Food for thoughts

This working paper is the basis for an article in the French Law Journal Le Clunet.

When we compare the terms "Compliance" and "Extraterritoriality", it is often with dissatisfaction, even anger and indignation. On the momentum, after having expressed a principle of disapproval of such a merger, attention is focused on how we can fight against it, to break the link between Compliance and Extraterritoriality. But do we have to go so fast? Is this negative initial assessment correct?

Indeed, thus gone, it is frequently explained that the binding mechanisms of Compliance are suffered, that they come from abroad!footnote-1750, that they apply with efficiency but in an illegitimate way, without agreement of the one who must submit to it, whose resistance is therefore certainly ineffective but nevertheless justified. In the same spirit, when we start to shell the cases, like so many scars, sort of rosary, even crown of thorns, BNPP case!footnote-1718, Astom case!footnote-1717, etc., the wounds not yet closed turn into reproaches made against the rules, public authorities, even reproaches made against named people.

We are leaving this kind of complaint against X, which targets what would be this appalling "Compliance", this Law which would be both hostile and mechanical which would not have been able to stay within the limits of borders, Compliance being thus placed in contrast to sovereignty and protection, which presuppose staying within its limits!footnote-1716 and being able to protect companies from abroad. More concretely, this presentation targets more directly the United States, which uses "the legal weapon", slipped under what is then designated as "the artifice of the Law" with extraterritorial scope. But this effect would in reality be the very object of the whole: their hegemonic will to better organize at least a global racket, notably through the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and at best a world government through notably the embargoes.Those who believed otherwise would be naive or foolish. This silences the opponents because who likes this costume? So the world would be put in a ruled cut; what the mafia could not have done, Compliance Law would have obtained, offering the whole world to the United States thanks to the extraterritoriality of its national Law.

Compliance Law would thus become the very negation of Law, since it has the effect, even the purpose (barely concealed by strategic, powerful and shameless States), of counting borders for nothing, whereas Public International Law, in that it is built between the sovereign subjects of law that are the States presupposes the primary respect for borders to better exceed them while Private International Law takes the same postulate to better welcome foreign Law in situations presenting a foreign element!footnote-1726. Jurists believed in the force of Law; by Compliance, we would return to the sad reality that only the powerful, here the United States, dominate and - ironically - it is under the pretext of Law that they do it. It would be necessary to be well duped, or accomplice, to see there still legal where there is only the balance of powers. When one is more intelligent or skilful than that, one understands that the "small" can only be "subject" to the Compliance Law, one would have to be powerful to be the normative source and its enforcement agent. It is then towards this mis-named Department of Justice (DoJ) that the fearful, hateful and resigned glances turn. 

If you see it that way, what should you do then? The answer is obvious: react!

It is necessary to save the sovereignty, France, companies, the Law itself. If that is how the question is posed, how can we disagree? It is therefore necessary to destroy the Compliance Law and the extra-territoriality of American Law which had found this "Trojan horse", an expression so frequently used. This is the basis for the administrative reports available, for example the Berger-Lellouche!footnote-1719 parliamentary reports and the Gauvainfootnote-1720 report. Both of them broadly develop the two preceding claims, namely that the extra-priority of compliance mechanisms is illegitimate and harmful, since it is a mechanism invented by the Americans and harming the Europeans, or even invented by the Americans to harm Europeans, the description being made in much more violent terms than those used here. The description seems acquired, the reflections therefore relate to the remedies. The reaction is most often to "block" the Compliance Law in its extraterritorial effect.

