative courts, and it is not the Inter-American Court in San José. Precedent binds. The jury finds the facts. The Supreme Court chooses most of the cases it hears.
Two courthouses facing each other: a columned temple, and a smaller brick building topped by a lantern.
Two networks, not two orders. The large building is the federal ladder. The smaller one is a state’s. Neither is an administrative tribunal.

01

Constitutional review is diffuse

Since Marbury v. Madison (1803), every American judge may set aside a statute that conflicts with the Constitution. In France, the ordinary judge does not: the judge transmits the priority question of constitutionality to the Conseil d'État or to the Cour de cassation, which decides whether or not to refer it to the Constitutional Council. The same judge may, however, set aside a statute that conflicts with a treaty.

02

There are not two orders

The federal courts and the states are two networks of courts, not a judicial order and an administrative order. A federal agency may decide first. Review then comes before an ordinary court. There is no Conseil d'État.

03

The jury is not reserved for serious crime

In a serious criminal case, the jury is a right, and the verdict must be unanimous. In a federal civil case, a jury is often available. The great majority of criminal cases nevertheless never reach a jury: they end in a guilty plea.

04

The Supreme Court chooses

Appeal to the court of appeals is, in principle, a matter of right. Review in the Supreme Court is not. Four votes out of nine are enough to grant a case. A few dozen are heard each year, out of several thousand petitions.

Federal network

SummitChooses most of its cases, or states the law of the state

AppealReviews the law. Does not rehear the witnesses

First instanceWhere the evidence is made

Off the ladder

Washington

Supreme Court of the United States

It chooses nearly all of its cases

Office
Nine justices. The number comes from statute, not from the Constitution. It is the apex of the federal courts and, on federal law and the Constitution, the apex that binds the state courts as well. Its original jurisdiction is narrow: chiefly disputes between States.
How one enters
By a petition for certiorari. Granting it takes four votes. A denial does not mean that the decision below is approved: it means that the Court will not decide the case. A few appeals of right exist. They are rare.
Who sits
Appointed by the President, confirmed by the Senate, and holding office during good behavior. They may be removed only by impeachment. They are not judges chosen by competitive examination.
What follows
Its judgment binds every court in the country on the point of federal law it has decided. It may overrule its own precedent. It does not rehear the witnesses.
The trap, seen from France
This is not a court of cassation to which review would lie as of right. Losing on appeal does not open an automatic third examination.

The same question, two answers

Seven points on which a French reflex puts the file in the wrong house.

Constitution

France

The Constitutional Council, upon referral. The judge on the merits transmits the question to the Conseil d'État or to the Cour de cassation, which filter it.

United States

Any judge may set aside the statute. The Supreme Court unifies the law.

Administration

France

A separate order. The administrative court, the administrative court of appeal, then the Conseil d'État.

United States

The same judge, after the agency. Since Loper Bright (2024), the court no longer defers to the agency's interpretation of a statute simply because the statute is ambiguous.

Criminal

France

A hierarchical prosecution service. An investigating judge for the most serious crimes. A jury only in the assize court.

United States

A prosecutor, often elected in the State. No investigating judge. A federal grand jury. A jury at trial.

Civil evidence

France

Documents produced by the parties, under the direction of the judge. No general examination of the adversary.

United States

Very broad discovery: documents, depositions, and written interrogatories, even before trial.

Appeal

France

The court of appeal reexamines the facts. The Court of Cassation does not.

United States

The appeal, in principle, does not rehear the witnesses. It reviews the law; it revisits the facts only to a very limited extent.

Judges

France

Competitive examination, a career, and independence of the bench.

United States

In the federal courts, Article III judges are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, for life; other federal judges serve fixed terms. Election is common in the States.

Precedent

France

The Court of Cassation unifies the law. A court of appeal may still resist.

United States

The precedent of the higher court binds the court below.

Two federal paths

Federal civil

A sketch of the ordinary course before a federal court. The procedure of a State, and bankruptcy, do not open the same doors.

