🌐follow Marie-Anne Frison-Roche on LinkedIn

🌐subscribe to the Newsletter MAFR Regulation, Compliance, Law

🌐 subscribe to the Video Newsletter MAFR Overhang/Surplomb

____

► Full Reference: M.-A. Frison-Roche, hearing before the French working group on the modernisation of French Arbitration Law, about the issue Arbitrage et Droit de la Compliance : est-il besoin d'un texte ? ("Arbitration and Compliance Law: is a text required?"), Directorate of Civil Affairs' French Ministry of Justice, 13 February 2025.

____

► Result of this presentation and the ensuing discussion, recorded in the working group's report published in March 2025 (published in French, translated her: "This report on the guiding principles would not be complete without mentioning the discussions in the working group on the introduction of a guiding principle requiring the arbitral tribunal to take into account "human, environmental and compliance issues, as well as respect for the fundamental rights and freedoms of the parties".This proposal gave rise to particularly heated discussions. Some saw it as a scarecrow likely to make French Arbitration Law less attractive and to weaken Arbitration awards, opening up cases of recourse on the pretext of bad faith, even though these values would already be taken into account in the review of domestic or international public policy.  Others, on the other hand, felt that such a text would have the advantage of enshrining an Arbitration Law connected to values that are not exclusively economically oriented, pointing out, moreover, that such a principle would not be redundant with the control of public policy, which intervenes ex post, whereas this text imposes Ex Ante responsability, and that this principle would allow a noteworthy introduction of Compliance Law in rbitration.  They added that the promotion of such values could make it possible to demonstrate a commitment to virtuous arbitration practice. In the light of these differences, after much hesitation, the decision was made not to include it in the draft Code, considering that the final choice was more a question of political dimension that the working group felt it could not decide on its own. ". (p. 36).

____

► English Summary of the presentation: My presentation deals with the relationship between Compliance Law and Arbitration, particularly International Arbitration. It is built around 12 successive points. The work I have carried out on these various points is associated with it. It precedes the answers I shall give to the questions put by the members of the working group and the ensuing discussion.

1. stagnation in the relationship between Arbitration and Compliance Law, due to continuing misunderstandings about Compliance

2. progress towards a better understanding of Compliance and the appropriateness of the arbitrator's role within Compliance Law

3. prospects for the growing relationship between Compliance Law and Arbitration, particularly with regard to the value chains built up by international companies

4. educational issues

5. time required to build a "culture of place" in this matter

6. "Doctrinal" difficulties

7. benefit from the production of a "doctrine of place" on this subject

8. going beyond the continental summa divisio of Public Law and Private Law

9. practical assimilation of Regulatory Contracts in sustainable sectors and chains

10. opening up the Arbitration World to this articulation with Compliance Law

11.  Can an official legal text contribute to this?

12.  example of the guiding principles of the French Code of Civil Procedure.

____

🔓read the presentation developments below⤵️

🌐follow Marie-Anne Frison-Roche sur LinkedIn

🌐subscribe to the Newsletter MAFR Regulation, Compliance, Law 

🌐subscribe to the Video Newsletter MAFR Surplomb

____

► Full Reference: M.-A. Frison-Roche, The French Judicial Public Interest Agreement and the time saved: the Areva and Orano CJIP of 2 December 2024, Working Paper, January 2025.

____

🎤 This Working Paper was developed as a basis for the Overhang👁 video  on 25 January 2025 : click HERE (in French)

____

🎬🎬🎬In the collection of the Overhangs👁 It falls into the News category.

►Watch the complete collection of the Overhangs👁 : click HERE

____

► Summary of this Working Paper: On 2 December 2024, Areva/Orano signed a Public Interest Judicial Agreement (CJIP) with the French National Financial Prosecutor's Office, validated by the order of 9 December 2024 of the President of the Paris Judicial Court. The case concerns the bribery of a foreign public official in Mongolia through the use of an intermediary.

This perfectly illustrates the primary advantage of this Compliance Tool, which consists of closing a situation that could deprive a company of the means to act in the future. Even if neither the CJIP nor the validation order constitutes an admission of guilt or a conviction, the acts of bribery of a foreign public official can no longer give rise to prosecution.

However, the future has been taken care of, because as soon as Tracfin passed the first information to the Public Prosecutor's Office, the company cooperated and set up a programme to actively fight corruption ("compliance programme"). The CJIP extends this by a compliance programme supervised by the French Anticorruption Agency.

One month after the CJIP, the Mongolian government and the company, in the presence of the French government, announced on 17 January 2025 the signing of a contract to operate a uranium mine, the same industrial coopération that had given rise to these reprehensible acts. The CJIP made it possible to move forward in time.

____

🔓read the developments below⤵️

► Référence complète : C. Letoublon, "Responsabilité sociale et environnementale des entreprises multinationales : le devoir de diligence et la protection de l’environnement",  L. Boisson de Chazournes dir.), L’Effectivité du droit international face à l’urgence écologique, Collège de France, 2024, pp. 127-146.

____

📝cet article est en libre accès : lire l'article

________

► Référence complète : O. Catherine, "La spécificité des enquêtes internes pratiquées par les groupes internationaux", in M.-A. Frison-Roche et M. Boissavy (dir.), Compliance et droits de la défense. Enquête interne – CJIP – CRPC, Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) et Dalloz, coll. "Régulations & Compliance" , 2024, p.141-155.

____

📕consulter une présentation générale de l'ouvrage, Compliance et droits de la défense. Enquête interne – CIIP – CRPC, dans lequel cet article est publié

____

► Résumé de l'article (fait par le Journal of Regulation & Compliance - JoRC) : l'article a pour objet de décrire comment se déroule une enquête interne lorsqu'elle est diligentée dans une entreprise de dimension internationale. Les juristes d'entreprise sont particulièrement rompus à le faire, ayant suivi les évolutions des grandes entreprises, mutations qui impliquent la dynamique d'enquêtes internes globales. 

Pour y procéder, le juriste d'entreprise doit non seulement se muer en "enquêteur" mais encore établir préalablement un programme de conformité légitime et robuste, global et intégrant les particularités locales. Ce référentiel ainsi constitué dans un corpus communs de normes vise notamment le système d'alertes et la conduites des enquêtes internes. Ce dispositif, transparent, doit produire de la confiance dans l'ensemble du groupe.

Les enquêtes sont souvent internationales ou se déroulent souvent à l'étranger, le particularisme français tenant à la fragilité du secret des correspondance avec l'avocat et l'absence de confidentialité des avis juridiques pouvant mettre en difficulté l'entreprise dans la bonne menée du dispositif, alors même que les règles d'imputabilité de la responsabilité pénale s'assouplissent à l'égard des groupes. 

L'auteur décrit ensuite la conduite opérationnelle des enquêtes internes menées par un groupe international. 

____

🦉Cet article est accessible en texte intégral pour les personnes inscrites aux enseignements de la Professeure Marie-Anne Frison-Roche

________