Indeed, the term "guidelines" is common in how each and designates certain documents prepared by the regulatory authorities. These give themselves this appellation to documents made ex ante to give operators the "outline" of the future action of the regulator. Thus, the "guidelines" would produce legal certainty while maintaining flexibility, since in the future the authority will continue to set its position on a case by case basis.
Now comes the case: it was necessary that the "hard right" come bless the "soft law".
In this case, was challenged before the administrative judge an "instruction" from this Agency for French Teaching Abroad for the "consideration of the financial situation of the parents" seeking a scholarship to the child. A local agency for awarding grants had rejected a request no meeting the criteria developed in the statement. Parents have acted appeal for abuse of power. They both lost before the Cour administrative d'appel de Paris (Administrative Court of Pari) that before the Conseil d'État.
However, the Council recognizes that the Agence pour l'enseignement français à l'étranger has no regulatory power. But the judgement takes in considération that:"l'instruction en cause a énoncé, à l'intention des commissions locales, des lignes directrices, sans fixer de normes à caractère général qui se serait imposée de matière impérative à ces commissions"!footnote-8 .
Triumph of soft law!
Thus, organizations, "agencies", may take "general guidelines" here which do not contain any threshold and generating no rights, on which the commission take real decisions. These are based on the first document, but because of the "flexibility" of it, the one whose solution is affected by the particular decision does'not have the right to appeal.
All the beauty and effectiveness of "soft law". The judge, after having boasted, now offers it royal way.
Through the publication of a new regulatory framework by Postcomm, the British Postal Services Commission, on May 27, 2010, Postcomm outlines its plans for regulating the postal sector in the years following 2012. This framework plans to adapt postal regulation to allow {Royal Mail} to profitably fulfill its Universal Service Obligations faced with drastically declining mail volumes and increased competition.
The cycle of conferences Les outils de la Compliance(The Compliance tools) began in November 2019 and runs until June 2020. It is organized by The Journal of Regulation & Compliance and all of its partner universities. It includes a conference more particularly devoted to the theme of "Measuring the effectiveness of Compliance Tools (Mesurer l'effectivité des outils de la Compliance)".
in the Amphitheater of Panthéon-Assas (Paris 2) University,
391, rue de Vaugirard 75015 Paris
General presentation of the Conference
After having examined various specific tools, such as Risk mapping or Incentives, and before tackling others such as those falling under a "Compliance by Design", it also deserves to be examined with some distance in its claim to be the solution to any compliance issue, it is worth looking at how we measure the effectiveness of all these Compliance Tools. Indeed, since all techniques are "tools", they only take on meaning with regard to a purpose that they must effectively achieve. This effectiveness must be measured, and this immediately in Ex Ante, the company constantly having to show the effectiveness of the performance of the Compliance tools.
But at the same time as the standards proliferate, the discourses multiply, the commitments are made, the techniques for measuring the effectiveness of the whole seem quite weak. The subjects of law obliged by Compliance obligations or freely wishing to achieve the systemic or common good goals targeted by Compliance do wish to have these measurement instruments. But they seem still little built, often declarative or discursive, or too mechanical. Therefore, is it starting from the goal of Compliance that we must measure the effectiveness of the Compliance tools, without by this way transforming the tasks weighing (willingly or by force) on operators in obligation to result? Or is it by staying upstream, by a single "conformity" to what is asked of them, as behavior and as structural organization, that companies show that they have effectively fulfilled their task, without worrying about the effects products about the reality, this reality that those who designed the Compliance norms and standards had in mind?
This question has major implications in terms of burden of proof and responsibility, involving organizations which place Trust, the heart of Compliance, rather in technological instruments - only but so efficiency connecting data - or rather in people with a sense of common good. This question is now open.
Under the scientific direction of Marie-Anne Frison-Roche, full professof de Regulatory & Compliance Law at Sciences Po (Paris).
Articulate the instruments for measuring Effectiveness with the purposes of the Compliance tools (Articuler les instruments de mesure de l'effectivité avec les finalités des outils de la compliance)
Freedom and constraints of the company in its implementation of measures of the effectiveness of compliance tools (Liberté et contraintes de l’entreprise dans sa mise en place des mesures de l’effectivité des outils de compliance)
Bertrand Bréhier, deputy head, Banking and Finaical Regulation Departement, Société Générale Group, associate professor Paris I University, Groupe Société Générale
Control by the Regulator of the effectiveness of compliance instruments implemented by the company (The contrôle par le Régulateur de l’effectivité des instruments de compliance mis en place par l’entreprise)
In The Journal of Regulation the summaries’ translation are done by the Editors and not by the authors
ENGLISH
On 16 November 2011, Moody’s downgraded twelve public-sector German banks, after regulatory changes in Germany and the EU.