  1. 1
    The complaint

    The plaintiff files a complaint. It briefly sets out the court's jurisdiction, the facts on which the claim rests and the relief sought. It need not already contain the whole of the proof.

  2. 2
    The answer

    The defendant answers, or raises lack of jurisdiction, insufficient service, or the complaint's failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. The trial does not begin at the hearing.

  3. 3
    Discovery

    Each side may demand from the other, save protected privilege, the material relevant and proportional to the needs of the case, and take the depositions of witnesses, with counsel present, outside the presence of the judge. The judge may limit it where it is excessive or disproportionate.

  4. 4
    Judgment without a trial, or a jury

    If no material fact is genuinely disputed, the judge may decide on the papers. Otherwise, the case goes to trial. The jury, where the right to one exists and it has been demanded, finds the facts; failing that, the judge decides them alone. The judge states the law and renders judgment.

  5. 5
    The circuit, then perhaps Washington

    Appeal is a matter of right. Review in the Supreme Court is not. Between the two, the decision of the circuit is already the law for that circuit.

Crossing the Atlantic

What is at stake when a paper, a piece of evidence or a judgment must pass from one system to the other.

Effecting service in the United States, or from the United States

France and the United States are parties to the Hague Convention of 15 November 1965. France has not objected to any of the channels in Article 10. An American document intended for a person located in France may go through the French Central Authority. It may also, if the applicable American law allows, be sent by post or handed directly to a commissaire de justice. France objects only, under Article 8, to direct service by foreign diplomatic or consular agents, except on a national of their own State. Service the other way is prepared under the same instrument, and under the law of the American state concerned.

Twelve empty chairs, in two rows, behind a low rail.
Twelve chairs. In a serious criminal case they must agree. In a civil case they are not always there. In France the jury exists only at the assizes.

Who is in the room

The federal judge is appointed. A state’s prosecutor is often elected. The jury is neither: it is drawn by lot, and it leaves.

  • Article III judge

    Appointed for life to the federal bench. The judge states the law. The judge does not conduct the investigation.

  • Jury

    Citizens drawn by lot. In a serious criminal case, unanimity. In a civil case, the facts, when a jury has been demanded.

  • United States Attorney

    The federal prosecutor, appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. The United States Attorney conducts the federal prosecution in the district.

  • District attorney

    A state or county prosecutor. Often elected. The district attorney does not take orders from the Department of Justice.

  • Defense counsel

    Retained, or appointed. In a criminal case, the right to counsel is constitutional. In a civil case, there is, as a rule, no right to appointed counsel: many parties appear unrepresented.

  • Grand jury

    It decides whether there are grounds to charge, in the federal system. It does not adjudicate guilt.

The Inter-American Court, in San José, is the autonomous judicial institution of the inter-American system, created by the American Convention on Human Rights. It is on the map of institutions. Only the States Parties and the Inter-American Commission may submit a contentious case to it; neither France nor the United States is a party to the American Convention.

10 · Compare

Two courts, side by side

A useful reflex before filing: set the order, the route and what comes next against each other. The Court of Cassation and the Conseil d’État are offered first, because they are confused.

Seat

Cour de cassation (Court of Cassation)
Paris
Conseil d'État (Council of State)
Paris, Palais-Royal

Office

Cour de cassation (Court of Cassation)
It does not retry the case. It reviews whether the court of appeal, or the court that decided at last instance, correctly applied the rule of law. To quash a judgment is not to uphold a party on the facts. It is, most often, to remit the case to trial judges so that they may try it again.
Conseil d'État (Council of State)
It is at once the supreme judge of the administration and the adviser of the Government. The two functions are kept separate. As a court, it rules in cassation on judgments of the administrative courts of appeal and on certain decisions given at last instance. It also judges certain acts directly, at first and last instance, such as ordinances of the President of the Republic and decrees, and, on appeal, a few types of dispute, such as municipal and departmental elections or the référé-liberté.

