The Conseil d'État advises the Government on the preparation of bills, ordinances and certain decrees. It also answers the Government's queries on legal affairs and conducts studies upon the request of the Government or through its own initiative regarding administrative or public policy issues.

The Conseil d'État is the highest administrative jurisdiction - it is the final arbiter of cases relating to executive power, local authorities, independent public authorities, public administration agencies or any other agency invested with public authority.

In discharging the dual functions of judging as well as advising the Government, the Conseil d'État ensures that the French administration operates in compliance with the law. It is therefore one of the principal guarantees of the rule of law in the country.

The Conseil d'État is also responsible for the day-to-day management of the administrative tribunals and courts of appeal.

http://english.conseil-etat.fr/

Constitutional Law will have an increasingly important role to play in regulatory Law. This is especially true since the State Council uses its power to filter itself become a sort of Constitutional Court or maybe a Supreme Court.

One can think so reading the UBS decision on the 5th of November 2014.

Indeed, to refuse to transmit to the Conseil constitutionnel (French Constitutional Council)  the priority question of constitutionality formulated by UBS, the French Council of State gives what it believes to be the correct interpretation of the constitutional principle of legality of offenses and penalties in banking regulatory Law.

So to say there is no "question", the Conseil d'État says there is no "problem" because, through the interpretation it gives, the provisions of the Code Monétaire et Financier offers to the Supervisory Authority, the Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR), the power to sanction the bank for having not properly implemented its internal control, comply with the constitutional principle of legality of offenses and penalties, which is applicable in administrative repression.

But because to estimate that there is no "question", it must be said that there is no "problem", it is assumed that the High Administrative Court has acted as Constitutional Court.

We must take note. Is this really what the Constituent wanted by instituting a filter system by the constitutional law of the 23rd July 2008 establishing the priority question on constitutionality? Indeed, in this very sensitive and decisive question of repression in banking and finance, is it not at least to the French Constitutional Council itself to say the authoritative interpretation to remember that the constitutional text it is the guardian?

Référence complète : Entretien avec Jacky Richard, rapporteur général de la secteur du rapport et des études du Conseil d'État, et Laurent Cytermann, rapporteur général adjoint, "Et si le droit souple était l'avenir du droit dur ?", Les Petites Affiches, 5 nov. 2013, p.4-8.

 

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Les étudiants de Sciences Po peuvent lire l'article par le Drive  de Sciences Po (dossier "MAFR - Régulation").

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Translated summaries

ENGLISH

A "Chambre régionale de discipline des commissaires aux comptes" (Auditors’ regional chamber of discipline) had imposed a penalty on one of these professionals, who formed a retrial before this chamber. His action is dismissed for lack of text, that confirms the "Haut Conseil du Commissariat aux Comptes (French High Council of the Commissioner of Account). The "Conseil d’Etat" (French Council of State) invalidates the decision, demanding that retrial is open, even without special text, if the applicant claims that the decision was not adopted on the relevant documents.

 

FRENCH

Une chambre régionale de discipline des commissaires aux comptes avait infligé une sanction à un de ces professionnels, qui forme un recours en révision devant cette chambre. Le recours est rejeté faute de texte, ce que confirme le Haut Conseil du Commissariat aux Compte. Le Conseil d’Etat invalide la décision, en posant qu’un recours en révision est ouvert, même sans texte spécial, si le requérant prétend que la décision n’a pas été adoptée sur des pièces pertinentes.

 

ENGLISH

 After suspending the freeze of gas prices for consumers, the "Conseil d’Etat" (French Council of State) in a judgment of 10 July 2012, cancels the freeze, as it constitutes an error of law, because it shows that the Government has not incorporated or offset procurement costs borne by the public service provider.

 

FRENCH

Après avoir suspendu le gel des tarifs gaiers pour les consommateurs, le Conseil d’Etat, dans un arrêt du 10 juillet 2012, a annulé l’arrêté qui avait imposé ce gel, en ce qu’il constitue un erreur de droit, parce qu’il montre que le Gouvernement n’avait pas incorporé ou offert de compenser les coûts supportés par le fournisseur de service public.

TRANSLATED SUMMARIES

ENGLISH

In France, the Minister of Ecology has issued an Order to facilitate the purchase of electricity generated by wind. The text is being challenged before the "Conseil d’Etat" (State Council) for illegality, in that it constitutes state aid. The State Council considers the matter serious enough to suspend the proceeding and seized the Court of Justice of the European Union of a preliminary question on 15 May 2012.

FRENCH

En France, le ministre de l’Ecologie a émis une ordonnance afin de faciliter l’achat de l’électricité produite par le vent. Le texte est actuellement contestée devant le «Conseil d’Etat" (Conseil d’Etat) pour cause d’illégalité, en ce qu’elle constitue une aide d’Etat. Le Conseil d’Etat considère que l’affaire suffisamment grave pour suspendre la procédure et saisi la Cour de justice de l’Union européenne d’une question préjudicielle le 15 mai 2012.

The "Autorité de régulation des communications électroniques et des postes - ARCEP" (French telecommunications and postal regulator) required that all Internet operators, French or foreigners, from the moment that they operate on the French territory, to provide it, by return of questionnaire, a series of information, every 6 months, on their wholesale trafficking on the Internet, theirs tariff policies, their locations of interconnections, etc. AT & T and Verizon have said on June 21, 2012 that they challenged the decision before the "Conseil d’Etat" (French Council of State).

Complete reference: CE, May 15, 2012, Association Vent de colère! Fédération nationale et autres, n°324852

2012, 24 April, Pelras et Questrebert