FRENCH
Le 16 novembre 2011, Moody"s a dégradé douze banques publiques allemandes, après des changements dans la régulation financière en Allemagne et dans l’Union Européenne.
SPANISH
El 16 de noviembre del 2011, Moody’s degradó doce bancos del sector público alemán, después de cambios regulatorios en Alemania y la UE.
ITALIAN
Il 16 novembre 2011, Moody’s ha declassato dodici banche tedesche del settore pubblico, dopo dei cambiamenti nella regolazione finanziaria in Germania e nell’Unione europea.
►Full Reference: Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and Conseil national des Barreaux (CNB), Compliance, vigilance et médiation (Compliance, Vigilance and Mediation), November 30, 2023, Amphithéâtre du Conseil national des barreaux.
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►The symposium is organised by the Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and the Conseil national des barreaux (CNB).
► Presentation of the theme: To increase respect for human rights and the environment in the context of corporate social responsibility and compliance, public authorities and companies have for several years been implementing instruments and processes for dialogue between companies on the one hand and stakeholders inside and outside the company on the other. Among these, mediation is regularly highlighted as a necessary and fruitful process for reaching agreements that benefit employees and civil society players, as well as the environment and society as a whole.
John Ruggie, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises, in his report of 21 March 2011, Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, recommends mediation as an effective and appropriate non-judicial grievance mechanism. The ISO 26000 standard on social responsibility also explicitly refers to the use of mediation in the section Actions and related expectations (6.3.2.6) and say that an organisation should establish or ensure the availability of redress mechanisms for its own use and for that of its stakeholders. For these mechanisms to be effective, they should be [...] based on dialogue and mediation: the process should aim to remedy breaches through mutually agreed solutions reached through dialogue between the parties. Where a judgment is desirable, the parties should retain the right to reach it through separate, independent mechanisms.
Similarly, the French law No. 2017-399 of 21 March 2017 relative au devoir de vigilance des sociétés mères et des entreprises donneuses d’ordre (on the duty of vigilance of parent companies and ordering companies) has given rise to disputes relating to the design and application of vigilance plans by certain companies subject to this law. Mediation has been proposed by the courts, sometimes accepted, and we know that some have been successful.
At the same time, the draft European Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence (CS3D) is likely to impose or extend obligations relating to the duty of vigilance on a large number of companies in the European Union, for the respect of human rights and the environment by companies in global value chains.
The result of all this is that respect for human rights within organisations and companies depends on recourse to the courts, on cooperation processes such as mediation, both project mediation and mediation specific to the resolution of disputes, while recourse to the courts will not suffice to rapidly make respect for these obligations effective.
The legislator and the parties concerned are aware of this, and they refer to the use of mediation as necessary to help both civil society actors committed to respect for human rights and the environment and companies to reach agreements on compliance with these obligations.
Lawyers, mediators and people assisting stakeholders and companies have an important role to play in the success of these mediations.
In collaboration with the Journal of Regulation and Compliance (JoRC), the Conseil national des barreaux (CNB) is organising a half-day conference on "Compliance, vigilance et médiation" ("Compliance, Vigilance and Mediation") to train lawyers to this activity, which will develop either as an extension of another activity or as its own activity, and which has major implications for individual rights, society and the environment.
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►Construction of the symposium: After a general introduction to the triptych of Compliance, Vigilance and Mediation and the links that it implies, the first part of the event will focus on the contribution of Mediation to the effectiveness of Compliance and, more particularly, to its most advanced aspect, the duty of vigilance. After a debate on this topic, the second part of the event will focus on the conduct of project mediation or dispute resolution in such a context. A conclusion will enable us to draw immediate lessons from the information and exchanges that have taken place.
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Speakers:
🎤Matthieu Boissavy, attorney at the Paris Bar, vice-president of the CommissionLiberté et droits de l'homme of the CNB
Research on the EU regime of risk regulation for pharmaceuticals and foodstuffs based on an institutionalist approach to supranational risk regulation.
Ordinance n° 2010-76 of 21 January 2010 establishes a new independent administrative authority designated as the Autorité de contrôle prudentiel (Prudential Control Authority), resulting from the merger of the approval and monitoring authorities of the banking and insurance sectors.
