Food for thoughts

► Full Reference: Frison-Roche, M.-A., Chair for "The temporal dimension: Imminence and Intertemporally", in Climate Change Cases before National and International Courts Cross-fertilization and Convergence", November 27, 2021, Paris. 

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read the program

Summary of the panel presentation: The specific topic of our panel is the “temporal dimension” of the judicial cases of Climate change.

We shall listen to two great experts on this topic, which is Time.

Listening the other previous speakers, I understand how this topic is important, because Climate Change requires an immediate action and it create a political issue, because everyone comes before courts.

A basis and fundamental problem, because the times are not adjusted. 

let's come back to basic notions, to have three times : “past, present, future”.

The issue of Climate Change is in the Future, the necessity of Action is in the Present and the basis temporal question is to know if Courts are the bodies adequate to responde ; maybe it is inevitable that Judge must be recreate their office because the time of the classical judicial office is the Past.

Immediately, this simple et huge problem appears : in a classical repartition, the judge is the legal character to intervenir for the Past, the present (maybe is for you and me), and the future is the time for the State, and more precisely for the Parliament.

But the climate change is a huge topic, not in the past, not in the present, but in the future.

Therefore a gap exists between the time of the topic and the time of the court before the case is explained for obtaining a solution : how to give a good answer ? Judge maybe must travel in time, from past to future …. Maybe, he must, but might he?

Classically, the judge can anticipate a very next future, but not the more distant and systemic future. Climate change belongs to the second one.

This is why the title of this panel is non only about the necessity to take in consideration the “imminence” but also the “intertemporally” : maybe court are the sole able to create this intertemporality between Past and Future, and by this way to obtain from States and companies to do something immediately !

By two legal ways. 

Courts can stay in Past, supervising States, if they dispose of effective legal decisions taken by States in the past about Climate Change (essentially Paris Agreement, for instance transposed in the French legal system by a formal law). This is why an efficient judicial solution would be the possibility for the courts to oblige State to implement their more or less committment they had taken in the past for the future (as the Conseil d’Etat did in the Commune de Grande-Synthe Cas Law).

Even for that, the courts must adopt a creative notion of what is a commitment from a State through a Law... ; as they must do about private companies comitment (in their codes of conduct or soft law of corporate social responsability). 

But what to do if States didn’t take such commitment ?

Some can allege Courts are not Parliaments and are not legitimate to rule for the future … It is a political issue, a very classical one but very accurate for Climate change (where States and companies are face to courts...) and maybe  And as our colleague said, judicial system is quite technically weak to concretize human rights.

Therefore, the second way, more innovative, est the new use of Tort Law : no more a liability Ex Post, but a responsibility Ex Ante. In every legal system, even in Civil Law systems, Tort Law is conceived by courts (for instance in French Law). 

If the new reasoning is conveived in Ex Ante, Tort Law must be a set of legal tools to reach the monumental tools to reach the "Monumental Goal" (being by nature future) which is the Climate Change stopping. 

In this teleological reasoning, the admissibility and the choice remedies, must be adapted to obtain what is central : the effectivity and the efficiencicy. 

In this sens, the judgement between two parties (which was an Ex Post act) may be conceived as an systemic efficient action (which was an Ex Ante act), because it must be. 

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Référence complète : Agence française anticorruption (AFA), La prévention des conflits d'intérêts dans l'entreprise, nov. 2021.

Lire le guide

Référence complète : Pineda Rios, D., Le Droit de la compliance, un pivot transformateur de l'arbitrage international. L'annulation de sentences arbitrales pour non-respect des droits humains et de l'environnement, mémoire Master, Paris I, 2021. 

Lire le mémoire. 

Daniela Andrea Pineda Ríos

Référence complète : Kemfouet, E.-D.,  Énergies renouvelables, transition énergétique et enjeux climatiques en droit africain, Revue Africaine de Droit de l’Environnement (African Journal of Environmental Law),n°6, nov. 2021.

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Lire le volume. 

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Émile-Derlin KEMFOUET

► Full Reference: Peicuti, C. et Beyssade, J., Feminisation of positions of responsibility in the workplace as a goal of Compliance, in Frison-Roche, M.-A. (ed.), Compliance Monumental Goals, series "Compliance & Regulation", Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and Bruylant, to be published.

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► Article Summary:  If the Compliance techniques are conceived as taking their meaning by their Goal, the latter being in particular the protection and the effective promotion of human beings, to be reinforced in the future thanks to Compliance Law tools, the example of the effective promotion of efficient equality between women and men in the banking sector to exercise responsible functions is clear.

strongly feminized, the image of banking sector remains masculine and in fact too few women exercise positions of responsibility, although no text is opposed to it and all rights have been allocated for this. To move from this situation to a future where equality will be effective, it is therefore in terms of regulatory mechanisms that we should think of the necessary transformation and even more of "transition" so that one day a de facto equality will be established. and appears natural to all.

