Paper's abstract

Loïc Cadiet, The Hypothesis of an Americanization of French Justice. Myth and Reality
The theme of the Americanization of justice is a current success. But what of it really, beyond the cliché obligingly conveyed by the media ? This paper argues that the Americanization of justice is a matter of myth as well as reality. Of myth because there is little to be afraid of on the realm of facts, of the so-called Americanisation of practices related to justice : in the order of social practices, French society is not becoming, like American society, a litigious society, in the realm of judicial practices, French justice is far from playing the part and the powers of American society, which is the very expression of a government by judges. However, of reality, due to the development, on the plane of ideas, of the Americanization of discourses concerning justice: be it to praise the virtues of an economical analysis of justice or to call for a new political philosophy of justice, making the judge the epicentre of democracy. These talks attest an ideological mimicry liable to pervert the traditional groundwork of French justice more effectively than the so-called outbreak of litigation.

Key Words : justice, litigious
t. 45, 2001 : p. 89-115

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