FRENCH LEGAL RESOURCES

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A Selection for Translators and Legal Professionals View PDF

> French Law Websites Directories
> Guides to French Legal Databases
> Private Free Portal Sites
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FRENCH LAW WEB SITES DIRECTORIES 
To start out, we suggest that you read the article by Emmanuel Barthe French Law on the Internet: The Basics and Free Resources published on GlobaLex.
https://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/French_Law_Free_Resources.html. 

The following information is largely built with extracts of his article.

Emmanuel Barthe has a Law Degree and graduated from Ecole de Bibliothécaires Documentalistes (Librarian Researchers' School), and works as a law librarian researcher at BMH Avocats in Paris, France.
He is a Member of the Board of Juriconnexion, an association of users of legal databases. His personal website (in French) can be found at http://www.precisement.org
According to Emmanuel Barthe, the best French law web sites directories are (all these sites in French):

Paris Bar Library's Directory of Legal Websites http://www.avocats.paris/annuaire.
Maintained by Hélène Duchesne, librarian: the perfect selection for the business lawyer/attorney, short, accurate descriptions classified by subject along the very divisions business lawyers use. Only the best, most reliable legal web sites are selected.

Droit en ligne : Maintained by Xavier Haubry, this directory is a good selection with short, accurate comments, but it is mainly written for law students http://www.droitenligne.com/liens.htm; 

Cujas Library's Internet Resources: http://biu-cujas.univ-paris1.fr/. An academic selection, with accurate descriptions, by librarians of the biggest French academic law library. But neither the classification nor the selection are "business law oriented".

Juridiconline's Legal Web Directory by Arnaud Dumourier: more than 2,000 sites listed, often described (very quickly), well classified, but neither commented on nor selected. http://www.juridiconline.com/

GUIDES TO FRENCH LEGAL DATABASES

On the American side, two law librarians independently propose two very valuable guides with regular updates:

For an idea of the structure of the French legal system in English, see Researching French Law by Stéphane Cottin and Jérôme Rabenou, on GlobaLex and LLRX.com (https://llrx.com/). Stéphane Cottin is the chief registrar of the Constitutional Council of France. Jérôme Rabenou is the webmaster of the French Constitutional Council. He is the author of a website with no updates since 2001 but which is still a model for other French legal websites.

The introduction to the French legal system currently most accessible to non-lawyers would be that provided by Wikipedia articles; see this article plus two others, and follow the various links in each: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_legal_systems

GOVERNMENT SITES

Legifrance
In October 2000, the French government made a commitment to create a public service for access to law and to provide all legal databases free on the Internet in 2002. The website created, http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr, contains the database of the Journal officiel and nine codes (out of more than seventy-five). The site has some translatiosns available:
https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/Traductions/en-English/Legifrance-translations, and features
English version of the Civil, Penal, Commercial and other Codes, which, unfortunately, is no longer updated. Sometimes the quality of the translations is questionable.

Service-Public.fr
Portal to French administrationhttp://www.service-public.fr (in French, English, Spanish and German) maintained by La Documentation Française (see below). Its design is focused on answering users' needs and on simplifying user's relations with Government agencies and services: tips on administrative formalities, how to register at the university (most are state run), request a passport, obtain a construction permit, make a succession request, etc., with most forms now online. "A very powerful legal resource for foreigners since it contains a directory of the French central and local administration with names, addresses, telephone and fax numbers, e-mail addresses and web site URLs (Annuaire de l'administration) and - last but not least - Vos droits et démarches (Your Rights), a huge guide (rather a mix between a guide and a FAQ) written for the common people rather than for the professional but which gives a quick first summary of a number of subjects matters, such as tax, labor law or foreigners rights in France. For instance, here are the basics for a non EU citizen who wants to be allowed to work in France" (http://www.justice.gouv.fr/index.php).

La Documentation Française
The "DF" is the Government's publisher. On the Web, the DF maintains a number of resources which can help with understanding French law for a French-speaking foreigner who does not follow French legal news every day. The DF's web sites should be a place to start many types of French law research, mainly thematic research and global understanding of a reform (in French): http://www.ladocumentationfrancaise.fr/.

French Embassy in Washington D.C.
Maintained by the French Embassy in Washington, D.C. https://franceintheus.org/ it is a good starting point for English speakers to find information about the French government, trade and investment. Daily updates about French current events. Large sections on culture, travel and education, profile of France, summaries on government, telecommunications, economy, education, etc.

Business France 
Provides an overview of the basic procedural, fiscal and legal regulations including set up, legal form of subsidiaries, contracts between a parent company and its subsidiary, leasing business premises, taxation (taxable income, rate and calculation of corporate income tax, repatriation of profits, VAT, etc.), employment regulations, immigration formalities, personal tax liabilities of expatriate staff, accounting procedures and industrial and intellectual property rights. https://www.businessfrance.fr/

PRIVATE FREE PORTAL SITES

 AdmiNet/Admifrance 
Good source for administrative law. Contains primary sources such as codes and many links to government, jurisprudence, arbitration, and scholarly publications, in French and in English: http://www.admi.net/world/.

 Affaires publiques
Public law. Includes legal news and administrative law cases and codes (in French): http://www.affaires-publiques.org/

 Droit.org
Private free portal for French law. Rather comprehensive, offers another practical way to access French legislation in English http://www.unidroit.org/. Includes official texts, cases and doctrinal writings, with an international law section.

A World Legal Information Institute Databases for All Countries: http://www.worldlii.org/

Tradulex
Swiss resource. Designed to provide translators with pertinent information gathered from a wide variety of Internet sources. A large list of legal and financial English < > French glossaries and dictionaries; articles about legal and terminology issues; minutes of seminar and colloquium; comments about legal dictionaries. Worth consulting http://www.tradulex.com/en/translators/Tradulex

Juriscom
Law journal specialized cyberspace law (in French); the authors provide articles, case summaries, press releases pertaining to the law and the Internet:
http://www.juriscom.net/index.php

Droit-ressources  juridiques
Very large and very well maintained list of legal useful links: http://www.liensutiles.org/droit.htm

COMMERCIAL SITES (FEE-BASED)

Lamyline
Commercial fee-based online service of the Lamy publisher. Lamy is now part of the Wolters-Kluwer group.Contains the full text of the Journal Officiel since 1955, as well as the codes, statutes, and regulations since 1980, labor conventions (conventions collectives), contains French and European case law, including Constitutional Council decisions (Conseil constitutionnel) since 1958, Conseil d’Etat since 1964, Administrative courts of appeals since 1989, Cour de cassation, except for the criminal chamber, since 1959, Cour de cassation, criminal chamber since 1970, and selected Court of appeals decisions; European Court of Justice decisions since 1954, etc. http://www.lamyline.fr/Content/Search.aspx

Lexbase
Commercial fee-based online service; in French http://www.lexbase.fr/