The bank must then structurally integrate this Goal, which corresponds to the definition of Compliance. To do this, the banking company is part of a long-term voluntary Compliance process, relying in particular on human resources and on the public authorities of the European Banking Union which, by further implementing the concept of sustainable economy, facilitated this long-term action. In this transition, each action and result must be considered in relation to this sought-after goal of effective equality: each progress must be valued not so much in relation to the past but in relation to the future. This Ex Ante perspective justifies these self-binding Compliance techniques, such as plans, commitments, quotas, stakeholder implications, and more flexible techniques such as examples given by managers, internal training and joint affirmations with the public authorities, are all used by the company to achieve this Monumental Goal of effective equality between human beings.

The banking sector is all the more exemplary for this because the banking authorities themselves deploy incentives in this direction, the definition of Compliance Law as an alliance between the Authorities and the Companies therefore corresponding to such an action clearly in progress, structurally in the BPCE group.

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📝 see the general presentation of the book 📘Compliance Monumental Goals in which this article is published

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Référence complète : CE, Avis sur une proposition de loi visant à améliorer la protection des lanceurs d’alerte, 4 novembre 2021.

Lire l'avis.

► Full Reference: M.-A. Frison-Roche, " Assessment of whistleblowing and the obligation of vigilance regarding international competitiveness", in M.A. Frison-Roche (ed.), Compliance Monumental Goals, series "Compliance & Regulation", Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) et Bruylant, 2023, p.

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► Article Summary: Taking up the legal tools of Compliance and confronting them with the concern that Law must have for the Competitiveness of companies, it is necessary that these legal instruments not harm it because Compliance Law, because of its immense ambitions, can only function through an alliance between political wills with great pretensions (save the planet) and the entities which are able to achieve these goals (the crucial economic operators : the political drawing on the compagnies" power, it would be contradictory for the legal instruments put in place by Law to harm the ability of companies to face global economic competition, or worse to favor international competitors acting under legal systems which do not integrate Compliance obligations.  

From this principle, it is possible to assess these two legal techniques of whistleblowing and vigilance obligation: both consist in capturing Information, which gives them a strong uniqueness and fits them into the global competition for Information.

Taking the whistleblowing, its first beneficiary is the company itself since the firm discovers a weakness and can therefore remedy it. Therefore, beyond the principle of protection of the whistleblower by their access to the legal statute, for instance the one conceived by the French 2016 law known as "Sapin 2", it is questionable that all the incentives are not put in place so that the holder of such information transmits it to the manager. It is not the European solution, even after the European Directive of 2019, national legal systems continuing to require the absence of financial compensation, the "heroic figure of the whistleblower and the refusal of their remuneration depriving the company of Information and improvement. First to the manager, with external transmission taking place if the latter does nothing, the internal manager is thus encouraged to act and put an end to the dysfunction, which increases the competitiveness of the company.

But the French legislation has on the contrary developed the right incentive as to the person to whom the information is transmitted because by obliging to transmit first to the manager, the external transmission intervening if the internal management does nothing, the incentive is thus made to the internal manager to act and put an end to the dysfunction, this legal solution increasing the competitiveness of the company.

Even more, and even if it seems counter-intuitive, the obligation of vigilance increases the competitiveness of the obliged companies. Indeed, Law by obliging them to prevent and fight against violations of human rights and the environment has tacitly given them all the necessary powers to do so, notably the power to collect Information on third-party companies, including (and even above all) those which are not subject to transparency obligations. In this respect, companies, as far as they are personally responsible, hold supervisory power over others, a power which allows to globalize Compliance Law and which, in the process, increases the Companies' own power. Therefore, the obligation of vigilance is in many respects a boon for the companies which are subject to it. The resumption of the mechanism by the next European Directive, itself indifferent to the territory, will only strengthen this global power of vigilant companies over possibly foreign companies which become its passive subjects.

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🚧 read the bilingual Working Paper, basis for this article 

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📘​ read the general presentation of the book, Compliance Monumental Goals, in which this article is published

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► read the presentations of the other Marie-Anne Frison-Roche's contributions in this book: 

📝Compliance Monumental Goals, beating heart of Compliance Law, 

📝Definition of Principe of Proportionality and Definition of Compliance Law,

📝 Role and Place of Companies in the Creation and Effectiveness of Compliance Law in Crisis, 

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► Référence complète: Frison-Roche, M.A., Appréciation du lancement d'alerte et de l'obligation de vigilance au regard de la  compétitivité internationale (" ("Assessment of Whistleblowing and Vigilance Duty with regard to international competitiveness"),  in Benzoni, L., Deffains, B. et Frison-Roche, M.-A.(dir.) , Effectivité de la Compliance et Compétitivité internationale("Compliance Effectivity and International Competitiveness"), seminar co-organised by the  Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and the Centre de recherche sur l'Économie et le Droit (CRED)  of the Panthéon-Assas University, November 4, 2021. 

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►This intervention is thematic ; it is articulated with those more general carried out in introduction by Bruno Deffains particularly focused on the necessarily global scope of Compliance and in conclusion by Laurent Benzoni on Compliance as a potential new pillar of industrial policy, the whole of the colloquium having been conceived by the three of us.

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📅 read the semirar program 

📅 this scientific event is part of the 2021 colloquia cycle, organized by the Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and its Universities partners, on the general theme of Compliance Monumental Goals.

