► Full Reference: Ch. Lapp, "Compliance in Companies: The Statutes of the Process", in M.-A. Frison-Roche (ed.), Compliance Jurisdictionalisation, Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and Bruylant, "Compliance & Regulation" Serie,  2024, pp. 155-166 

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📘read a general presentation of the book, Compliance Jurisdictionalisation, in which this article is published

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► The summary below describes an article following the colloquium L'entreprise instituée Juge et Procureur d'elle-même par le Droit de la Compliance (The Entreprise instituted Judge and Prosecutor of itself by Compliance Law) , co-organized by the Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and the Faculté de Droit Lyon 3. This manifestation was designed under the scientific direction of Marie-Anne Frison-Roche and Jean-Christophe Roda and took place in Lyon on June 23, 2021. During this colloquium, the intervention was shared with Jan-Marc Coulon, who is also a contributor in the book (see the summary of the Jean-Marc Coulon's  Article).

In the book, the article will be published in Title I, devoted to:  L'entreprise instituée Juge et Procureur d'elle-même par le Droit de la Compliance (The Entreprise instituted Judge and Prosecutor of itself by Compliance Law ).

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► Summary of the article (done by the Author): The Company is caught in the grip of Compliance Law, the jaws of which are those of Incitement (1) and Sanction that the Company must apply to ensure the effectiveness of its processes to which it is itself subject (2 ).

First, the Company has been delegated to fabricate reprehensible rules that it must apply to itself and to third parties with whom it has dealings. To this end, the Company sets up "processes", that is to say verification and prevention procedures, in order to show that the offenses that it is likely to commit will not happened.

These processes constitute standards of behavior to prevent and avoid that the facts constituting the infringements are not themselves carried out. They are thus one of the elements of Civil Liability Law in its preventive or restorative purposes.

Second, the sanction of non obedience of Compliance processes puts the Company in front of two pitfalls. The first  dimension place the company, with regard to its employees and its partners, in the obligation to define processes which also constitute the quasi-jurisdictional resolution of their non-compliance, the company having to reconcile the sanction it pronounces with the fundamental principles of classical Criminal Law, constitutional principles and all fundamental rights. The processes then become the procedural rule.

The second dimension is that the Company is accountable for the effectiveness of the avoidance by its processes of facts constituting infringements. By a reversal of the burden of proof, the Company is then required to prove that its processes are efficient. at least equivalent to the measures defined by laws and regulations, the French Anti-Corruption Agency (Agence Française Anticorruption - AFA), European directives and various communications on legal tools to fight breaches of probity, environmental attacks and current societal concerns. The processes then become the constitutive element, per se, of the infringement.

Thus, in its search for a balance between Prevention and Sanction to which it is itself subject, the Company will not then be tempted to favor the orthodoxy of its processes over the expectations of the Agence Française Anticorruption - AFA , regulators and judges, to the detriment of their efficiency?

In doing so, are we not moving towards an instrumental and conformist Compliance, paradoxically disempowering with regard to the Compliance Monumental Goals of Compliance?

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🦉This article is available in full text to those registered for Professor Marie-Anne Frison-Roche's courses

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► Full Reference: J. Heymann, "The Legal Nature of the Facebook “Supreme Court”", in M.-A. Frison-Roche (ed.), Compliance Jurisdictionalisation, Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and Bruylant, "Compliance & Regulation" Serie, 2024, pp. 167-182

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📘read a general presentation of the book, Compliance Jurisdictionalisation, in which this article is published

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► Summary of the article (done par the Author): Taking place in the general theme aiming at making “words and things coincide”, the article offers some thoughts on the “conditions of the discourse” – in the sense in which Foucault understood it in his Archéologie des sciences humaines – relating to the phenomenon of “jurisdictionalization” of Compliance.

The thoughts are more specifically focusing on the nature of the so-called “Supreme Court” that Facebook instituted to hear appeals of decisions relating to content on the digital social networks that are Facebook and Instagram. Is this really a “Supreme Court”, designed in order to “judge” the Facebook Group?

A careful examination of the Oversight Board – i.e. the so-called “Supreme Court” created by Facebook – reveals that the latter, in addition to its advisory mission (which consists of issuing policy advisory opinions on Facebook’s content policies), exercises some form of adjudicative function. This is essentially conceived in terms of compliance assessment, of the content published on the social networks Facebook or Instagram with the standards issued by these corporations on the one hand, of content enforcement decisions taken by Facebook with the Law on the other hand. The legal framework of reference is yet rather vague, although its substantial content seems to be per se evolutive, based on the geographical realm where the case to be reviewed is located. An adjudicative function can therefore be characterized, even if the Oversight Board can only claim for a limited one.

The author can ultimately identify the Oversight Board as a preventive dispute settlement body, in the sense that it seems to aim at avoiding any referral to state courts and ruling before any court’s judgement can be delivered. Some questions are thus to be raised, relating with both legitimacy and authority of such a Board. But whatever the answers will be, the fact remains that the creation of the Oversight Board by a private law company already reveals all the liveliness of contemporary legal pluralism.

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🦉This article is available in full text to those registered for Professor Marie-Anne Frison-Roche's courses

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► Full Reference: S. Merabet, "Vigilance, being a judge and not judge", in M.-A. Frison-Roche (ed.), Compliance Jurisdictionalisation, Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and Bruylant, "Compliance & Regulation" Serie, 2024, pp. 218-228

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📘read a general presentation of the book, Compliance Jurisdictionalisation, in which this article is published

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► Summary of the article:

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🦉This article is available in full text to those registered for Professor Marie-Anne Frison-Roche's courses

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🌐follow Marie-Anne Frison-Roche on LinkedIn

🌐subscribe to the Newsletter MAFR Regulation, Compliance, Law

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► Full Reference: M.-A. Frison-Roche, "The "Judge-Judged". Articulating Words and Things in the face of Conflicts of Interest", in M.-A. Frison-Roche (ed.), Compliance Jurisdictionalisation, Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and Bruylant, "Compliance & Regulation" Serie, 2024, pp. 69-93

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📝read the article

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🚧read the bilingual Working Paper which is the basis of this article, with additional developments, technical references and hyperlinks

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📘read a general presentation of the book, Compliance Jurisdictionalisation, in which this article is published

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► Summary of the article (done by the Journal of Regulation & Compliance - JoRC): Since the topic of this article is part of a chapter devoted to the Company established as Prosecutor and Judge of itself by Compliance Law, chapter aiming to use the relevant qualifications, it is appropriate therefore to worry about the adjustment of words and things, of the way in which the relationship between ones and the others evolve, and of the more particular question of knowing if this evolution is radical or not when one speaks of "judge ".

because "judging" is a word that the Law has disputed with other disciplines, but that it has appropriated not so much to confer more powers on those who act in its name, for example that who supervise and punish, but on the contrary to impose limits, since to the one who judges it has put the chains of the procedure under foot, thus making bearable for the other the exercise of such a power. This is why those who want the power to judge would often want to not have the title, because having de jure the title of judge is being subject to the correlated regime, it is to be submitted to procedural correctness.

