Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T05:16:01.102Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Judicial Colonialism Today

The French Overseas Courts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2022

Mathilde Cohen
Mathilde Cohen*
Affiliation:
University of Connecticut
*
Contact the author at [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

France maintains a court system outside of the European continent in so-called overseas regions such as Martinique and New Caledonia. Held as colonies until the 1940s, these territories became part of the French state with varying degrees of autonomy. Drawing on original qualitative and archival research, this article argues that through these overseas courts, France continues to legally assume the traditional role of a colonial power despite its declared commitment to the nation-state, republican model. Subordinating discourses and elements of colonial structure have outlived the transition to nonempire, continuing to exert strong influences on the courts’ operations, especially the way in which judges and prosecutors are appointed and promoted. This study should also be read as a contribution to the scholarship on how court systems around the globe grapple with the legacy of colonialism in shaping their organizational structure and practices.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Law and Courts , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , Fall 2020 , pp. 247 - 276
Copyright
© 2020 by the Law and Courts Organized Section of the American Political Science Association. All rights reserved.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

I am grateful to the research participants who agreed to take part in this study and often volunteered their time for interviews. For helpful conversations and comments on earlier drafts, I thank Christian Burset, Erin Delaney, Elizabeth Emens, Tanya Hernandez, Carolijn Kuipers, David Law, Sarah Mazouz, Sherally Munshi, Jacqueline Ross, Kristen Stilt, and Steven Wilf, as well as the participants in the 2017 International Society of Public Law conference panel The Judiciary: From Empire to Post-colonial Constructs. For research assistance, I thank Emilie Dajer-Pascal and Cécile Flahaut. For library assistance, I thank the University of Connecticut law library staff, in particular Maryanne Daly-Doran.

