7 - General and Particular: The Legal Rule and an Islamic Swimsuit in a Secular Context

Summary

This chapter deals with the relationship of the particular to the general in the practice of law in three stages. It begins by examining the conception of the rule and its general and abstract character in the doctrine and theory of law. It then “re-specifies” the question from a praxeological viewpoint; that is to say it deals with it from the point of view of practitioners and users of law. Finally, it addresses the issue of Islam in French public and legal life, through the so-called “burkini affaire” and the resulting judgment of the Council of State (Conseil d’État), which gives us the opportunity to examine how the question of the general and particular dimensions of the legal rule applies in context, contingently, at three levels: that of “public opinion,” which is polarized around the question of the degree of particularism admissible in public life; that of the regulatory authority, which establishes a rule starting from a particular case; and that of the judging authority, which decides a particular case on the basis of general rules.