How it is seized

Cour de cassation (Court of Cassation)
By an appeal in cassation, within two months in civil matters from notification, and, in criminal matters, as a rule within the ten clear days following delivery of the decision. That criminal time limit, a short one, is computed with particular strictness.
Conseil d'État (Council of State)
By an appeal in cassation against a judgment of an administrative court of appeal, or against certain decisions given at last instance, within two months. By a direct application against decrees and other regulatory or individual acts which statute reserves to it. An appeal in cassation is not a reopening of the facts.

Bench

Cour de cassation (Court of Cassation)
Six chambers: three civil, one commercial, one social, and one criminal. A mixed chamber may be convened where a question falls within the remit of several chambers or has received, or may receive, divergent solutions; the plenary assembly, where a case raises a question of principle, and compulsorily where, after a first cassation, the decision of the court to which the case was remitted is challenged on the same grounds.
Conseil d'État (Council of State)
Members of the Council of State, of the ranks of conseiller d'État, maître des requêtes (master of requests) and auditeur (auditor), in contentious formations that run from a chamber sitting alone to the Judicial Assembly. Members who have advised on a text do not judge the proceedings brought against it.

What follows

Cour de cassation (Court of Cassation)
In civil matters, an appeal in cassation does not stay enforcement, unless statute provides otherwise, as for the granting of a divorce: enforcement may continue. In criminal matters, it in principle stays enforcement of the judgment, save for civil awards and certain detention measures. If the decision is quashed, the case is remitted to another court of the same kind or to the same court composed of other judges. The Court may also quash without remittal and, in civil matters, rule on the merits itself where the interest of the sound administration of justice so warrants.
Conseil d'État (Council of State)
Its judgment stands by itself. It may annul, remit, and enjoin the administration to take a fresh decision in accordance with the law it has stated. The financial courts, the Cour des comptes (Court of Auditors) and the regional and territorial audit chambers, form a neighbouring group, attached to this order.

Counsel

Cour de cassation (Court of Cassation)
Before the Court, representation by an avocat au Conseil d'État et à la Cour de cassation (counsel admitted to the Council of State and the Court of Cassation) is in principle mandatory in civil matters. The appeal in cassation is argued on grounds of law, not on a fresh narrative of the facts.
Conseil d'État (Council of State)
The appeal in cassation requires grounds of law and, in principle, representation by an avocat au Conseil d'État et à la Cour de cassation. Where the Conseil d'État rules at first and last instance, actions for excess of power are exempt from that representation; so is an appeal against a référé-liberté order. Trial counsel must transmit the file in time. The time limit of two months includes that handover. The handover is not added to it.

11 · Which court

Place a file, without pleading it

Answer from the situation, not from the name of a court. The note that opens names the likely court, the time limit that governs, and what counsel does there. It does not replace reading your decision.

