The Journal Officiel is the daily official publication of the laws and decrees of the French Republic. It is available in French from two different websites. The full text of the current issue is free on the Journal Officiel website, in HTML; this site also gives a history of the Journal, and some guidance on finding back issues.
Guide to researching French law, by Stéphane Cottin, special envoy of the Secretary General of the French government, and Jérome Rabenou, webmaster for the Constitutional Council. Published on New York University's Globalex website and updated periodically, it refers to both French and English language sources of law on the internet. The authors explain the French legal system, including types of legislation and the court system.
The Ecole Nationale de la Magistrature (ENM) is the official training and examining body for judges and prosecutors in France. It comes under the aegis of the French Ministry of Justice. The site publishes the texts of legislation pertaining to the setting up and administration of the Ecole. The list of initial and in-service training programmes is published, with details of the preparation and training cycles for candidates wishing to take one of the Ecole's "concours" (competitions). Bibliographies on some aspects of the judicial system are available.
Section of WorldLII's Countries service covering France. A full range of browse and search features are available on the site. Browse sections highlight links relating to: Courts, Legislation, Parliament and Treaties and International Agreements. Additional subject areas include: Elections, Infrastructure, Intellectual Property and Privacy. A collection of stored searches will automatically search for materials relating to France on all of the WorldLII catalog or databases.
BIJUS is a joint project between the Universities of Saarland in Germany and Nancy in France to promote communication between French and German lawyers. The first part is a bibliography to enable German lawyers to search for books on French law by using terms in German. The reverse is available in French. The second part provides a small selection of full-text key legislation in both French and German. All information is freely available and does not require registration or payment.
Website of the French Conseil Constitutionnel, a permanent French court created by the Constitution of the 5th Republic on 4th October 1958. The Court has powers to decide on the lawfulness of presidential elections and the conduct of referendums, and can give its opinions when consulted by the French head of state. The site offers details of the Conseil's current business and recent decisions (Actualit?s), and gives a direct link to the Constitution of 1958.
Free database of foreign legislation and cases translated into English, provided by the Institute for Transnational Law at the University of Texas at Austin. Foreign Law Translations makes available translated French, German, Austrian and Israeli cases and French and German legislation in the areas of constitutional, administrative, contract and tort law; most of the content is from France and Germany. The site also has a glossary of French legal terms and a list of German legal abbreviations
Guide to online French legal resources, by Emmanuel Barthe, a law librarian researcher at French law firm BMH Avocats. Published in 2005 on New York University's Globalex website, the guide focuses on free French legal resources for business lawyers. It includes French official sites providing gazettes, bulletins, cases and other official material. There is also information on legal journals and materials provided by law firms.