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🚧  read the bilingual Working Paper, basis of this conference

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►see the slides used during the conference

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► Conference Summary: First of all and independently of the technical topic itself which, as the slides show, is focused on these two techniques based on Information which are the Whistleblowing and the Vigilance duty, it is essentiel to pose that the techniques themselves are conceived totally  differently depending on whether Compliance Law is conceived as a mechanical process and totally binding to fully comply with all applicable regulations and to demonstrate it in advance, under the threat of terrible fines, this definition being the both completely frightening and meaningless since what these applicable regulations contains is irrelevant, in which case the prospect of competitiveness boils down to notions of costs and also procedural considerations of foreseeability and legal certainty; or if Compliance Law is conceived as a new and substantial branch of Law Ex Ante developed to detect and prevent the systemic crises being before us, of which the climate crisis is unfortunately the epigone and which requires above all Action, an action of such magnitude which requires the alliance of all forces, that of States, companies, courts and people, in a renewal of concepts, particularly legal ones, and in the indifference of territories, which puts Compliance immediately at its right level: the world, because the scientifically emerging crisis is global, the so-called "extraterritoriality" theme now being misnamed. From this new general conception, the Vigilance obligation, about which so much was said when it was imposed in France in 2017, is the advanced point, soon taken up in Europe and whose scope must be naturally global, because that Compliance Law is consubstantially global.

Taking up more technically the legal techniques of Compliance and confronting them with the Competitiveness of firms, it is necessary that these Compliance Tools do not harm this Competitiveness because Compliance Law , supporting immense ambitions, can only function through an alliance between political  wills (with great pretensions, i.e. save the planet) and the entities which are able to concretize them (the crucial economic operators): the Compliance tools designed by legal systems must preserve the companies which put them in place and never favor their competitors.

On the basis of this principle, it is possible to assess these two legal techniques,  namely the whistleblowing and the Vigilance duty,  which both capture Information, which, as such, gives them a uniqueness and places them in the global Competition for Information.

Taking the whistleblowing first, it appears that its first beneficiary is the company itself since it discovers a weakness and can therefore remedy it. This is why, beyond the principle of protection of the whistleblower by the access of somebody to the legal statute conceived in France by the law known as "Sapin 2", it is criticized that all the incentives are not used for that the holder of such information transmits it to the manager and that the same law continues to require the absence of financial counterpart, the "heroic figure of the whistleblower and the refusal of his remuneration depriving the company of a means information and improvement. The American solution is better and tt is regrettable that the law transposing the European Directive maintains this ineffective conception. But French legislation has on the contrary developed the right incentive as to the person whom the information must be transmitted to is the manager, then externally if the latter does nothing. The solution is better that the American solution because the incentive is thus made to push the internal manager to act and put an remedy to the internal dysfunction, which increases the competitiveness of the company.

Even more, even if it seems counter-intuitive, the French Vigilance Duty greatly increases the competitiveness of the companies which are subject to it. Indeed, the 2017 Law by obliging them to prevent and fight against  human rights and environment violations has tacitly given them all the necessary powers to do so, in particular the power to capture Information on third-party companies, including ( and even above all) those which are not subject to transparency obligations. In this, companies, insofar as they are personally responsible, hold a supervisory power over others, a power which allows Compliance Law to globalize and which, in the process, increases their own power. This is why the obligation of vigilance is in many respects a boon for the companies which are subject to it. The resumption of the mechanism by the next European Directive, itself indifferent to the territory, will only strengthen this global power on other firms, even foreign ones.

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► This  conférence et le document de travail servent de base à un article dans un ouvrage :

📝This conference and the Working Paper constitute the basis for an article: 

📕  in its French version in the book  Les buts monumentaux de la Compliance, in the Series    Régulations & Compliance

 📘  in its English version in the book Compliance Monumental Goals, in the Series    Compliance & Regulation

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► Référence complète : Maréchal, A., "Le Droit est un outil de compétitivité pour la place de Paris", entretien, Actu-Juridique, 29 octobre 2021.

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► Lire l'entretien

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► Référence complète : Frison-Roche, M.-A., Le principe de proximité systémique active, corolaire du renouvellement du Principe de Souveraineté par le Droit de la Compliance, document de travail, octobre 2021

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🎤 Ce document de travail avait été élaboré pour servi de base à l'intervention de clôture du colloque Effectivité de la Compliance et Compétitivité internationale, coorganisé par le Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) et le Centre de recherche en Droit et en Économie de l'Université Panthéon-Assas (Paris II), se tenant le 4 novembre 2021, Salle des Conseils, Université Panthéon-Assas (Paris II). 

🚧Il était corrélé à un premier document de travail ayant pour thème l'Appréciation du lancement d'alerte et de l'obligation de vigilance au regard de la compétitivité internationale, élaboré également pour ce colloque. 

La gestion du temps n'a permis que la prise de parole sur ce thème-ci relatif aux techniques juridiques du lancement d'alerte et de l'obligation et devoir de vigilance.