12 · Glossary

The words that change the deadline

The terms which, misunderstood, send a case to the wrong judge or let a remedy expire.
Appeal
A route by which the case is re-examined, in fact and in law, by a higher court. Not to be confused with an appeal in cassation.
Appeal in cassation
A challenge before the Court of Cassation or, in the administrative order, before the Council of State sitting in cassation. One criticises the law as applied, not the narrative of the facts.
Application to set aside
A route open, in the cases provided by statute, to the defaulting party against a decision given by default. It brings the case back before the same judge.
Exequatur
A decision of the French court which renders enforceable in France a foreign judgment or an arbitral award, even one made in France. Within the Union, in civil and commercial matters, the Brussels I bis Regulation has abolished it.
QPC
Priority preliminary ruling on constitutionality (question prioritaire de constitutionnalité). During proceedings, a party argues, in a separate written document setting out reasons, that a statutory provision infringes the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. If the conditions are met, the court transmits the question to the Conseil d'État or to the Cour de cassation, which decides whether or not to refer it to the Constitutional Council. The French abbreviation QPC is retained.
Preliminary reference
A question put by a national court to the Court of Justice of the European Union, during the dispute, on the interpretation or the validity of Union law. The litigant does not himself or herself seise Luxembourg.
Res judicata
The authority of what has been decided, between the same parties, upon the same subject matter and the same cause. One cannot indefinitely begin the same proceedings again.
Formal service
Notification effected by a commissioner of justice. It often causes time limits to run, and it conditions enforcement. A mere email does not take its place where statute requires this form.
Notification
The act of bringing a document officially to a person's knowledge. Not every notification is formal service. The time limit in general runs from the notification which is regular.
Minute and grosse
The minute is the original kept at the registry. The grosse is the enforceable copy, delivered so that the decision may be enforced.
Case management
The civil phase in which the case is prepared before the trial hearing: exchange of written pleadings and of exhibits, incidental questions. In proceedings begun since 1 September 2025, it is in principle conducted by the parties, by agreement between their lawyers; failing that, by the case-management judge, who fixes the timetable of the exchanges.
Summary proceedings
A rapid procedure, open in cases of urgency and, even without urgency, to prevent imminent damage, to stop a manifestly unlawful disturbance or to obtain an interim payment where the obligation is not seriously disputable. The decision is provisional and does not, as to the merits, have the authority of res judicata. The time for appeal is in principle fifteen days in civil matters.
Excess of power
An action by which the administrative court annuls an unlawful decision, or dismisses the claim. It does not lead to compensation. That is the office of full-jurisdiction proceedings.
Full jurisdiction
The power of the administrative court to vary the decision, to award compensation, and sometimes to substitute itself for the administration. Asylum before the National Court of Asylum belongs to this jurisdiction.
CRPC
Appearance on prior admission of guilt (comparution sur reconnaissance préalable de culpabilité). The prosecution proposes a sentence, counsel assists, and a judge homologates the proposal or refuses it. It is not a discontinuance, and it is not open for every misdemeanour.
Civil party
The victim who becomes a party to the criminal proceedings in order to obtain compensation and to assert his or her rights. Without that joinder, the victim is not a party to the proceedings and cannot claim compensation in them, though the victim keeps rights to information and may be heard as a witness.
Exhaustion of remedies
A condition for seising the European Court of Human Rights: the useful and available remedies must have been exercised in France. To seise Strasbourg too early leads to rejection of the application.
Complementarity
The principle of the International Criminal Court. It intervenes only if the State which could try the case is not able to do so, or does not have the genuine will to do so.
Jurisdictional threshold
The threshold up to which a judgment is given at last instance: there is no appeal, only an appeal in cassation. The amount is fixed by decree and changes with reforms.
Hearing in camera
A hearing from which the public is excluded. It is required by law in certain matters, including part of the litigation concerning minors, and it may be ordered where publicity would be dangerous.
Provisional enforcement
The possibility of enforcing a judgment despite a challenge. In civil matters, in proceedings begun since 1 January 2020, it lies as of right for decisions at first instance, save for an exception.
Clear day
A count in which neither the day of the starting point nor the day of expiry is included. Five clear days therefore leave one day more than a civil time limit of five days, whose last day counts until midnight. In civil as in criminal procedure, a time limit is clear only if the text says so: it expires in principle on the last day at midnight. Before the administrative court, by contrast, the time limits for a challenge are in principle clear. The French name is jour franc.
Distance time limit
In civil procedure, before a court sitting in metropolitan France, the time limits for appearance, appeal, an application to set aside, revision and an appeal in cassation are increased by one month if the person lives in an overseas territory, and by two months if the person lives abroad. The Code of Criminal Procedure has its own rules, for example for the time limit for a summons. It is not an extra period for every remedy.
Investigating chamber
A formation of the court of appeal. It reviews the investigation: detention, nullities, appeals against orders of the investigating judge, and it gives an opinion in extradition. It does not try guilt. Its judgments are challenged by an appeal in cassation. They are not appealed to another court of appeal. The French name is chambre de l’instruction.
Avocat aux Conseils
Counsel of a separate bar, admitted before the Conseil d’État and the Court of Cassation. In civil matters that representation is in principle mandatory for an appeal in cassation. The counsel who pleaded the merits cannot stand in where statute requires it.