Introduction

Subject-matter jurisdiction

Territorial jurisdiction

Extensions of jurisdiction

Jurisdiction

Initiation of the proceedings

Instructing counsel

Submissions

Registry

Rules common to all procedures

Ordinary contentious procedure

Non-contentious proceedings

Single-judge procedure

Fixed-date procedure

Written procedure

Ordinary procedure

Interim relief proceedings

Expedited trial on the merits

Oral proceedings

Ex parte proceedings (sur requête)

Referral procedure by decision of the criminal court

Specific procedures

Proceedings before the Judicial Court

Initiation of proceedings

Proceedings

General procedure

Interim orders

Orders on ex parte application

Expedited proceedings on the merits

Powers of the President

Proceedings before the Commercial Court

Proceedings before the Judicial Court and the Commercial Court

2. Proceedings before the Judicial Court and the Commercial Court

The judicial court, the result of a long evolution, succeeds the district courts established by the Law of 16 and 24 August 1790, which became departmental and district courts, and then, following the adoption of Ordinance No 58-1273 of 22 December 1958 on the organization of the judiciary , the full bench tribunal de grande instance (TGI) and the single-judge tribunal d'instance (TI).

The current judicial court results from the merger between the Tribunal de Grande Instance, the ordinary law court for civil matters, and the Tribunal d’Instance, the local court for small claims, whose organization had already been extensively reorganized following the restructuring of the judicial landscape by Decree No 2006-145 of 15 February 2008, modifying the location and jurisdiction of the TIs, local courts, and TGIs.

Intended for a more efficient judicial system, the consolidation of civil courts of first instance was achieved by pooling resources within a single court, thus aiming for better cost management and simplified access to justice for litigants. In practice, the merger was implemented by Law No 2019-222 of 23 March 2019 on the 2018-2022 programming and reform for justice, Decrees No 2019-912 , 2019-913 , and 2019-914  of 30 August 2019, and Ordinance No 2019-964 of 18 September 2019 , all enacted pursuant to this law, and then finalized by Decrees No 2019-965  and 2019-966  of 18 September 2019. The adoption of Decree No 2019-1333 of 11 December 2019  completed the reform by rewriting, in a dedicated Title I for the Judicial Court, the provisions that previously appeared in the former Titles I and II of Book II of the Code of Civil Procedure, which were devoted to the TGI and the TI.

Henceforth, there is at least one judicial court resulting from the merger of the TGI and the TI located in the same locality, within the jurisdiction of each Court of Appeal, that is, in principle, at the departmental level. Outside its seat, the Judicial Court may include local courts (tribunal de proximité) whose seat, jurisdiction, and subject-matter jurisdiction are set by Decree No 2019-914 of 30 August 2019  (Art. L. 212-8 COJ). In other words, a tribunal d'instance located in a different locality from the tribunal de grande instance  becomes a detached chamber of the judicial court, endowed with the same powers as those of the tribunal d'instance, except in matters of professional elections and disputes concerning seafarers' employment contracts, which now fall under the exclusive jurisdiction of the judicial court.  In general, the judicial court assumes all the powers of the tribunal d'instance and tribunal de grande instance, regardless of the amount in dispute (Art. L. 211-3, COJ).  When there are several in the same  administrative département or when the matter requires it, the judicial courts may be specialized (Art. L. 211-9-3 to L. 211-21, COJ). Finally, within the judicial court, one or more judges for protection disputes (protection of vulnerable individuals) have been established, performing the functions of guardianship judges for adults (Art. L. 213-4-1 et seq., COJ).

Decree No 2019-912 of 30 August 2019 amending the Code of Judicial Organization and adopted pursuant to Articles 95 and 103 of Law 2019-222 of 23 March 2019 on the 2018-2022 programming, OJ of 1 September 2019.

D. 2019-913 of 30 August 2019 amending the Code of Judicial Organization and adopted pursuant to Articles 95 and 103 of Law No 2019-222 of 23 March 2019 on the 2018-2022 programming, OJ of 1 September 2019.

Decree No  2019-914 of 30 August 2019 amending the Code of Judicial Organization and adopted pursuant to Articles 95 and 103 of Law No 2019-222 of 23 March 2019 on the 2018-2022 programming law, OJ of 1 September 2019.

Ordinance No 2019-964 of 18 September 2019 issued pursuant to Law No 2019-222 of 23 March 2019 on the 2018-2022 programming and reform for justice, OJ of 19 September 2019.

Decree No 2019-965 of 18 September 2019 on the substitution of the Judicial Court for the Tribunal de Grande Instance and the Tribunal d'Instance in regulatory texts pursuant to Article 95 of Law No 2019-222 of 23 March 2019 on the 2018-2022 programming and reform for justice, OJ of 19 September 2019.

D. 2019-966 of 18 September 2019 on the substitution of the Judicial Court for the Regional Court and the District Court pursuant to Article 95 of Law 2019-222 of 23 March 2019 on the 2018-2022 programming and reform for justice and various provisions relating to judicial organization and amending the annex of Decree 2019-913 of 30 August 2019 issued pursuant to Article 95 of Law 2019-222 of 23 March 2019 on the programming (2018-2022) and reform for justice, OJ of 19 September 2019.

Decree No 2019-1333 of 11 December 2019 reforming civil procedure, JO of 12 December 2019.