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📝Ce présent document de travail a donc été ultérieurement utilisé pour constituer la base d'un article, Le principe de proximité systémique active, corolaire du renouvellement du Principe de Souveraineté par le Droit de la Compliance, lequel est publié⤵

📕dans sa version française dans l'ouvrage Les buts monumentaux de la Compliance, dans la collection 📚 Régulations & Compliance

 📘dans sa version anglaise dans l'ouvrage Compliance Monumental Goals, dans  la collection 📚 Compliance & Regulation

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► Résumé du document de travail : Les rapports entre le Droit de la Compliance et la notion de Souveraineté sont abîmés par une mauvaise querelle de départ, souvent appelée celle de "l'extraterritorialité du Droit de la Compliance", elle-même qualifiée en tant que telle comme une attaque à la Souveraineté des Etats, une sorte de guerre contre cette sorte de population civile que sont "ses" entreprises, frappées par des sanctions économiques. Dans une confusion juridique générale, oscillant entre panique et rage, entre le cas pourtant si particulier des embargos décrétés par un Etat contre un autre, une contamination s'est faite avec la question plus vaste des sanctions économiques internationales, puis avec le Droit de la Compliance, lui-même réduit ainsi à n'être qu'une petite partie du Droit pénal international.

Le Droit de la Compliance, présenté comme outil masqué de guerre entre Etats, en a été d'une part profondément dénaturé. D'autre part, toutes les forces ont été mobilisées pour "réagir" et frapper en retour ou à tout le moins "bloquer", ou, si l'on ne pouvait rien faire d'autre, recopier l'arsenal, limitant la Compliance à la question de la corruption.

C'était réduire le Droit de la Compliance à peu, alors que nous avons tant besoin de sa force et qu'il exprime au contraire la puissance du Juridique lui-même dans un espace supra-national où les Etats sont peu présents. Ils sont peu présents parce que le territoire lui-même s'y dérobe et que les Etats demeurent liés au territoire. Or, la finance, le numérique et le spatial, ces grands enjeux de Régulation ont besoin de limites, parce que les êtres humains, même faibles, ne doivent pas être broyés par plus forts qu'eux. Non, la civilisation, essentiellement liée à la limite, ne doit pas se perdre dans ces nouveaux espaces. 

Or, la Souveraineté ne s'exprime pas dans la toute-puissance, ce sont les petits-enfants et les tyrans qui pensent cela. Elle s'exprime dans la limite, que le sujet se donne et qu'il donne. Le Droit de la Compliance, prolongeant en cela le Droit de la Régulation, est ce qui est en train de donner des limites à ces trois espaces sans territoire que sont la finance, le numérique et le spatial. En ce qu'il appréhende directement les risques globaux qui se jouent des territoires, par exemple le risque climatique. En ce qu'il limite les discours de haine qui nie l'idée de civilisation dans l'espace numérique. En ce qu'il se saisit directement de l'avenir. En ce qu'il noue directement une alliance entre les Autorités politiques et les Opérateurs cruciaux en Ex Ante 

C'est pourquoi sur la base du Droit de la Compliance l'Europe numérique souveraine s'élabore, l'industrie d'un cloud souverain se construit. Ainsi le Droit de la Compliance n'est pas l'ennemi de la Souveraineté, c'est le contraire : il est ce par quoi la Souveraineté va se déployer dans un monde qui doit se penser sans territoire en mettant pourtant le projet politique en son cœur. 

Pour cela il faut construire un nouveau principe, qui est l'inverse de la fermeture et de l'exclusion, correspondant au projet de l'Europe souveraine : celui de la "proximité systémique active. 

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Lire ci-dessous les développements⤵️

Référence complète : Gollier, Jean-Marc, Shell : le profit après le climat, Journal des tribunaux, 2021, p.723 s.

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🌐subscribe to the Newsletter MAFR Regulation, Compliance, Law

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► Full Reference: M.-A. Frison-Roche,  Support from Compliance Law for day-to-day management of Competition Law, Working Paper, Octobre 2021.

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► This working paper has been drawn up as a basis for a contribution to the Amicorum Liber for Professor Laurence Idot, published in 2022

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► Working Paper Summary: Competition Law has become so huge and just "regulations" that one would give up trying to understand it as a whole, preferring to become a specialist in one of its parts. This would be to lose sight of the simple and strong reason which unites the whole and gives it its breath: Freedom. Freedom experienced by the person in his daily economic action, Freedom kept by Competition Law, always returning to its principle: Free Competition. This is why the European Union places a so great emphasis on Competition. To build it and keep it effective, "Competition Policy" is articulated with Competition Law, but if authorities and judges do not blame companies for their power, they do not rely on it. To do this, they must then be supported by Compliance Law, which strongly encourages companies to act for the effectiveness and the promotion of Competition principles. Competition Law thus slips from the Ex Post to the Ex Ante, with the commitments of companies leading them to stop being passive and punished in order to become convinced players and educators of the others. Something pleasant for a great professor of Competition Law, to whom tribute is paid here.

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🔓read the Working Paper below⤵

► Full Reference: Bär-Bouyssière, B., Practical obstacles to the effective place of Proportionality in Compliance, in Frison-Roche, M.-A. (ed.),Compliance Monumental Goals, series "Compliance & Regulation", Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and Bruylant, to be published.

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► Article Summary:  The article is based on the undisputed assertion that Proportionality is inherent in Compliance, in particular when this takes the form of a sanction, but the author compares this assertion with its practical implementation.