It is therefore to better limit that the Law sees who judges, for obliging this so-powerful character to the procedure. But the Law also has the power to appoint a judge and to fix the contours of all the characters in the trial. He usually does it with clarity, distinguishing the ones of the others, not confusing them. This art of distinction has constitutional value. Thus, not only the one who judges must be named "judge" but the procedural apparatus which goes with this character and which constitutes a way of doing things and fundamental rights, are not "granted" by kindness or in a second step: it is a block. If you didn't want to have to endure procedural rights, you didn't have to want to be a judge. Admittedly, one could conclude that the procedure would therefore have become "substantial"; by this elevation, it is rather a fashion of saying that the procedure would no longer be a "servant": it is a kind of declaration of love for the procedure, as long as one affirms that at the acts of judging , or investigating, or prosecuting, are "naturally" attached the procedural rights for the one who is likely to be the object of these powers.

Compliance Law, in search of allies to achieve the Monumental Goals for the aims of which it was instituted, will require, or even demand, private companies to go and seek themselves, in particular through investigations. internal or active vigilance on others, for finding facts likely to be reproached to them. Compliance Law will also require that they prosecute those who have committed these acts. Compliance La will again demand that they sanction the acts that people have committed in their name.

This is clearly understood from the point of view of Ex Ante efficiency. The confusion of roles is often very efficient since it is synonymous with the accumulation of powers. For example, it is more efficient that the one who pursues is also the one who instructs and judges, since he knows the case so well... Besides, it is more efficient that he also elaborates the rules, so he knows better than anyone the "spirit" of the texts. This was often emphasized in Regulatory Law. When everything is Information and risk management, that would be necessary ... But all this is not obvious.

For two reasons, one external and the other internal.

Externally, the first reason is that it is not appropriate to "name" a judge who is not. This would be too easy, because it would then be enough to designate anyone, or even to do it oneself to appropriate the regime that goes with it, in particular for obtain a so-called legitimate power for obtaining that others obey even though they are not subordinate or from them they transmit information, even though they would be  competitors: it would then be necessary to remember that only the Law is able to appoint judge ; in this new Compliance era, companies would be judges, prosecutors, investigators!  Maybe, if the Law says it, but if it didn't, it would be necessary to come back to this tautology ... But are we in such a radicalism? Moreover, do judges have "the prerogative" of judgment and the Law has not admitted this power for companies to judge for a long time? As soon as the procedure is there in Ex Ante and the control of the judge in Ex Post?

The second reason, internal to the company, situation on which the article focuses, is that the company investigates itself, judges itself, sanctions itself. However, the legal person expressing its will only through its organs, we underline in practice the difficulties for the same human being to formulate grievances, as he/she is the agent of the legal person, adressed to the natural person that he/she himself/herself is. The two interests of the two are not the same, are often opposed; how the secrets of one can be kept with respect to the other, represented by the same individual? ... It is all the mystery, even the artifice of legal personality that appears and we understand better that Compliance Law no longer wants to use this strange classical notion. Because all the rules of procedure cannot mask that to prosecute oneself does not make more sense than to contract with oneself. This conflict of interest is impossible to resolve because naming the same individual X then naming him/her Y, by declaring open the dispute between them does not make sense.

This dualism, which is impossible to admit when it comes to playing these functions with regard to corporate officers, can come back to life by setting up third parties who will carry secrets and oppositions. For example by the designation of two separate lawyers for the human being agent and the human being representative of the legal person, each lawyer being able to have secrets for each other and to oppose each other. These spaces of reconstitution of the so "natural" oppositions in procedure between the one who judges and the one who is judged can also take the technological form of platforms: where there is no longer anyone, where the process has replaced the procedure, there is no longer any human judgment. We can thus see that the fear of conflicts of interest is so strong that we resign ourselves to saying that only the machine would be "impartial", a derisory conception of impartiality, against which it is advisable to fight.

This then leads to a final question: can the company claim to exercise the jurisdictional power to prosecute and judge and investigate without even claiming to be a prosecutor, an investigating judge, or a court? The company's advantage would be to be able to escape the legal regime that classical Law attaches to its words, mainly the rights of the defense and the rights of action for others, the principle of publicity of justice for everyone, which expresses the link between procedure and democracy . When Facebook said on June 12, 2021 "react" to the decision of May 5, 2021 adopted by what would only be an Oversight Board to decide "as a consequence" of a 2-year suspension of Donald Trump's account, the art of qualifications seem to be used in order to avoid any regime constraint.

But this art of euphemism is very old. Thus the States, when they wanted to increase repression, presented the transformation of the system as a softening of it through the "decriminalization" of Economic Law, transferred from the criminal courts to the independent administrative agencies. The efficiency was greatly increased, since the guarantees of the Criminal Procedure ceased to apply. But 20 years later, Words found their way back to Things: under Criminal Law, slept the "criminal matter", which requires the same "Impartiality". In 1996, a judge once affirmed it and everything was changed. Let us therefore wait for what the Courts will say, since they are the masters of qualifications, as Article 12 of the French Code of Civil Procedure says, as Motulsky wrote it in 1972. Law has time.

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► Référence complète : M.-A. Frison-Roche, enregistrement et animation d'une série d'entretiens sur le Droit de la Compliance, in J.-Ph. Denis, Fenêtres ouvertes sur la gestion, Xerfi Canal, tenus le 12 décembre 2023, diffusés en 2024.

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► Présentation générale de la série, comprenant les entretiens successifs  : 🧱Compliance - un sujet de choix pour nouer Droit et Gestion : La distinction des disciplines est justifiée, le droit d'une part, la gestion d'autre part : c'est maltraiter la réalité que, notamment, de dissoudre l'une dans l'autre (ce que Jankélévitch appelait "la réduction par déplacement d'une discipline") car chacune doit conserver son ancrage.

Ceci posé, parce que la réalité ne se construit suivant les disciplines, si l'on veut rendre compte de celle-ci, ou au moins en tenir compte, par exemple de la réalité des entreprises, il faut que les disciplines se croisent.

La compliance est un parfait terrain pour cela.

Merci à Jean-Philippe Denis, professeur de gestion, qui est depuis toujours ouvert à ce dialogue, de l'avoir concrétisé plus encore, en permettant une série d'interviews à la croisée du Droit et de la Gestion sur le média Xerfi Canal.

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Dans un premier temps, 4 discussions ont été tenues entre Jean-Philippe Denis et moi-même sur les thèmes suivants :

• 🎬sur la nécessité pratique de faire converger l'analyse juridique et l'analyse de gestionnaire lorsqu'il s'agit de comprendre, maîtriser, promouvoir la compliance. 
• 🎬sur l'existence de différents systèmes de compliance selon les zones du mondes 
• 🎬sur la "civilisation" de la Compliance
• 🎬sur le fait que la Vigilance est la pointe avancée de la Compliance (diffusé le 13 juin 2024) : cliquer ICI

Puis, dans un second temps

• 🎬avec 🕴️Jean-Baptiste Racine sur la manière dont l'arbitrage international est apte aujourd'hui à défendre les Buts Monumentaux de la Compliance, notamment les droits humains et les impératifs environnementaux.
   