References

Abalain, Hervé. 2000. Histoire de la langue bretonne. Quintin: Gisserot.Google Scholar
Adler-Nissen, Rebecca, and Pram Gad, Ulrik. 2013. European Integration and Postcolonial Sovereignty Games: The EU Overseas Countries and Territories. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aldrich, Robert, and Connell, John. 1992. France’s Overseas Frontier: Départements et territoires d’outre-mer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aldrich, Robert, and Connell, John. 1998. The Last Colonies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, Robert L. 2005. “Reassessing the Internal (Neo) Colonialism Theory.” Black Scholar 35:2–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allott, Antony N., Royer, Jean-Pierre, and Lamy, Emile. 1988. Magistrat au temps des colonies. Lille: L’espace juridique.Google Scholar
Aravamudan, Srinivas. 1999. Tropicopolitans: Colonialism and Agency, 1688–1804. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Barkey, Karen. 2008. Empire of Difference: The Ottomans in Comparative Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bennington, Alice. 2016. “(Re)writing Empire? The Reception of Post-colonial Studies in France.” Historical Journal 59:1157–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benton, Lauren. 2002. Law and Colonial Cultures: Legal Regimes in World History, 1400–1900. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Berg, Sven. 2006. “Snowball Sampling—I.” In Encyclopaedia of Statistical Sciences, ed. Kotz, Samuel et al., 1:7817–21. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.Google Scholar
Blanchy, Sophie, and Moatty, Yves. 2012. “Le statut civil de droit local à Mayotte: Une imposture?” Droit et société 80:117–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonny, Ibhawoh. 2013. Imperial Justice: Africans in Empire’s Court. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bowd, Gavin, and Clayton, Daniel. 2005. “Tropicality, Orientalism and French Colonialism in Indochina: The Work of Pierre Gourou, 1927–1982.” French Historical Studies 28:297–327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burbank, Jane, and Cooper, Frederick. 2010. Empires in World History: Power and the Politics of Difference. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Burra, Arudra. 2016. “What Is ‘Colonial’ about Colonial Laws?” American University International Law Review 31:137–69.Google Scholar
Carayol, Rémi. 2011. “Mayotte: Les cadis rendent la justice.” Libération, March 30. http://www.liberation.fr/societe/2011/03/30/mayotte-les-cadis-rendent-la-justice_725471.Google Scholar
Célestine, Audrey, and Roger, Aurélie. 2014. “L’‘outre-mer’ à la croisée du national et du local: Construction, évolution et appropriation d’une catégorie sur trois terrains ultramarins.” Terrains et travaux 24:121–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cerquiglini, Bernard. 1999. Les langues de France. Paris: Ministère de l’éducation nationale.Google Scholar
Christelow, Allan. 1985. Muslim Law Courts and the French Colonial State in Algeria. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Mathilde. 2017. “The French Prosecutor as Judge: The Carpenter’s Mistake?” In Prosecutors and Democracy: A Cross-National Study, ed. Langer, Maximo and Alan Sklansky, David, 109–37. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, Mathilde. 2018. “Judicial Diversity in France: The Unspoken and the Unspeakable.” Law and Social Inquiry 43:1542–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohn, Bernard. 1996. Colonialism and Its Forms of Knowledge: The British in India. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Conseil supérieur de la magistrature. 2014. Rapport d’activité. Paris: Conseil supérieur de la magistrature.Google Scholar
Damgé, Mathilde, and Jublin, Matthieu. 2014. “Qui sont les illettrés en France?” Le Monde, September 9. http://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2014/09/18/qui-sont-les-illettres-en-france_4490014_4355770.html.Google Scholar
Delaney, Erin. 2016. “Searching for Constitutional Meaning in Institutional Design: The Debate over Judicial Appointments in the United Kingdom.” International Journal of Constitutional Law 14:752–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Durand, Bernard. 2003. “Observer la justice coloniale sous la IIIème République.” In La justice d’un siècle à l’autre: Ultimes regards, premières projections, ed. Royer, Jean-Pierre, 55–81. Paris: PUF.Google Scholar
Durand, Bernard. 2004a. “Un dogme soumis ‘à la force des choses’: L’inamovibilité des magistrats Outre-mer.” Revue d’histoire du droit 82:241–62.Google Scholar
Durand, Bernard. 2004b. “Les magistrats coloniaux entre absence et errance.” In Le juge et l’outre-mer: Les roches bleues de l’Empire colonial, ed. Durand, Bernard and Fabre, Martine, 47–70. Lille: Centre d’histoire judiciaire.Google Scholar
École nationale de la magistrature. 2017a. “Catalogue de formation continue.” http://www.enm.justice.fr/sites/default/files/publications/Catalogue_FC_2017.pdf.Google Scholar
École nationale de la magistrature. 2017b. “Des enseignements spécifiques aux prises de fonctions en outre mer.” May 15. http://www.enm.justice.fr/?q=actu-15mai2017_Des-enseignements-specifiques-aux-prises-de-fonctions-en-outre-mer.Google Scholar
Enders, Armelle. 1993. “L’École Nationale de la France d’Outre-Mer et la formation des administrateurs coloniaux.” Revue d’histoire moderne et contemporaine 40:272–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fabre, Martine. 2004. “Le magistrat d’Outre-mer: L’aventure de la justice.” In Le juge et l’Outre-mer: Les roches bleues de l’Empire colonial, ed. Durand, Bernard and Fabre, Martine, 71–93. Lille: Centre d’histoire judiciaire.Google Scholar
Fabre, Martine. 2005. “Les justices coloniales: Clones imparfaits du système judiciaire métropolitain.” Quaderni Fiorentini 33/34:641–73.Google Scholar
Farcy, Jean-Claude. 2011. “Quelques données statistiques sur la magistrature coloniale.” Clio Themis 4. http://www.cliothemis.com/Quelques-donnees-statistiques-sur.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gagné, Natacha, Guyon, Stéphanie, and Trépied, Benoît. 2018. “Justices Ultramarines.” Special issue, Ethnologie française 48.Google Scholar
Gemeenschappelijk Hof van Justitie. 2016. Jaarverslag.Google Scholar
Ginsburg, Tom, and Garoupa, Nino. 2009. “Reputation, Information and the Organization of the Judiciary.” Journal of Comparative Law 4:228–56.Google Scholar
Gotanda, Neil. 1991. “A Critique of ‘Our Constitution Is Color-Blind.’” Stanford Law Review 44:1–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrison, Mark. 1999. Climates and Constitutions: Health, Race, Environment and British Imperialism in India, 1600–1850. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hazaël-Massieux, Marie-Christine. 2006. “Et si l’on parlait des créoles dans les territoires créolophones?” Ela: Études de linguistique appliquée 143:281–96.Google Scholar