The author notes that in all the compliance mechanisms, in particular in Competition Compliance, companies have difficulties in practice in satisfying with their obligations in Ex Ante because the standards are very heavy, expensive and difficult to understand, as they have difficulty. in Ex Post to obtain that the authorities do not make a disproportionate use of them, and to obtain that the courts effectively protect them from that.

These practical difficulties are due above all to the diversity of the standards concerned, those who create them as well as those who interpret them having to do so without excess, about what it is very difficult to obtain control. In addition, the weight of the implementation of compliance standards is not correlated with the concrete and financial ability of diverses companies to do so and the design of standards does not always integrate this correlation.

Faced with this, companies then tend to do more than is necessary, in order not to incur sanctions in the doubt, and moreover because the people in charge of the effectiveness of their compliance standards have in the mind not to engage their own responsibility, which encourages them to over-apply compliance obligations, when there should be a fair and strict relationship of necessity, that is to say this desired proportionality, this additional cost being a useless excess for all.

Finally, a practical difficulty is due to the violence, in itself necessary, of the sanctions, in the face of which the companies seek in Ex Post to show the disproportionate nature, but do not have very sure means of proof.

This is why it is often on the ground of rhetoric and of the conviction that enterprises are placed in practice, more than on that of the mathematical calculation of proportionality.

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📝 see the general presentation of the book, Compliance Monumental Goals, in which this article is published

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► Full Reference: Frison-Roche, M.A., Definition of Principle of Proportionality and Definition of Compliance Law ("Définition du Principe de Proportionnalité et Définition du Droit de la Compliance"),  in Frison-Roche, M.-A. et Rapp, L. (dir.), Compliance and Proportionality. From the control of Proportionality to the proportionality of the Control ("Compliance et proportionnalité. Du contrôle de proportionnalité à la proportionnalité du contrôle") Compliance et Proportionnalité. Du contrôle de proportionnalité à la proportionnalité du contrôle, juges pour la Compliance, Colloque coorganisé par le Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) et la Chaire SIRIUS (IDETCOM),  14 octobre 2021. 

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📅 read the conference program 

📅 this colloquium is part of the cycle of colloquia 2021 organised by the Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and its partners on the Compliance Monumental Goals topic. 

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🚧  read the Working Paper on the basis of which the conference was done and from which the reactions took place. 

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►see the slides supporting the conference (in French)

► Conference Summary: The use of Proportionality t always limit powers is only justified when it is about sanctions, but sanctions are only one tool among others in Compliance Law, intended moreover to have little place in this Ex Ante branch of Law. And returning to the very nature of Compliance Law, which relies on operators, private or public, because they are powerful, then using proportionality to limite powers is detrimental to Compliance Law. 

However, nothing requires that. Compliance Law is not an exception that should be limited. On the contrary, it is a branch of Law which carries the greatest principles, aimed at protecting human beings and whose Normativity lies in its "Monumental Goals": detecting and preventing future major systemic crisis (financial, health and climate ones).

However, literally  the principle of Proportionality is: "no more powers than necessary, as many powers as necessary".

The second part of the sentence is independent of the first: this must be used.

Politics having fixed these Monumental Goals, the entity, in particular the company, must have, even tacitly, "all the necessary powers" to achieve them. For example the power of vigilance, the power of audit, the power over third parties. Because they are necessary to fulfill the obligations that these "crucial operators" have to perform as they are "in a position" to do so.

So instead of limiting the powers, the Principe of Proportionality comes to support  the powers, to legitimize them and to increase them, so that we have a chance that our future is not catastrophic, perhaps better.

In this respect, Compliance Law, in its rich Definition, will itself have enriched the Principle of Proportionality.

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► the conference and the Working Paper are the basis for an article in the book⤵

►  in its French version 📕 Les Buts Monumentaux de la Compliance, in the Series  Régulations & Compliance

► in its English version 📘Compliance Monumental Goals , dans  la collection    Compliance & Regulation

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► Référence complète : J.-Ch. Roda, "Un an de droit de la concurrence dans l’univers numérique", Communication - Commerce électronique, n° 10, octobre 2021, chron. "Un an de..." n°11

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► Résumé de l'article (fait par l'auteur) : "Cette chronique se propose de faire un tour d’horizon de l’actualité du droit de la concurrence, appliqué au secteur du numérique. Plus exactement, il s’agit de dresser un panorama, nécessairement subjectif et partiel, des décisions, jurisprudences ou textes qui ont marqué l’actualité, en France, en Europe, mais aussi aux États-Unis, tant ces questions sont aujourd’hui globalisées. On en veut pour preuve les actions menées contre les plateformes américaines par des plaignants européens, devant différentes juridictions, avec aussi des décisions rendues par les autorités européennes à propos de comportements numériques qui s’avèrent aussi bien mondiaux que difficilement localisables dans l’espace. En procédant à ce tour d’horizon, on constate que l’actualité a été riche, non seulement sur le terrain de la pratique décisionnelle et de la jurisprudence, mais également en ce qui concerne la production normative. On envisagera alors les textes, puis les décisions et jurisprudences importantes, classées selon les types de contentieux, en droit interne, européen ou nord- américain. En somme, le but n’est pas d’être exhaustif : il s’agit plutôt de dessiner les grandes tendances du secteur.".