• 🎬avec 🕴️Stanislas Pottier de la façon dont les entreprises intègrent cet impératif de compliance, notamment dans sa dimension environnementale, participent à la construction européenne par cette voie, et arrivent à faire connaissance avec ce personnage assez nouveau pour elle, au moins en France : le juge (diffusé le 27 avril 2024) : cliquer ICI
   
• 🎬 avec 🕴️Roch-Olivier Maistre du rôle que joue l'Arcom dans le nouveau système numérique qui se met en place, et quelle articulation se noue entre la Régulation et la Compliance, notamment pour mesurer en quoi la Compliance est un outil utile pour assurer une meilleure supervision des plateformes en ligne et lutter ainsi plus efficacement contre les phénomènes de manipulation de l’information et de haine en ligne (diffusé le 16 mars 2024) : cliquer ICI
   
• 🎬avec 🕴️Eduardo Silva-Romero de l'importance grandissante de l'arbitrage international pour les entreprises, arbitrage qui intègre les intérêts des États et répond aux impératifs de Compliance (diffusé le 27 avril 2024) : cliquer ICI
   
• 🎬avec 🕴️Christophe Lapp de la nécessité pratique de ne pas confondre la Compliance avec la simple conformité, notamment lorsque le juge est saisi, les Buts Monumentaux étant intégrés dans son raisonnement (diffusé le 3 février 2024) : cliquer ICI
   
• 🎬avec 🕴️Jacques Beyssade du rapport entre la gouvernance et la Compliance, illustré dans une banque mutualiste et plus particulièrement dans le recrutement et la promotion des femmes à des postes de responsabilité (diffusé le 24 février 2024) : cliquer ICI

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🌐consulter sur LinkedIn une présentation générale de cette journée d'enregistrements, renvoyant à une présentation de chaque interview

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🔓consulter ci-dessous une présentation de chaque interview mené avec un expert en Droit sur un sujet particulier de Droit de la Compliance⤵️

🌐follow Marie-Anne Frison-Roche on LinkedIn

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► Full Reference: M.-A. Frison-Roche, "Conclusion", in M. Boissavy, H. Dehghani-Azar, and M.-A. Frison-Roche (dir.), Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and Conseil national des Barreaux (CNB), Compliance, vigilance et médiation (Compliance, Vigilance and Mediation), Amphitheatre of the Conseil national des Barreaux, November 30, 2023.

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🧮see the full programme of this event

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► Référence complète : J.-L. Gaffard & G. J. Martin (dir.), Droit et économie de la transition écologique. Regards croisés, Mare & Martin, coll. "Mare & Martin", 2023, 168 p.

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📗lire la 4ième de couverture

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📗lire la table des matières

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► Résumé de l'ouvrage (fait par les auteurs) : "La transition écologique ne se décrète pas, elle se construit pas à pas. Le caractère irréductible de la contradiction entre activité humaine et préservation des éléments naturels ne saurait conduire à nier la complexité des rapports économiques et sociaux nécessaires pour y survivre. Au lieu d'énoncer un discours de vérité absolue que détiendrait un État omniscient ou le libre marché, le propos du présent ouvrage est d'ouvrir un débat démocratique dont l'objet est d'organiser le dissensus et de cultiver le compromis nécessaire pour rendre la transition viable. Pour répondre à ce défi, un regard croisé du Droit et de l'économie s'impose qui permet de souligner aussi bien la pluralité des ordres juridiques et des espaces normatifs que celle des ordres économiques au coeur desquels se trouve l'entreprise.". 

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► Référence complète : R. Vabres (dir.), Que reste-t-il du principe d'autonomie de la personne morale ? -  Journée d'études du DJCE de Lyon, coll. "Thèmes & Commentaires", Dalloz, 2023, 250 p.

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📗lire la 4ième de couverture

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📗lire le sommaire

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► Résumé de l'ouvrage (fait par l'auteur) : "Principe cardinal du droit des personnes et vecteur de sécurité juridique, l'autonomie de la personne morale est un pilier de notre système juridique. Il est au coeur du droit des obligations dès lors qu'il participe à l'identification du débiteur de l'obligation, du droit patrimonial en ce qu'il favorise de nombreuses opérations de gestion ou de transmission ou encore du droit de l'entreprise.

Ce principe connaît toutefois de profondes remises en cause dans plusieurs branches du droit. Une approche économique, s'extirpant de la réalité juridique, tend en effet à se disséminer dans de nombreuses situations et cela afin de préserver d'autres intérêts et poursuivre des objectifs jugés prioritaires.

L'atténuation de la distinction entre une entreprise individuelle et une société dotée de la personnalité morale, le maintien de la responsabilité pénale en dépit d'une fusion, la mise en oeuvre de la responsabilité d'une société en raison des actes commis par sa filiale sont autant de manifestations invitant à redéfinir l'étendue de l'autonomie de la personne morale.

Cet ouvrage réunit les contributions d'universitaires, en droit des contrats, droit du patrimoine, droit des sociétés, etc. sur des thèmes actuels et faisant écho à des évolutions législatives et jurisprudentielles importantes sur les plans théorique et pratique.".

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► Full reference: M.-A. Frison-Roche, Use of private companies by Compliance Law to serve Human Rights, Working Paper, May 2023.

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This Working Paper is the basis of:

🎤a conference done in French in Toulouse on June 16, 2023

📝an article previously written before and for this conference, and subsequently published in the book Puissances privées et droits de l'homme ("Private Powers and Human Rights")

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►Summary of this Working Paper: Following the legal tradition, Law creates a link between power with a legitimate source, the State, public power being its prerogative, while private companies exercise their power only in the shadow of this public power exercised ex ante.  The triviality of Economic Law, of which Competition Law is at the heart, consisting of the activity of companies that use their power on markets, relegates the action of the State to the rank of an exception, admissible if the State, which claims to exercise this contrary power, justifies it.  The distribution of roles is thus reversed, in that the places are exchanged, but the model of opposition is shared. This model of opposition exhausts the forces of the organisations, which are relegated to being the exception. However, if we want to achieve great ambitions, for example to give concrete reality to human rights beyond the legal system within which the public authorities exercise their normative powers, we must rely on a new branch of Law, remarkable for its pragmatism and the scope of the ambitions, including humanist ambitions, that it embodies: Compliance Law.

Compliance Law is thus the branch of Law which makes the concern for others, concretised by human rights, borne by the entities in a position to satisfy it, that is to say the systemic entities, of which the large companies are the direct subjects of law (I). The result is a new division between Public Authorities, legitimate to formulate the Monumental Goal of protecting human beings, and private organisations, which adjust to this according to the type of human rights and the means put in place to preserve them. Corporations are sought after because they are powerful, in that they are in a position to make human rights a reality, in their indifference to territory, in the centralisation of Information, technologies and economic, human, and financial means. This alliance is essential to ensure that the system does not lead to a transfer of political choices from Public Authorities to private companies; this alliance leads to systemic efficiency. The result is a new definition of sovereignty as we see it taking shape in the digital space, which is not a particular sector since it is the world that has been digitalised, the climate issue justifying the same new distribution of roles (II). 

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🔓read the full developments below⤵️

🌐follow Marie-Anne Frison-Roche on LinkedIn

🌐subscribe to the Newsletter MAFR Regulation, Compliance, Law

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► Full Reference: M.-A. Frison-Roche, The role of the Judge in the deployment of Regulatory Law through Compliance Law, Working Paper, April  2023.

