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THE GREEN BAG
CELERITY IN COMMERCIAL CASES IN FRANCE BY B. H. CONNER Of the New York City Bar
THE chief commercial court of France is the Tribunal de Commerce. Its or ganization is controlled by the Conseil d'Etat (Council of State), the highest administra tive court of France, having a jurisdiction similar to that of a fiscal court or Court of Claims in the United States. This court regulates by its decree (Rdglement d'Ad ministration publique), not only the num ber of Tribunaux de Commerce which shall be established in the country, and the num ber of judges and deputies of which each shall be constituted, but also selects the towns in which such courts shall be located. In designating the latter the Conseil d'Etat is guided by the relative commercial impor tance of the respective towns; so that the promptness and facility with which com mercial cases are disposed of in the business centers of France may be said to depend directly upon the despatch with which the Tribunaux de Commerce deal with the cases coming within their jurisdiction. That jurisdiction is very broad. It em braces the functions of a court of admiralty and a court of bankruptcy. It has juris diction of disputes growing out of ordinary commercial transactions; and, in addition, it has appellate jurisdiction of causes in which the amount in litigation does not ex ceed 200 francs, tried at first instance be fore the Conseil de Prud'hommes (Council of prudent men). The latter is a local board appointed by authority of the government upon the recommendation of municipal councils or boards of trade. Every such Conseil consists of not less than five mem bers, selected for their knowledge of a par ticular trade. These boards have jurisdiction of disputes between employers and em ployes in the trade for which they were chosen, the employers being represented by the Prud'hommes patrons and the employed
! by the Prud'hommes ouvriers. They act as j conciliatory committees in labor disputes and seek to bring to the knowledge of the authorities flagrant violations of the labor and factory regulations. The Tribunaux de Commerce are each com posed of not less than two nor more than fourteen judges, in addition to a president.1 They are under the supervision of the Min ister of Justice. Perhaps the most striking feature of the Tribunaux de Commerce is that they are composed, not of lawyers, but of laymen, chosen from the commercial men of the community. The members are named at a meeting of electors, " chosen from mer chants esteemed for their honesty, sense of order and economy," who elect the judges from the ranks of experienced financiers, directors of manufacturing and trading companies, masters of ships, etc. The num ber of electors must be not less than 50 nor more than 1000. No salary is received by these judges.* The commercial transactions coming within their jurisdiction are termed "Actes de Commerce." Mr. H. C. Coxe, in his work entitled "Manual of French Law and Commercial Information" (p. 232) has given the following excellent translation of the two important sections of the Code de Com merce denning this term.8 "Every purchase of produce or merchan dise, raw or manufactured, for resale or even simply to hire out; every manufactur ing enterprise on commission for transport by land or water; all enterprises for supply ing goods' agencies, business offices, estab lishments for sales by auction and establish ments for public amusement; all operations 1 Code de Commerce, Arts. 615-618. 1 As to their election, see Code de Commerce, Arts. 618, 619.
- Code de Commerce, Arts. 632, 633.