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

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📝consulter une présentation des autres chroniques "Un an de droit de la concurrence dans l’univers numérique" de Jean-Christophe Roda :

• "Un an de droit de la concurrence dans l’univers numérique" (2023)
   
• "Un an de droit de la concurrence dans l’univers numérique" (2022)

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► Référence complète : Parlement européen, Preventing money laundering in the banking sector reinforcing the supervisory and regulatory framework, 30 septembre 2021.

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Lire le rapport

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► Référence complète : Frison-Roche, M.-A., Instituer l'insécurité juridique comme principe, outil de prévention des crises systémiques catastrophiques totales, document de travail, mars et septembre 2021. 

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► Ce document de travail fait suite à deux précédents documents de travail, réalisés pour le colloque qui s'est tenu à la Cour de cassation le 22 mars 2021.

Le premier avait été conçu et en partie réalisé  longtemps avant sa tenue pour traiter le sujet selon les canons habituels attendus ; 

Le second a été élaboré le veille de sa tenue sur 4 cas car la disparition de mes serveurs en raison d'un incendie, ayant également touché les copies de ceux-ci ne me permettait pas autre chose, les organisateurs m'ayant demandé de maintenir pourtant ma participation, ce dont je les remercie 📎!footnote-2299.

Le présent document de travail a été élaboré après la tenue du colloque afin que les organisateurs de ce colloque, au thème si aventureux, ne pensent pas qu'ils ne pouvaient pas compter sur moi.

Ce document de travail vise à dépasser ces avanies et à opérer la connexion du sujet pour lequel une contribution m'a été demandée (la crise économique) avec le sujet plus général qui me retient par ailleurs : la construction de la nouvelle branche qu'est le Droit de la Compliance, pourquoi le faire et comment le faire. 

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Introduction : Comme à tous, ce sujet de "L'insécurité juridique" me pose difficulté. Parce que,  n'étant pas grand personnage solitaire affrontant l'inconnu, comme tous les autres je voudrais plutôt la sécurité que l'insécurité, et tous les mots qui ne commencent pas par une négation : je voudrais le connu plutôt l'inconnu, je voudrais être comprise qu'incomprise, et ce n'est plus par confort que par urgence morale je voudrais vivre dans un monde juste plutôt que dans un monde injuste. C'est d'ailleurs pour cette dernière raison que je vais affronter l'aventure de l'Insécurité juridique comme principe premier, et non pas comme exception au principe de la Sécurité juridique 📎!footnote-2300. 

Cet ajout du "in" signale paradoxalement un retranchement : le "in" montre ce qui manque, comme le monde blessé qu'est le monde injuste. Me voilà invitée à traiter un sujet par avance abîmé,  car l'insécurité juridique c'est déjà comme une agression : un monde amputé de sa sécurité, comme c'est désagréable. 

C'est encore plus vrai pour "l'insécurité juridique". En effet, la notion fait face à la "sécurité juridique", cette sorte d'apport spécifique que le Droit offre au monde.   La "sécurité juridique" est aujourd'hui comme un Totem, qui serait indissociable du Tabou de l'Insécurité. Dans le monde juridique épuisé dans lequel nous ne serions plus aptes qu'à proposer quelques notions procédurales, surtout pas de notions substantielles car immédiatement taxées d'être trop politiques 📎!footnote-2277, la "sécurité juridique" qui n'est qu'une notion procédurale en ce qu'elle permet simplement que tout soit prévisible, que demain soit comme aujourd'hui, lequel est d'ailleurs comme était hier, est promue au rang normatif le plus haut. Les travaux abondent, les hymnes  d'approbation sont unanimes.  On ne demanderait plus que cela au système juridique, mais cela on l'exige : le droit serait une procédure qui garantirait la prévisibilité de la réglementation 📎!footnote-2276 et accroîtrait ainsi la solidité des projets  particuliers que nous avons, les uns et des autres et, grâce au pouvoir du Droit de rendre réel ce qu'il assure, nous savons que nos projets pourront tenir demain dans les mêmes termes choisis hier, puisque le Droit nous l'a promis. 

La sécurité juridique, parce que les systèmes juridiques n'auraient plus que cela à offrir, revendiquant par ailleurs leur neutralité et se rejoignant donc sur cette constance, cette cohérence, et cette confiance produites par cette sécurité, est notre nouveau doudou.

A cela, l'on apporte nuances dans les modalités, en soulignant que les circonstances changeantes de la vie exigent un peu de flexibilité, que le pragmatisme et des situations concrètes et particulières  qui sans cesse varient impliquent de prévoir  dès aujourd'hui que demain le contexte aura changé : il faut organiser de la prévisibilité dans le changement. De cela, le Droit souple s'en charge, les lignes directrices étant les nouvelles voies romaines qui nous montreront le chemin. Sécurité et flexibilité, dans un pragmatisme qui voit dans tout principe substantiel un signe de rigidité, voilà notre nouveau mantra. 