Hélenon, Véronique. 2005. “Races statut juridique et colonisation: Antillais et Africains dans les cadres administratifs des colonies françaises d’Afrique.” In L’esclavage, la colonisation, et après: France, États-Unis, Grande Bretagne, ed. Weil, Patrick and Dufoix, Stéphane, 229–93. Paris: PUF.Google Scholar
Hendry, Ian, and Dickson, Susan. 2011. British Overseas Territories Law. Oxford: Hart.Google Scholar
Humbert, Sylvie. 2016. “Les magistrats et la Cour d’appel de Cayenne au xixe siècle.” Histoire de la justice 26:125–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
INSEE (Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques). 2014. “Recensement de la population en Nouvelle-Calédonie en 2014.” https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/1560282#figure8.Google Scholar
INSEE (Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques). 2016. “Bilan démographique 2016.” https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/2554860.Google Scholar
Jouhaud, Yves. 1958. “À propos du statut de la magistrature d’Outre-Mer.” Extrait du Recueil Penant 68:33–160.Google Scholar
Just, Maximilien. 1847. Les magistrats des colonies depuis l’Ordonnance du 18 Juillet 1841. Paris: Daguerre.Google Scholar
Karam, Patrick. 2010. Voies et moyens et proposés permettant de favoriser le nombre de magistrats originaires d’Outre-mer. Paris: Délégation interministérielle.Google Scholar
Kolsky, Elizabeth. 2010. Colonial Justice in British India: White Violence and the Rule of Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lasser, Mitchel. 2004. Judicial Deliberations: A Comparative Analysis of Transparency and Legitimacy. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Le Meur, Oona. 2015. “Customary Law and Custom in New-Caledonia: Legal Pluralism, Citizenship and the External/Internal Sovereignty.” SOAS Law Journal 2:230–59.Google Scholar
Malleson, Kate, and Russell, Peter H., eds. 2006. Appointing Judges in an Age of Judicial Power: Critical Perspectives from Around the World. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mbembe, Achille. 2011. “Provincializing France.” Public Culture 23:85–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merry, Sally Engle. 1991. “Review: Law and Colonialism.” Law and Society Review 25:889–922.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ministère de la justice. 2017. “Juridictions judiciaires d’outre-mer.” January 17. http://www.justice.gouv.fr/organisation-de-la-justice-10031/lordre-judiciaire-10033/juridictions-judiciaires-doutre-mer-24277.html.Google Scholar
Mus, Paul. 1948. “La formation des cadres administratifs d’Outre-Mer E.N.F.O.M. ou E.N.A.?” La revue administrative 1:16–23.Google Scholar
Politix. 2016. “L’État outre-mer.” Special issue, Politix 116.Google Scholar
Renucci, Florence. 2016. “Les magistrats dans les colonies: Un autre apprentissage des normes juridiques?” Cahiers de la Justice 493–501.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rivera Ramos, Efrén. 2001. The Legal Construction of Identity: The Judicial and Social Legacy of American Colonialism in Puerto Rico. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Royer, Jean-Pierre. 1987. “Portrait du juriste colonial: Magistrats et administrateurs dans l’Afrique du XIXe siècle.” Revue française d’administration publique 42:91–101.Google Scholar
Saada, Emmanuelle. 2014. “More than a Turn? The ‘Colonial’ in French Studies.” French Politics, Culture and Society 32:34–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Said, Edward. 1979. Orientalism. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
Saito, Natsu Taylor. 2002. “Asserting Plenary Power over the ‘Other’: Indians, Immigrants, Colonial Subjects, and Why U.S. Jurisprudence Needs to Incorporate International Law.” Yale Law and Policy Review 20:427–80.Google Scholar
Sénat, . 2008. “Départementalisation de Mayotte: Sortir de l’ambiguïté, faire face aux responsabilités.” https://www.senat.fr/rap/r08-115/r08-11510.html.Google Scholar
Sharafi, Mitra. 2008. “Justice in Many Rooms since Galanter: De-romanticizing Legal Pluralism through the Cultural Defense.” Law and Contemporary Problems 71:139–46.Google Scholar
Sheppard, Todd. 2011. “Decolonization and the Republic.” In The French Republic: History, Values, Debates, ed. Berenson, Edward et al., 252–61. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Simon, Patrick. 2008. “The Choice of Ignorance: The Debate on Ethnic and Racial Statistics in France.” French Politics, Culture and Society 26:7–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stoler, Ann Laura. 2011. “Colonial Aphasia: Race and Disabled Histories in France.” Public Culture 23:121–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suk, Julie. 2013. “Quotas and Consequences: A Transnational Re-evaluation.” In Philosophical Foundations of Discrimination Law, ed. Hellman, Deborah and Moreau, Sophia, 228–49. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Tabuteau, Jacques. 1987. La balance et le capricorne: Histoire de la justice dans les Mascareignes. Saint-André, Réunion: Océan.Google Scholar
Tamanaha, Brian. 2008. “Understanding Legal Pluralism: Past to Present, Local to Global.” Sydney Law Review 30:375–411.Google Scholar
Trépied, Benoît. 2012. “A New Indigenous Question in France’s Overseas Territories?” Books and Ideas.net, June 13. http://www.booksandideas.net/A-New-Indigenous-Question-in.html.Google Scholar
Trépied, Benoît. 2016. “Urban Kanak Parents on Customary Trial: An Ethnography of the Customary Family Court of Nouméa, New Caledonia.” City and Society 28:99–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trépied, Benoît, and Guyon, Stéphanie. 2013. “Outre-mers indigènes.” Genèses 91:2–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Uimonen, Jari. 2014. “The Personal Status in French Law: With Special Focus on Overseas Territories.” International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 21:451–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Union Syndicale des Magistrats. 2017. Guide “Magistrats: Vos droits.” Paris: Union Syndicale des Magistrats.Google Scholar
Vergès, Françoise. 2005. “L’Outre-Mer, une survivance de l’utopie coloniale républicaine?” In La fracture coloniale, ed. Bancel, Nicolas et al., 67–74. Paris: La Découverte.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weeramantry, Christopher, and Berman, Nathaniel. 1999. “Conference: The Grotius Lecture Series.” American University International Law Review 14:1515–69.Google Scholar
Wilder, Gary. 2001. “Framing Greater France between the Wars.” Journal of Historical Sociology 14:198–225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yusuf, Hakeem O., and Chowdhury, Tanzil. 2019. “The Persistence of Colonial Constitutionalism in British Overseas Territories.” Global Constitutionalism 8:157–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar