Paper's abstract

Julie Allard, The Judge in France, a Changing Status?
Today, French society is living an inflation of law. The increasing importance of judges in society creates a political crisis and thus since the Revolution, the French model appears anti-judicial. This crisis questions the status of the judge in a democracy and the changes this status is undergoing, partly due to globalisation.
The article first questions the modern conception of the judge as the "mouth of the law", which makes it difficult to build a positive status for the judge. Indeed, this conception ends in a "non-status" for the judge in France, because this figure is represented, according to Montesquieu, as an " invisible power ". Then, the author takes into account the increasing power of the judges that shakes our classical representations and requires the construction of a positive status for the judge in French society. Finally, the article looks at the inconsistencies of the Judge’s status and concludes that these contradictions should not be neglected. The author also evokes the conditions for a positive status of the judge taking into account the difficulties of judgment and the need for new criteria when argumenting and justifying judgments.



Key Words : Judge – judicial power – increasing importance of judges – globalization – separation of powers - Justice - Common Law – juri
t. 52, 2009 : p. 353-366

---