L'insécurité juridique est ainsi notre Tabou, dont les admissions justifiées seraient autant d'hommages rendus au Totem de la sécurité juridique, Totem et Tabou se renforçant toujours. Il y aurait donc imperfection du système juridique si l'on haussait l'insécurité au rang de véritable principe. C'est pourquoi lorsqu'on fait l'effort de parler d'insécurité juridique, on semble ne le faire que sur le mode de l'exception : l'insécurité juridique, cela serait ce qu'il est admissible de supporter comme exception légitime au principe de la sécurité juridique 📎!footnote-2275. 

L'on aura donc tendance à traiter de l'insécurité juridique comme une sorte de principe supportable lorsque quelque chose justifie qu'on porte atteinte au véritable principe premier qu'est la Sécurité juridique. C'est ailleurs ainsi le plus souvent qu'on l'aborde . Ce n'est donc pas le traiter comme un véritable principe, juste comme une exception supportable. 

Voilà pourquoi l'on m'a demandé d'examiner si l'insécurité juridique était supportable, admissible, lorsqu'il y a crise économique. Sans doute parce que lorsqu'il y a crise économique, alors tant pis les principes doivent un peu baisser pavillon et l'on fait avec les moyens du bord en admettant des exceptions, bien qu'avec beaucoup de réticences et de regrets 📎!footnote-2304... Puisque c'est l'hypothèse évoquée, je la suivrai volontiers, et dans un premier temps resterai dans cet enclos-là, mais c'est aller dans l'idée que l'insécurité juridique ne pourrait être qu'une exception faite au principe de la sécurité juridique parce qu'il faut que tout ne change pas vraiment : la crise ne rebat les cartes qu'un temps, le temps de la crise, mais lorsque la crise est passée l'on en revient au normal et à ce qui est bien, à savoir le "vrai principe", celui de la constance et de l'inchangé. Car il n'est supportable de "bafouer" la sécurité juridique qu'un temps 📎!footnote-2303. L'insécurité juridique serait donc ce qui intervient lorsqu'une crise économique s'ouvre afin d'aider à l'efficacité de sa gestion et pour sortir de cette crise. Cela et pas davantage (I).

L'insécurité juridique n'aurait donc qu'un temps, parce que par nature la crise elle-même n'a qu'un temps. La fin de la crise, la fin des problèmes et d'une situation anormale feraient disparaître le principe d'insécurité juridique, lequel serait donc un principe pathologique. 

Mais ce n'est pas parce que cette description semble partagée par beaucoup que ses prémisses soient exacts. En effet, la "crise" est-elle si exceptionnelle que ce qui justifie que l'insécurité juridique, qui permet d'aider à sa résolution, le soit aussi ? Si l'on constate plutôt que la crise est non seulement notre "ordinaire", et qu'en plus notre "ordinaire catastrophique" est "prévisible", voire virtuellement déjà là, et qu'en plus dans le futur, ce qui risque d'arriver est une crise catastrophique totale qui pourrait bien être définitive dans ses effets (ce qui enlève à la crise sa nature temporaire et le retour au "vrai principe" également), alors le principe exceptionnel, cantonné dans la crise, doit sortir de l'hypothèse de celle-ci pour venir  pleinement dans le Droit présent afin d'empêcher que se réalise cet ordinaire catastrophique. 

 Oui, regardons vers le futur : ne sont-ce pas de monumentales crises qui sont devant nous ? Et l'enjeu n'est-il pas d'adopter des principes premiers pour qu'elles n'adviennent pas ? S'il en est ainsi, alors l'absence de changement, la constance et le prévisible, c'est-à-dire le principe même de la Sécurité juridique, si choyé, n'est-ce pas ce qui fait obstacle à la prévention de l'advenance des crises économiques qui nous menacent ? Certes c'est sans doute une crise sanitaire et une crise écologique et climatique qui nous sont devant nous, mais de la même façon la crise économique de 2020 n'est elle-même qu'un accessoire de la crise sanitaire mondiale, prémisses de ce qui pourrait arriver.

Si nous sommes dans cette situation mondiale alors, ce n'est pas une conception procédurale des principes qu'il faut retenir, mais une conception politique. De la même façon, dans cette perspective ce n'est pas en terme d'exception, de "principe exceptionnel" mais bien en terme de principe premier qu'il faut penser l'Insécurité juridique, c'est-à-dire en terme d'éveil et d'aventure, car demain pourrait n'être pas du tout comme aujourd'hui. Seul le principe inverse de l' "Insécurité juridique" pourrait alors exprimer la volonté d'y répondre (II). 

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► Lire ci-dessous les développements du document de travail ⤵

► Full Reference: N. Cayrol, "Procedural Principles in Compliance Law", in M.-A. Frison-Roche (ed.), Compliance Jurisdictionalisation, Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and Bruylant, coll. "Compliance & Regulation", to be published. 

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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): We could be satisfied with examining the reception of the principles of general Procedural Law in compliance litigation and the distortion that compliance techniques justify in procedural mechanisms. But the innovation that constitutes this emerging branch of law that is Compliance Law justifies going to more fundamental.

From this perspective, the pertinent question is the very legitimacy of procedural principles in this branch of law, in that Procedural Law is built on the notion of “Litigation” while Compliance Law deals with situation so enormous, concerning for example the fate of the planet, that this notion of litigation appears inadequate, and consequently the procedural law would be too limited in compliance matters.