But without discussing the effectiveness of the remedies proposed downstream, it is necessary to return to this description so widely shared made upstream. Because many elements on the contrary lead to affirm that ComplianceLaw first of all and by nature can only be extraterritorial and that it must be. Whether or not the State in which it was created has malicious intentions. The description which is made to us most often describes particular cases from which we draw generalities, but we cannot reduce Compliance Law to the already cooled cases, as BNPP case, or to the always hot case of the American embargo on Iran. Furthermore, one cannot take the issue of embargoes and draw conclusions, legitimate for it, but which would apply to the whole of Compliance Law. The fact that theCompliance Law is a branch of Law at the stage still of emergence can lead to this confusion which consists in taking the part for the whole, but it is very regrettable because what is justified for the embargoes does not is in no way relevant for all Compliance Law, of which precisely the Law of embargoes is only a small part, even an abusive use. This overlapping is not often perceived, because the definition of Compliance Law and its criterion are not clearly enough defined, namely the existence of a "monumental goal"!footnote-1725, which does not exist in an embargo decided unilaterally by an order decreed by the President of the United States, but which exists in all other cases and fully justifies extraterritoriality, extraterritoriality which is even consubstantial with Compliance Law (I).

Once we have distinguished the embargoes, as an atypical, sometimes even illegitimate part, of Compliance Law, we should continue this work of distinction by emphasizing that the United States has certainly invented Compliance Law!footnote-1721 but only developed a mechanical concept for the prevention and management of systemic risks. Europe has taken up this systemic conception of the protection of systems, for example financial or banking, but superimposed another conception, drawing on its deep humanist tradition!footnote-1722, whose protection of personal data is only an example and whose monumental goal is the protection of the human being. This primary concern then justifies the European use of Compliance mechanisms to interfere with global objects regardless of their location, especially the environment, and to block the entry onto the ground of objects that enter, which is contrary to Competition Law but builds a legitimate barrier under this Compliance Law, in the indifference of an extraterritorial origin (II).

Indeed, this branch of the new Law which is Compliance Law is not reducible to Competition Law!footnote-1723, any more than it is not reducible to a method. It is a substantial, extraterritorial Law because the "monumental goals" which give it substantial unity are extraterritorial. This can directly contribute to the future of a Europe which on the one hand will be able to pursue, in an extraterritorial manner, monumental humanist goals, in the field of the environment or the protection of personal information or access to the Law (in particular by the technique of compliance programs) and which, on the other hand, by the techniques of traceability of products!footnote-1724, will have the means not to bring in products manufactured in an indecent manner, except in countries which do not grant value than in Competition Law to enter the WTO.

Read the developments below.

Référence complète : C.E., 20 mars 2020, Président de l'Autorité des marchés financiers et Arkea Direct Bank

Lire la décision

► Référence complète : Duchatelle, C., Ethique des affaires, pour une gouvernance intègre. Protéger - Conseiller - Remédier, L'Argus de l'assurance Editions, 2020, 124 p.

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Cet ouvrage décrit les mécanismes de compliance à travers le risques de réputation, et lie donc les obligations de compliance comme un "risque de conformité", estimant que les entreprises doivent se doter d'une direction "Conformité et Ethique des affaires". 

Référence générale : Frison-Roche, M.-A., L'avocat, porteur de conviction dans le nouveau système de Compliance, Dalloz Avocat, mars 2020.

This editorial opens a thematic collective publication about Compliance.

A synthetic article on all the contributions, published in May 2020, mirrors it: "Attorney and Compliance - The future of the character and his tool: Law, Humanism and Defense"

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English Summary of the article (written in French) : 

If we perceive Compliance Law as an aggression of the private company and a binding set of mechanisms that have no meaning and added value for it, then the attorney has a utility: to defend the business. It can do so not only during the sanctions phase, but also to prevent it.

But this function is not central.

He and she becomes so if we understand Compliance Law as being a body of substantial rules, pursuing a "monumental goal": the protection of the person, goal injected by political bodies and taken up by the operator. From this, the company must convince everyone to take it back, inside the company and outside. In a general and contradictory debate, the attorney carries this conviction, because he and shed is always convincing those who in the end judge (market, public opinion, etc.) that is their raison d'être.

Read the article

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Read the Working Paper underlying this article, with the technical references and all the articles serving as the basis for all the assertions in this article

Référence : Frison-Roche, M.-A., La mesure de l'effectivité et de l'efficacité des outils de la compliance (conception, présentation et modération des débats), in Les outils de la Compliance, Journal of Regulation & Compliance.