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🎤 This working paper was drawn up to serve as the basis for the concluding summary session of the colloquium organised by the Conseil d'Etat (French Administrative Supreme Court) and the Cour de cassation (French Judicial Supreme Court), De la régulation à la compliance: quel rôle pour le juge? ("From Regulation to Compliance: what role for the Judge?") held on 2 June 2023 at the Conseil d'Etat. 

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📝 This working paper also served as the basis for the article that concludes the book De la régulation à la compliance : quel rôle pour le juge, published by the La Documentation Française, 2024.

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► Working Paper Summary: It is remarkable to note the unity of conception and practice between professionals who tend to work in administrative jurisdictions and professionals who tend to work in judicial jurisdictions: they all note, in similar terms, an essential movement: what Regulatory Law is, how it has been transformed into Compliance Law, and how in one and even more so in the other the Judge is at the centre of it. Judges, as well as regulators and European officials, explain this and use different examples to illustrate the profound transformation this has brought about for the law and for the companies responsible for increasing the systemic effectiveness of the rules through the practice and dissemination of a culture of compliance. The role of the judge participating in this Ex Ante transformation is renewed, whether he is a public law judge or a private law judge, in a greater unity of the legal system.

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🔓read the Working Paper below⤵️

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► Référence complète : M.-A. Frison-Roche, synthèses de chacune des 8 tables-rondes et synthèse finale, in Conseil National des Barreaux (CNB), L'avocat et les droits de la défense dans les enquêtes internes et la justice négociée, Paris, 20 et 21 avril 2023.

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🧮Consulter le programme complet de cette manifestation

🧮Retrouver le programme dans lequel les vidéos sont insérées

📕Consulter une première présentation de l'ouvrage dirigé par Marie-Anne Frison-Roche et Matthieu Boissavy.

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Dans la journée du 20 avril 2023

consacrée plus particulièrement aux enquêtes internes

🎥regarder le film de la première session, ayant pour thème : Des avocats dans les enquêtes internes : pourquoi, avec qui et avec quels outils ? cliquer ICI

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🎥regarder le film de la deuxième session, ayant pour thème : Quels droits de la défense et quelle déontologie de l'avocat dans une enquête interne ? cliquer ICI

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🎥regarder le film de la troisième session, ayant pour thème : Les enquêtes internes en  matière sociale :  cliquer ICI

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🎥regarder le film de la quatrième session, ayant pour thème : Les enquêtes internes dans la lutte anti-corruption et pour le respect du devoir de vigilance :  cliquer ICI (la synthèse porta à la fois sur cette 4ième session et sur l'ensemble de la journée)

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Dans la journée du 21 avril 2023

consacrée plus particulièrement à la CJIP et à la CRPC

🎥regarder le film de la première session, ayant pour thème : Théorie et pratique de la négociation dans la justice pénale cliquer ICI

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🎥regarder le film de la deuxième session, ayant pour thème : Le rôle du juge, du procureur, du justiciable et de l'avocat dans une CRPC et une CJIP cliquer ICI

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🎥regarder le film de la troisième session, ayant pour thème : Combinaison des CRPC et des CJIP : enjeux, défis et perspectives cliquer ICI

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🎥regarder le film de la quatrième session, ayant pour thème : Analyse comparative internationale de la justice négociée et prospective cliquer ICI

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🎥regarder le film de la troisième session, ayant pour thème : Combinaison des CRPC et des CJIP : enjeux, défis et perspectives cliquer ICI

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► Référence complète : V. Magnier, Déontologie et éthique de l'entreprise, PUF, coll. "Droit & Déontologie", 2023, 260 p.

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📗lire la 4ième de couverture de l'ouvrage

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📗lire la table des matières de l'ouvrage 

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► Résumé de l'ouvrage (fait par l'éditeur) : "La déontologie et l'éthique d'entreprise naissent de sources éparses, embrassent un large champ thématique et s'étendent à de nombreux acteurs.

Le conflit d'intérêts est au coeur des préoccupations déontologiques de l'entreprise, comme en témoignent les procédures pesant sur ses acteurs-clés, dirigeants et actionnaires de référence. Les bonnes pratiques de gouvernance, inspirées des théories sur la gouvernance d'entreprise, se muent aussi en règles déontologiques consignées dans les codes de gouvernance. L'entourage des actionnaires n'est pas épargné, notamment les agences de conseil en vote sur qui pèsent des règles déontologiques.

L'éthique d'entreprise est aussi en plein essor. On distingue l'éthique de la transparence, celle des compliances et celle de la vigilance. Ces nouvelles normes éthiques suscitent de fortes attentes, notamment au regard des préoccupations sociétales, environnementales, de la défense des droits de l'homme ou de la lutte contre la corruption.".

► Full reference: M.-A. Frison-Roche, "Pourquoi le Droit de la Compliance ?" ("Why Compliance Law?"), in Roman Aydogdu et Hans De Wulf (dir.), Bruxelles, 15 march 2023. 

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🧮Read the full programme of this event

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► Full reference: M.-A. Frison-Roche, , F. Ancel, N. Roret, "Les juges vont être de plus en plus présents dans le droit de la compliance" ("Judges will be more and more involved in Compliance Law"), interview with Olivia Dufour, Actu-Juridique, 1st March 2023.

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💬read the interview (in French)

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► Presentation of the interview by the journal (in French) : "À l’instigation du professeur Marie-Anne Frison-Roche, l’École nationale de la magistrature (ENM) a proposé pour la première fois début février une formation en compliance à destination des magistrats et des avocats. François Ancel, conseiller la Cour de cassation, Nathalie Roret, avocate et directrice de l’ENM et Marie-Anne Frison-Roche plaident d’une seule voix pour le renforcement du rôle des acteurs judiciaires dans la compliance."

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► Questions asked (in French): 

• D’où est venue l’idée d’aborder ce droit en cours d’émergence qui semble encore très confidentiel ?

• En effet, on croit souvent savoir ce qu’est la compliance, en la confondant avec la conformité, pouvez-vous expliquer ce qui les distingue ?​​

• On constate, en lisant le programme de la formation, que toutes les branches du droit sont concernées par la compliance depuis le droit des sociétés jusqu’au pénal en passant par les contrats et la responsabilité. Pouvez-vous nous donner des exemples ?​

• Comment se redistribuent les rôles entre les avocats, les juges et les entreprises dans cette nouvelle configuration qu’est la compliance ?​

• En quoi est-ce important pour les magistrats d’appréhender ce nouvel univers ?​

• Ces transformations sont-elles cantonnées à la compliance ou peuvent-elles sortir de son champ ?​

• Par exemple qu’en est-il de la question très controversée du rôle de l’avocat à l’égard du juge ?​

• Avez-vous constaté lors de cette formation une amélioration du dialogue entre les différents acteurs ?​

• Cette formation va-t-elle être instituée de manière permanente dans la formation des magistrats et des avocats ? Une autre manifestation est-elle prévue ?