If, however, this perspective is maintained of Compliance Law facing, in an almost warlike perspective, the greatest current challenges, general Procedural Law needs to be redesigned, in its very definition. Indeed, compliance trials call into question the future of systems and it is as such that they hold the entities, for instance the enterprises, that are at the heart of these systems. It is in this that liability trials are more “accountability” trials, allowing the judge to demand actions for the future, trials by which commitments are made and the “intentions” of the persons involved are challenged and required.

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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 : A. Linden, "Motivation and publicity of the decisions of the Restricted formation of the French Data Protection Authority (Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés – CNIL) in a compliance perspective", in M.-A. Frison-Roche (ed.), Compliance Jurisdictionalisation, Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and Bruylant, coll. "Compliance & Regulation", to be published. 

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

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► Summary of the article (done by the Journal of Regulation and Compliance): In the event of a breach of the personal data protection rules, the restricted formation of the French personal data protection Commission (CNIL) pronounces fines, injunctions of "compliance" or calls to order. It can order the publication of these measures, which can be contested before the French High Administrative supreme court (Conseil d'État).

It is essential that these decisions be justified, not only in order to respect this principle of law but also concretely to obtain the public concerned, being very heterogeneous, understand them, the educational role of the CNIL also being applicable.

The principle of publicity is handled with nuance, the data controllers often requesting a closed door and, in fact, very few public attending the hearing. The publicity of decisions is in itself a sanction. The publication may moreover not be total or may only have a time, anonymization often allowing the balance between necessary pedagogy and preservation of interests, the CNIL taking great attention to the very modalities of publication, even if it cannot control the circulation and the media use which is then made of it.

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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. Schiller, "A single judge in the event of an international breach of compliance obligations?", in M.-A. Frison-Roche (ed.), Compliance Jurisdictionalisation, Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and Bruylant, coll. "Compliance & Regulation", to be published. 

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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 Author, translated by the Journal of Regulation & Compliance): Given the very international nature of the topic apprehended, the actors involved and therefore the compliance disputes, it is essential to know if a person can be implicated before several judges, attached to different states or even if he can be condemned by several jurisdictions. The answer is given by the non bis in idem principle, which is the subject of a abondant case law on the basis of Article 4 of Protocol n°7 of the ECHR, clearly inapplicable for jurisdictions emanating from different States.

To assess whether breaches of compliance obligations may be subject to multiple sanctions in different states, it will first be necessary to ascertain whether there is a textual basis to be invoked.

At European level, Article 50 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights now allows the principle of ne bis in idem to be invoked. Applicable to all areas of compliance, it provides very strong protection which covers not only sanctions, but also prosecutions. Like its effects, the scope of Article 50 is very broad. The procedures concerned are those which have a repressive nature, beyond those pronounced by criminal courts in the strict sense, which makes it possible to cover the convictions pronounced by one of the many regulatory authorities competent in matters of compliance.

Internationally, the situation is less clear. Article 14-7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights may be invoked, if several obstacles are overcome, including the decision of 2 November 1987 of the Human Rights Committee which restricted it to the internal framework, requiring a double conviction by the same State.

Even if these principles are applicable, two specificities of compliance situations risk hampering their application, the first related to the applicable procedural rules, in particular the rules of jurisdiction, the second related to the specificities of the situation.

The application of the non bis in idem rule is only formally accepted with regard to universal jurisdiction and personal jurisdiction, that is to say extraterritorial jurisdiction, which is only part of the jurisdiction. . The Cour de cassation (French Judiciary Supreme Court) confirmed this in the famous so-called “Oil for food” judgment of March 14, 2018. The refusal to recognize this principle as universal, regardless of the jurisdiction rule in question, deprives French companies of a defense. Moreover, the repression of breaches of compliance rules is more and more often resolved through transactional mechanisms. The latter will not always fall within the scope of European and international rules laying down the non bis in idem principle, for lack of being sometimes qualified as "final judgment" under the terms of Article 50 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and Article 14-7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Breaches in terms of compliance are often based on multiple acts. This results from prescriptions the starting point of which is delayed at the last event and a facilitated jurisdiction for French courts when only one of the constitutive facts is found in France. In terms of compliance, the non bis in idem principle therefore generally does not protect companies and does not prevent them from being sued before the courts of two different countries for the same case. It nevertheless grants them another protection by obliging them to take into account foreign decisions in determining the amount of the penalty. The sanction against Airbus SE in the Judicial Convention of Public Interest (CJIP) of January 29, 2020 is a perfect illustration of this.

Breaches in terms of compliance are often based on multiple acts. This causes delays in the starting point of prescriptions, starting point delayed at the last event, and this facilitates judicial jurisdiction for French courts when only one of the constitutive facts is found in France. In terms of compliance, the non bis in idem principle therefore generally does not protect companies and does not prevent them from being sued before the courts of two different countries for the same case. It nevertheless grants them another protection by obliging them to take into account foreign decisions in determining the amount of the penalty. The sanction against Airbus SE in the Convention judiciaire d'intérêt public -CJIP (French Judicial Convention of Public Interest)  of January 29, 2020 is a perfect illustration of this.

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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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