Decree No 2019-914 of 30 August 2019 amending the Code of Judicial Organization and making various adaptations for the application of Article 95 of Law 2019-222 of 23 March 2019 on the 2018-2022 programming and reform for justice, OJ of 1 September 2019.

Creation and organization of the judicial court

The oldest jurisdiction in the French judicial system, the commercial courts originate from the jurisdiction of the consuls of Italian cities in the Middle Ages, from which they derive the name consular courts. They are also linked to the fair jurisdictions of the 14th century. During the Revolution, the law of 16-24 August 1790 maintained them and extended their jurisdiction to maritime matters. The Commercial Code in 1807 reproduced, without major innovations, the provisions of the 1673 ordinance (Title XII) which already regulated the jurisdiction and procedure before the consular courts.

Arising from commercial practice, consular justice aims to be swift, informal, and cost-effective in terms of procedural expenses. Composed of judges elected by their fellow merchants, who render justice voluntarily, the Commercial Court has found few imitators abroad and has regularly faced criticism in France, with some pointing to the shortcomings of these non-professional judges and the election mechanism, which is sometimes overly politically influenced.

However, since a bill for the reform of commercial justice, which was supposed to be adopted at the beginning of 2002 but never materialized, consular courts have only undergone occasional modifications, such as the reform of the map of Commercial Courts  or the electoral system of consular judges . Since 2004, the training of consular judges has been provided by the National School for the Judiciary . In the same year, doubts about the impartiality of Commercial Courts and the discovery of certain irregularities led the public authorities to establish a National Council of Commercial Courts (Art. R. 721-7 et seq., Commercial Code). Under the authority of the Minister of Justice, who chairs it, the National Council of Commercial Courts aims to ensure better quality of consular justice and to conduct in-depth reflection on ethical issues. Law No 2015-990 of 6 August 2015, known as the Macron Law , reserved particularly technical commercial disputes to a limited list of specialized courts. Article L. 420-7 of the Commercial Code thus assigns the handling of disputes related to anti-competitive practices to designated Commercial Courts, as per Article R. 420-3 to Annex 4-2 of Book IV of the Commercial Code. Law No 2016-1547 of 18 November 2016 on the modernization of justice  strengthened the ethical obligations and training of consular judges. Finally, Law No 2019-486 of 22 May 2019, known as the Pacte Law , notably modified the composition of the electoral college electing consular judges to limit certain corporatism.

Court of first instance with special jurisdiction, the Commercial Court is composed of elected judges and a court clerk, whose jurisdiction is determined by the Commercial Code (Art. L. 721-1, Commercial Code). In districts where no Commercial Court is established, the Judicial Court hears matters assigned to the Commercial Courts (Art. L. 721-2, Commercial Code). The Judicial Court also rules on commercial matters when a Commercial Court cannot rule or be constituted (Art. L. 722-4, Commercial Code).

D. 2005-624 of 27 May 2005 on the abolition of commercial courts; D. 2008-146 of 15 February 2008 amending the seat and jurisdiction of commercial courts.

D. 2004-799 of 29 July 2004 relating to the election of consular delegates; D. 2005-808 of 18 July 2005 relating to the election of judges of the Commercial Courts.

D. 2004-1002 of 22 September 2004 amending Decree 72-355 of 4 May 1972 relating to the National School for the Judiciary.

Specificities of the Commercial Court

The Judicial Court and the Commercial Court are the two main courts of first instance. Even though the Judicial Court is the court of ordinary law and the Commercial Court is the court of exception, the general nature of the latter's jurisdictional attributions leads these two first-degree courts to practically share the contentious matters in commercial cases .

In its report submitted on 8 July 2022, the Committee of the États Généraux de la Justice considered that among the sectoral reforms to be pursued, priority should be given to the first instance and civil courts. Lamenting that the first instance is often perceived as a “trial run” and, in this context, that the judgments of the Judicial Courts are increasingly contested, procedures prolonged, and Courts of Appeal saturated, the committee believes “that the first instance must be the place where justice is primarily rendered” and “that the appeal should cease to be the instance where the entire dispute is retried and should ultimately become a means of reforming the first instance decision.” The committee therefore suggests “that the bulk of future efforts be directed towards the first instance, where the allocation of resources and working methods must be thoroughly rethought,” that there be a “return to collegiality, a guarantee of quality justice,” and that “the establishment of a team of collaborators around the judge, by chamber or by service” should also be systematized “to limit the solitary nature of judicial activity and contribute to better quality decisions.” Finally, noting that career progression is currently designed in a too linear fashion and that the mobility of experienced judges to the first instance is necessary, the committee proposed “to break the existing link in the status of judges between grade and position, so that the first instance can, other than in a very limited way, accommodate experienced judges.”

Regarding commercial justice, the Law of 20 November 2023 on the orientation and programming of the Ministry of Justice 2023-2027  provides for the creation, on an experimental basis, for four years, in nine to twelve Commercial Courts, of “economic activity courts” (EAC), which will have extended jurisdiction to handle all amicable and collective proceedings initiated by economic actors, except for regulated legal professions.

Report of the Committee of the États Généraux de la Justice (general assembly on justice)(October 2021-April 2022) - Delivering Justice to Citizens, p. 22.

2. Proceedings before the Judicial Court and the Commercial Court

1. Creation and organization of the judicial court

2. Specificities of the Commercial Court

3. Towards a reform of first instance