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► Full Reference: M.-A. Frison-Roche, "Conforter le rôle du Juge et de l'Avocat pour imposer la Compliance comme caractéristique de l'État de Droit" ("Reinforce the Judge and the Attorney to impose Compliance Law as a characteristic of the Rule of Law"), in M.-A. Frison-Roche (dir.), La juridictionnalisation de la Compliance, coll. "Régulations & Compliance", Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and Dalloz, 2023, p. 29-55. 

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► This article is the introduction of the book.  

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📝read the article (in French)

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🚧read the bilingual Working Paper which is the basis of this article, with additional developments, technical references and hyperlinks 

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📕read a general presentation of the book, La juridictionnalisation de la Compliance, in which this article is published

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► Summary of the article (done by the Journal of Regulation & Compliance): One can understand that the compliance mechanisms are presented with hostility because they seem designed to keep the judge away, whereas there is no Rule of Law without a judge. Solid arguments present compliance techniques as converging towards the uselessness of the judge (I). Certainly, we come across magistrates, and of all kinds, and powerful ones, but that would be a sign of imperfection: its ex-ante logic has been deployed in all its effectiveness, the judge would no longer be required... And the lawyer would disappear so with him...

This perspective of a world without a judge, without a lawyer and ultimately without Law, where algorithms could organize through multiple processes in Ex Ante the obedience of everyone, the "conformity" of all our behaviors with all the regulatory mass that is applicable to us, supposes that this new branch of Law would be defined as the concentration of processes which gives full effectiveness to all the rules, regardless of their content. But supposing that this engineer's dream is even achievable, it is not possible in a democratic and free world to do without judges and lawyers.

Therefore, it is imperative to recognize their contributions to Compliance Law, related and invaluable contributions (II).

First of all, because a pure Ex Ante never existed and even in the time of the Chinese legists, people were still needed to interpret the regulations because a legal order must always be interpreted Ex Post by who must in any case answer the questions posed by the subjects of law, as soon as the political system admits to attributing to them the right to make claims before the Judge. Secondly the Attorney, whose office, although articulated with the Judge's office, is distinct from the latter, both more restricted and broader since he must appear in all cases where the judicial figure puts himself in square, outside the courts. However, Compliance Law has multiplied this since not only, extending Regulatory Law, it entrusts numerous powers to the administrative authorities, but it also transforms companies into judges, in respect of which the attorneys must deal with.

Even more so, Compliance Law only takes its sense from its Monumental Goals. It is in this that this branch of the Law preserves the freedom of human beings, in the digital space where the techniques of compliance protect them from the power of companies by the way that the Compliance Law forces these companies to use their power to protect people. However, firstly, it is the Judges who, in their diversity, impose as a reference the protection of human beings, either as a limit to the power of compliance tools or as their very purpose. Secondly, the Attorney, again distinguishing himself from the Judge, if necessary, reminds us that all the parties whose interests are involved must be taken into consideration. In an ever more flexible, soft, and dialogical Law, everyone presenting himself as the "advocate" of such and such a monumental goal: the Attorney is legitimate to be the first to occupy this place.

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► Full Reference: J.-M. Coulon, "Le droit de la compliance dans le secteur d'activité de la construction et les contradictions, impossibilités et impasses auxquelles les entreprises sont confrontées" ("Compliance Law in the construction sector and the contradictions, impossibilities and impasses facing companies"), in M.-A. Frison-Roche (ed.), La juridictionnalisation de la Compliance, coll. "Régulations & Compliance", Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and Dalloz, 2023, p. 133-140. 

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📕read a general presentation of the book, La juridictionnalisation de la Compliance, in which this article is published

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► The summary below describes an article following the colloquium L'entreprise instituée Juge et Procureur d'elle-même par le Droit de la Compliance (The Entreprise instituted Judge and Prosecutor of itself by Compliance Law) , co-organized by the Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and the Faculté de Droit Lyon 3. This manifestation was designed under the scientific direction of Marie-Anne Frison-Roche and Jean-Christophe Roda and took place in Lyon on June 23, 2021. During this colloquium, the intervention was shared with Christophe Lapp, who is also a contributor in the book (see the summary of the Jean-Marc Coulon's Article).

In the book, the article will be published in Title I, devoted to:  L'entreprise instituée Juge et Procureur d'elle-même par le Droit de la Compliance (The Entreprise instituted Judge and Prosecutor of itself by Compliance Law ).

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► Summary of the article (done by the author): The construction industry is not a regulated sector. Its market is made up of a superposition of territorial strata which are all relevant markets, to which corresponds a specific microcosm of companies. Finally, the temporary association between companies for the purposes of carrying out a project or a work is consubstantial with this sector.

The penetration of Compliance in this sector is inevitably very heterogeneous and results from both exogenous factors (other partners within temporary associations, influence of economic operators from other sectors of activity, capital providers and lenders, incitations from professional organizations ) the endogenous (submission to a Financial Regulatory Authority because the company is listed ; application of the laws on duty of vigilance, and French Law called "Sapin 2"). For example, subject to all these factors combined, the Bouygues group is particularly sensitive to compliance.

Not only internal "legislator", the Bouygues group finds itself in turn "prosecutor and judge" both of itself and of others. Indeed, leading an investigation, filing a complaint, triggering an ethics alert, making use of the leniency program, this group is, however, no other than a sort of assistant for the Prosecutor. In addition, scrutinizing its stakeholders, sanctioning its employees, resorting to a Convention Judiciaire d'intérêt public (judicial agreement in the public interest) or negotiating its sanction within the framework of a procedure instituted by a multilateral bank, it fulfills the function of a judge. Legislator, prosecutor, judge, the Bouygues group is faced with a paradox, in a way encouraged to exercise “sovereignty”, yet it does not benefit from the attributes attached to it or from the unwavering support of the competent Public Authorities.

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► Full Reference: M.-A. Frison-Roche, "Le jugeant-jugé. Articuler les mots et les choses face à l'éprouvant conflit d'intérêts" ("The Judge-Judged. Articulating words and things in the face of the testing conflict of interest"), in M.-A. Frison-Roche, (ed.), La juridictionnalisation de la Compliance, coll. "Régulations & Compliance", Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and Dalloz, 2023, p. 59-80. 

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📝read the article (in French)

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🚧read the bilingual Working Paper which is the basis of this article, with additional developments, technical references and hyperlinks

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📕read a general presentation of the book, La juridictionnalisation de la Compliance, in which this article is published

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► Summary of the article (done by the Journal of Regulation & Compliance): Since the topic of this article is part of a chapter devoted to the Company established as Prosecutor and Judge of itself by Compliance Law, chapter aiming to use the relevant qualifications, it is appropriate therefore to worry about the adjustment of words and things, of the way in which the relationship between ones and the others evolve, and of the more particular question of knowing if this evolution is radical or not when one speaks of "judge ".

because "judging" is a word that the Law has disputed with other disciplines, but that it has appropriated not so much to confer more powers on those who act in its name, for example that who supervise and punish, but on the contrary to impose limits, since to the one who judges it has put the chains of the procedure under foot, thus making bearable for the other the exercise of such a power. Therefore, those who want the power to judge would often want to not have the title, because having de jure the title of judge is being subject to the correlated regime, it is to be submitted to procedural correctness.

It is therefore to better limit that the Law sees who judges, for obliging this so-powerful character to the procedure. But the Law also has the power to appoint a judge and to fix the contours of all the characters in the trial. He usually does it with clarity, distinguishing the ones of the others, not confusing them. This art of distinction has constitutional value. Thus, not only the one who judges must be named "judge" but the procedural apparatus which goes with this character, and which constitutes a way of doing things and fundamental rights, are not "granted" by kindness or in a second step: it is a block. If you didn't want to have to endure procedural rights, you didn't have to want to be a judge. Admittedly, one could conclude that the procedure would therefore have become "substantial"; by this elevation, it is rather a fashion of saying that the procedure would no longer be a "servant": it is a kind of declaration of love for the procedure, as long as one affirms that at the acts of judging , or investigating, or prosecuting, are "naturally" attached the procedural rights for the one who is likely to be the object of these powers.

Compliance Law, in search of allies to achieve the Monumental Goals for the aims of which it was instituted, will require, or even demand, private companies to go and seek themselves, in particular through investigations. internal or active vigilance on others, for finding facts likely to be reproached to them. Compliance Law will also require that they prosecute those who have committed these acts. Compliance La will again demand that they sanction the acts that people have committed in their name.

This is clearly understood from the point of view of Ex Ante efficiency. The confusion of roles is often very efficient since it is synonymous with the accumulation of powers. For example, it is more efficient that the one who pursues is also the one who instructs and judges, since he knows the case so well... Besides, it is more efficient that he also elaborates the rules, so he knows better than anyone the "spirit" of the texts. This was often emphasized in Regulatory Law. When everything is Information and risk management, that would be necessary ... But all this is not obvious.

For two reasons, one external and the other internal.

Externally, the first reason is that it is not appropriate to "name" a judge who is not. This would be too easy, because it would then be enough to designate anyone, or even to do it oneself to appropriate the regime that goes with it, in particular for obtain a so-called legitimate power for obtaining that others obey even though they are not subordinate or from them they transmit information, even though they would be  competitors: it would then be necessary to remember that only the Law is able to appoint judge ; in this new Compliance era, companies would be judges, prosecutors, investigators!  Maybe, if the Law says it, but if it didn't, it would be necessary to come back to this tautology ... But are we in such a radicalism? Moreover, do judges have "the prerogative" of judgment and the Law has not admitted this power for companies to judge for a long time? As soon as the procedure is there in Ex Ante and the control of the judge in Ex Post?

The second reason, internal to the company, situation on which the article focuses, is that the company investigates itself, judges itself, sanctions itself. However, the legal person expressing its will only through its organs, we underline in practice the difficulties for the same human being to formulate grievances, as he/she is the agent of the legal person, addressed to the natural person that he/she himself/herself is. The two interests of the two are not the same, are often opposed; how the secrets of one can be kept with respect to the other, represented by the same individual? ... It is all the mystery, even the artifice of legal personality that appears and we understand better that Compliance Law no longer wants to use this strange classical notion. Because all the rules of procedure cannot mask that to prosecute oneself does not make more sense than to contract with oneself. This conflict of interest is impossible to resolve because naming the same individual X then naming him/her Y, by declaring open the dispute between them does not make sense.

This dualism, which is impossible to admit when it comes to playing these functions with regard to corporate officers, can come back to life by setting up third parties who will carry secrets and oppositions. For example, by the designation of two separate lawyers for the human being agent and the human being representative of the legal person, each lawyer being able to have secrets for each other and to oppose each other. These spaces of reconstitution of the so "natural" oppositions in procedure between the one who judges and the one who is judged can also take the technological form of platforms: where there is no longer anyone, where the process has replaced the procedure, there is no longer any human judgment. We can thus see that the fear of conflicts of interest is so strong that we resign ourselves to saying that only the machine would be "impartial", a derisory conception of impartiality, against which it is advisable to fight.

This then leads to a final question: can the company claim to exercise the jurisdictional power to prosecute and judge and investigate without even claiming to be a prosecutor, an investigating judge, or a court? The company's advantage would be to be able to escape the legal regime that classical Law attaches to its words, mainly the rights of the defense and the rights of action for others, the principle of publicity of justice for everyone, which expresses the link between procedure and democracy. When Facebook said on June 12, 2021 "react" to the decision of May 5, 2021, adopted by what would only be an Oversight Board to decide "as a consequence" of a 2-year suspension of Donald Trump's account, the art of qualifications seem to be used in order to avoid any regime constraint.

But this art of euphemism is very old. Thus, the States, when they wanted to increase repression, presented the transformation of the system as a softening of it through the "decriminalization" of Economic Law, transferred from the criminal courts to the independent administrative agencies. The efficiency was greatly increased, since the guarantees of the Criminal Procedure ceased to apply. But 20 years later, Words found their way back to Things: under Criminal Law, slept the "criminal matter", which requires the same "Impartiality". In 1996, a judge once affirmed it and everything was changed. Let us therefore wait for what the Courts will say, since they are the masters of qualifications, as Article 12 of the French Code of Civil Procedure says, as Motulsky wrote it in 1972. Law has time.

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► Full Reference: Frison-Roche, M.A., La compliance en entreprise : aspects théoriques et pratiques, in 118ième Congrès des Notaires, L'ingénierie notariale, Marseilles, October 12, 2022. 

This Masterclass is given in French.

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► English Presentation of this Masterclass: This two-hour Masterclass aims to introduce, regarding the role of the Notary in companies and vis-à-vis them, Compliance Law. 

This discover of Compliance Law is built on a description of the new Compliance techniques of which companies are the object or the source (I) then, faced with such a mass of new standards, because this is incomprehensible and uncontrollable if these so many regulations are not "conceived", explain what can give meaning to this Compliance Law, namely the "Monumental Goals" which animate it and give it meaning (II). Like the Regulation Law that Compliance prolongs, Compliance Law is a teleological branch of law that requires that the application and interpretation of norms be done by these Monumental Goals.

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This Masterclass is given in French: see some technical references in English ⤵️

► Full Reference: F. Marty, "L'apport des programmes de conformité à la compétitivité internationale : une perspective concurrentielle" ("The contribution of compliance programmes to international competitiveness: a competitive perspective"), in M.-A. Frison-Roche (ed.), Les Buts Monumentaux de la Compliance, coll. "Régulations & Compliance", Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and Dalloz, 2022, p. 381-400.

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📕read a general presentation of the book, Les Buts Monumentaux de la Compliance, in which this article is published

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► Summary of the article (done by the Journal of Regulation & Compliance): The author analyzes economically the question of whether the compliance programs set up to respect competition rules are for the sole purpose of avoiding sanctions or also contribute to the goal of increasing the international economic performance of companies. which submit to them.

The author explains that companies integrate by duplication external standards to minimize the risk of sanctions, developing a "culture of compliance", which produces their competitiveness increase and the effectiveness of the legal and economic system. In addition, it reduces the cost of investment, which increases the attractiveness of the company.

In this, this presentation based on the postulate of the rationality of companies and investors, compliance programs can fall under self-regulation. The duplication of the law that they operate takes place largely according to "procedural" type methods.

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► Full Reference: B. Deffains, "L’enjeu économique de compétitivité internationale de la compliance" ("The economic challenge of international competitiveness of Compliance"), in M.-A. Frison-Roche (ed.), Les Buts Monumentaux de la Compliance, coll. "Régulations & Compliance", Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and Dalloz, 2022, p. 355-366.

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📕read a general presentation of the book, Les Buts Monumentaux de la Compliance, in which this article is published

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► Summary of the article (done by the Author, translated by the Journal of Regulation & Compliance) :  "Compliance", which can be define as obedience to the regulations is a stake for the company in that it can choose as a strategy to do it or not to do it, according to what costs it and brings it such a choice. This same choice of understanding is offered to the author of the norm, the Legislator or the Judge, even the entire legal system making regulation more or less expensive, and compliance with it for businesses. So when the French law known as “Vigilance law” was adopted in 2017, the French Parliament was criticized for dealing a blow to the “international competitiveness” of French companies. ”Today, it is on its model that the  European Directive is conceived. The extraterritoriality attached to Compliance Law, often presented as an economic aggression, is nevertheless a consubstantial effect, with its desire to claim to protect beyond borders. , coming us back to a classic question in Economics: what is the price of virtue?

To fuel a debate that began a few centuries ago, it is on the side of the issues that the analysis must be made economically. Indeed, Compliance Law is not only located in Ex Ante, to prevent, detect, remedy, reorganize the future, but also claims to face more "monumental" difficulties than traditional branches of Law. And it is concretely by examining the new instruments that Compliance Law has put in place and offered or imposed on companies that the question of international competitiveness must be examined. The mechanisms of information, secrecy, accountability or responsibility, which have a great effect on the international competitiveness of companies and systems, have changed and their measure has not yet been taken.

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► Full Reference: L. Meziani, "Proportionnalité en compliance, garant de l’ordre public en entreprise" ("Proportionality in Compliance, the guarantee of public order in companies"), in M.-A. Frison-Roche (ed.), Les Buts Monumentaux de la Compliance, coll. "Régulations & Compliance", Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and Dalloz, 2022, p. 225-230.

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📕read a general presentation of the book, Les Buts Monumentaux de la Compliance, in which this article is published

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► Summary of the article (done by the Journal of Regulation & Compliance): The author emphasizes the part that companies take not only in the application of Compliance mechanisms but also in their establishment, as soon as Proportionality, a mechanism that guarantees public order, is respected. It emphasizes the link between Compliance and Ethics, since the company is directly in charge of the people who work for it and in its name, the company being a way of social integration. The way in which the company organizes itself so that the people within it are treated fairly is a major factor in an effective Compliance culture.

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► Full Reference: M.-A. Frison-Roche, "L'appui du Droit de la Compliance pour la maîtrise quotidienne du Droit de la concurrence" ("The support of Compliance Law for the daily mastery of Competition Law"), in C. Lemaire & F. Martucci (eds.), Liber Amicorum Laurence Idot. Concurrence et Europe, vol. I, pref. C. Lemaire & F. Martucci, foreword B. Lasserre, Concurrences, 2022, pp. 369-374

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► English Summary of the article: Competition Law has become so huge and has included so many regulations and "regulatory" perspective that we end up giving up trying to grasp it as a whole, preferring to become a specialist in one of its parts.  That would be to lose sight of the simple and strong reason that unites the whole and gives it its breath: Freedom.

Freedom experienced by the persons in their daily economic action, Freedom guarded by Competition Law, always returning to its principle: Free Competition. Therefore, the European Union places great emphasis on Competition. To make effective and to keep it in this state, “Competition Policy” is based on Competition Law, but if authorities and judges do not blame companies for their power, they do not rely on it.

To do this, Competition Law must be supported by Compliance Law, which strongly encourages companies to act for the effectiveness and the promotion of competitive principles. Competition Law is thus slipping from the Ex-Post towards the Ex-Ante, the commitments of companies leading them to cease being passive, even punished, to become convinced actors and themselves pedagogues. Something to please a great Professor of Competition Law, to whom homage is paid here.

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📗read the Table of Contents of the book in which this article is published (in French)

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🚧read the bilingual Working Paper which is the basis of this article, with additional developments, technical references and hyperlinks

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📝read the article (in French)

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► Full Reference: Meziani, L., Ch., Proportionality in Compliance, the guarantee of public order in companies, in Frison-Roche, M.-A. (ed.), Compliance Monumental Goals, series "Régulations & Compliance", Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and Bruylant, to be published.

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► Article Summary (done by the Journal of Regulation & Compliance):  The author emphasizes the part that companies take not only in the application of Compliance mechanisms but also in their establishment, as soon as Proportionality, a mechanism that guarantees public order, is respected. It emphasizes the link between Compliance and Ethics, since the company is directly in charge of the people who work for it and in its name, the company being a way of social integration. The way in which the company organizes itself so that the people within it are treated fairly is a major factor in an effective Compliance culture.

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📘go to the general presentation of the book in which this article is published.

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► Full Reference: FM.-A. Frison-Roche, La responsabilité ex ante, pilier du droit de la compliance ("Ex-Ante Responsibility, Compliance Law Pillar"), D.2022, chronique MAFR - Droit de la Compliance, Recueil Dalloz, March 31, 2022.

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► Article English Summary: The Law must help to face the future, which can be totally catastrophic in terms of climate and digital issues. Courts are s best placed for this, without “governing”, only relying on the commitments made by companies, governments, and legislators.  On the ordinary Tort Law, court decisions oblige these different entities to be consistent in the commitments they have made, obliging them to act in the future, formal “compliance” with the regulations cannot be sufficient. This ex-ante responsibility, founding the powers, thus constitutes a pillar of a substantial Compliance Law, showing the part that CSR and the companies with a raison d'être play in it.

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📝 read the article. (written in French)

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📚go to the presentation of the other articles published in this Chronique Droit de la Compliance made in the Recueil Dalloz. 

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► Full reference: M.-A. Frison-Roche, Conceiving Power, Working Paper, December 2021

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📝 This Working Paper serves as the basis for an article to be published in the collective book drawn up in tribute to Professor Emmanuel Gaillard. 

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► Working Paper summary: In 1985, Emmanuel Gaillard's central work came out under the title Le pouvoir en droit privé  (The Power in Private Law)📎!footnote-2418, but when it was defended in 1981, his thesis directed by Dean Cornu was entitled La notion de pouvoir en droit privé (The notion of Power in Private Law) 📎!footnote-2419.

Let's give full force to the original title of the thesis.  

The deletion of the term notion perhaps implies that by defining something the essential is done, that there would be something of a pleonasm in aiming at The notion of Power and The Power, as Law likes to economise on words.  

But it was indeed a renewed, simpler and more powerful conception of the notion of Power, containing the entire regime necessarily imputed, that this work imposed, henceforth illuminating positive Law. Emmanuel Gaillard's definition, on the other hand, goes beyond Private Law. We would gladly have argued in favour of retaining the heading for the term Notion, proposing instead to dispense with the reference to Private Law alone ....

Perhaps it was because the concept is so vast that in this seminal thesis its scope was restricted to Private Law, since the author already had to account for the sheer multiplicity of manifestations in this part of the legal system; Or perhaps it was because the concept of 'Power' is so familiar in Public Law that it would have needed less definition in Public Law (which, moreover, is so diversely proposed in this more political area, which is already careful on principle to distinguish between powers, which must always be plural in order to be separated), and that it was therefore reasonable to want to arrive at a single concept of Power in Private Law, where the notion of subjective rights is more familiar. 

However, Emmanuel Gaillard's definition of Power as a prerogative placed, by legal rule or contract, in the hands of the person invested with them for the benefit, at least in part, of others, covers both Public and Private Law. This even contributes to the solidity of this thesis and explains why it flourishes today in legal systems where the distinction between Private Law and Public Law is weakening.

The power of this definition lies in its simplicity. Simple and brave minds are often the most fruitful. As Dean Gérard Cornu points out in his preface, the author, in particular because he bases himself more on positive law, for example that relating to the powers of corporate officers, does not get bogged down in discussions between authors only to end up preferring one over the other. He arrives at a definition that is close to our everyday experience: the one we experience when we collect an envelope on behalf of someone else and the agent asks us in what capacity we claim to be doing this on his behalf. We then show him our 'power', the legal power to do so for the benefit of the person to whom the letter is addressed, and can thus exercise the power to withdraw the letter, even though it is personal. When legal and common sense come together, it is a good omen, not only in terms of form, because everyone can understand it and the Law must remain comprehensible, but also in terms of substance, because everyone must be able to control the exercise of a power that is exercised for and over others. For this letter addressed to someone else, the person who has been able to take it by virtue of the power conferred on him/her, could just as easily open it and read it, then destroy it or give it to the worst enemy of the person to whom it was addressed. In Power, there is always might to do, and the danger to others that Power contains therefore. 

This highly legal definition of Power not only distances the holder from his/her own interests, but also channels the Power thus granted to the person who benefits from it. In this respect, Emmanuel Gaillard not only distinguished between Power and subjective right, but also identified the right amount of power required for this power to effectively fulfill this 'Mission', through the notion of abuse of power, when the holder uses for other beneficiaries this power that was conferred on him/her for this sole purpose.

What is more, this concept makes it possible to distinguish Power from discretionary force, because the holder of Power thereby exercises factual , by acting for others, deciding for others, deciding on others. Because Power is inseparable from might, but might must remain the means of power and no more, the Law shall produce the antibodies that are not only the theory of abuse of power but also an Ex Ante responsibility that accounts must always be rendered, either to the other for whom everything is done or to a third party. For this third party is often there from the outset, the guardianship judge for example: because the Power was put in place because of the beneficiary's weakness, both in himself/herself and because of the situation, an impartial and disinterested third party is needed to ensure proper execution from the outset, without there even being a dispute. In this respect, how useful this thesis is for thinking about what Supervision is today!  

This thesis, so clear, so simple and so strong, goes beyond Private or Civil Law. It is both much more restrictive than the more factual and political definition of Oower, which would be the ability to do something, and much broader than the usual definitions, since it embraces and legitimises de jure all situations where a person acts legally for the benefit of another.  Dean Cornu shows, moreover, in two sentences that such a notion of power also captures the office of the judge, who has power over others only to serve them 📎!footnote-2420. The definition corresponds to the mission of one who has power only to fulfill his office. It suits so well the conception we have today of Administration, especially if it takes the form of independent authorities.

Moreover, Power thus contains its own limit in its very definition, since others are present in it: the holder has power only to serve others. From then on, it is only a power because it is a kind of Charge. Emmanuel Gaillard immediately uses the term: "Un individu se voit confier une charge qu'il exerce dans un intérêt au moins partiellement distinct du sien propre"  ("An individual is entrusted with an office which he exercises in an interest at least partially distinct from his own") 📎!footnote-2422. Dean Carbonnier, who reformed the legislation in this area 📎!footnote-2456,, emphasised that the guardian has a public duty because the State entrusts him/her with a child. In the same way parental authority is a charge on the parents for the benefit of the children. More generally, Power is a burden that the Law places on a person to satisfy the interests of another.

This definition offered by Emmanuel Gaillard in 1981, anchored in Private Law only insofar as it is the entire legal system, is premonitory of the Regulatory and Compliance Law as it unfolds today. It would be enough to continue the Gaillard's sentences, as if they had been half-written, to finish them 40 years later and find in them the mechanisms of Supervision of companies by public authorities which are now in place not to reduce their power but to ensure that they exercise it for the benefit of others 📎!footnote-2457. The whole evolution of Company Law and Financial Law is here. Between the lines of this thesis, which develops the notion of duty 📎!footnote-2421, we can also see what positive Law is developing today, in particular through the 'duty of Vigilance', this personal responsibility for the benefit of others (I).

The definition of Power thus conceived contains within itself its regime and enables us to anticipate it better today: because the holder exercises Power only for others, at least partially, he is consubstantially accountable for it, responsibility being only one form of this accountability; because this service must be effective and others must benefit fully from it, because unlike the subjective right which allows the holder freely not to use his might, Power has never been the 'most absolute' availability to use his/her might: it is even the opposite. It is the expression of a Power assigned to a purpose, compelling the holder to use his/her Power to that end.  But it is equally necessary for the holder to have all the might to do so, otherwise the very notion of 'Power' is meaningless. This is the definition that should be given to the principle of Proportionality: the person on whom the Power rests must have not more power than is necessary, but all the power necessary to achieve the Monumental Goals for which the Power has been entrusted to him/her, so that others may derive full benefit from it (II). 

In today's positive Law, the definition of Power as a Duty is found not only in Private Law but also in Public Law, not least because pure might, i.e. those that do not account for the use of their might, are in decline while concern for others is on the increase. The days of discretionary powers are over, and the increased independence of those who exercise Power over others requires them to be accountable. Beyond this Accountability, the personal Responsibility of those who have the Power to serve others is being established. But, no doubt because the Law is slow to evolve, the correlative idea that the holder of Power must have all the powers required to carry out his/her mission is less entrenched:  As Emmanuel Gaillard has shown, the Law has only gone part of the way in sanctioning excesses of power, when the holder uses his/her power for other goals, but it has not yet clearly established that the holder - sometimes forced - of a Power is legitimate in using all the means required to achieve the result for which this Power, i.e. a charge and a duty, has been conferred on him/her.  

No doubt we need to read Emmanuel Gaillard's thesis again in all its potential, to imagine the reading we could do today of what he could have written as if on blank pages that would write themselves, a magical thesis where everything is already there, a thesis so short (250 pages) and so beautiful, so dense that it already contains the Law of the Future. The Law of the Future 📎!footnote-2458  where there must be much more responsibility for the benefit of others📎!footnote-2423 and powers since this notion includes others who are the beneficiaries. Droit de l'Avenir where Emmanuel Gaillard will be present, in particular thanks to this work of doctrine offered in 1981.  So that, in practical terms, those who are entrusted with looking after others - for example, today all companies obliged by Compliance Law to look after others so that they are not destroyed by hatred in the digital space, by corruption in the economic system or by climate change in a projected future - do not find themselves challenged by the same Law for the means of exercising this power for the benefit of others, for example when this involves 'judging'. Dean Cornu himself emphasised the identity of the two offices.

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