Voir les autres thèmes, autres dates et autres manifestations particulières du cycle dans son ensemble. 

Cette conférence sert d'appui à la réalisation d'un ouvrage plus global portant d'une façon générale sur Les outils de la Compliance.

 L'ouvrage Compliance Tools sera publié en même temps. 

Présentation de la Conférence : Après avoir examiné différents outils spécifiques, comme La cartographie des risques ou Les incitations, et avant d'en aborder d'autres comme ceux relevant de la a Compliance by Design, celle-ci méritant  aussi d'être examinée avec quelque distance dans sa prétention à être la solution à tout enjeu de compliance, il convient de regarder comment l'on mesure l'efficacité de tous ces outils de Compliance. En effet, puisque toutes les techniques sont des "outils", ils ne prennent sens qu'au regard d'une finalité qu'ils doivent atteindre effectivement. Cette effectivité doit être mesurée, et cela dès l'Ex Ante, l'entreprise devant en permanence donner à voir l'effectivité de la performance des outils de la Compliance.

Mais autant les normes prolifèrent, les discours se multiplient, les engagements sont pris, autant les techniques de mesure de l'effectivité de l'ensemble semblent assez faibles. Non pas que les sujets de droit astreints aux obligations de Compliance ou désireux de réaliser les buts systémiques ou de bien commun visés par la Compliance ne désirent pas en avoir, mais ces instruments de mesure semblent encore les moins construits, souvent déclaratifs ou de type discursifs, ou trop mécaniques. Dès lors, est-ce en partant du but que l'on cherche à atteindre que l'on doit mesurer l'efficacité des outils de Compliance, sans que cela transforme les tâches qui pèsent de grè ou de force sur les opérateurs en obligation de résultat ? Ou est-ce en demeurant en amont, par une seule "conformité" à ce qui leur est demandé, comme comportement et comme organisation structurelle, que les entreprises donnent à voir qu'elles ont effectivement rempli leur tâche, sans plus se soucier des effets produits sur la réalité des choses, cette réalité que ceux qui ont conçu la norme avaient en tête ?

Cette question a des implications majeure en terme de charge de preuve et de responsabilité, impliquant des organisations plaçant la confiance, coeur de la Compliance, plutôt dans des instruments technologiques connectant des data ou plutôt dans des personnes ayant le sens du bien commun. Cette question est aujourd'hui ouverte.

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Le droit sectoriel de la régulation énergétique constitue un monde en soi, alors même que l'économie générale et la vie sociale ne peuvent pas fonctionner sans l'énergie, laquelle est elle-même très multiple et que l'énergie est en points de contact, voire en intimité, avec le Politique. Il en résulte la nécessité d'assimiler de nombreuses règles d'intelligibilité qui interférent en même temps et qui varient. 

Il convient de voir plus longuement ces règles d'intelligibilité, de voir les questions ouvertes, car il est faux de qualifier ce secteur de "mature" (ce que l'on faisait il y a 10 ans), puis de prendre une décision de justice pour s'exercer au commentaire. 

Pour comprendre ce droit sectoriel, qui est le reflet de la complexité technique de celui-ci et des enjeux politiques, il faut y retrouver la trace de la variété des moyens et des usages énergétiques, l'électricité ayant toujours une place particulière notamment par son lien avec le nucléaire. La construction d'un Droit européen de l'énergie paraît impossible en raison des liens de celle-ci avec le Politique, alors même que les liens tout aussi fort que l’Énergie a avec l'environnement appelle une telle construction. La Loi du 17 août 2015 sur la "transition énergétique" cherche à trouver une voie médiane.

Une fois cela fait, apparaissent un certain nombre de questions ouvertes, notamment :

• Faut-il souhaiter plus de principe concurrentiel dans le secteur énergétique ?
• Entre Régulation énergétique et Régulation environnementale, où est le nucléaire ? 
• Pourquoi des Golden Shares dans les entreprises énergétiques "nationales" ?
• L'avenir de la Régulation énergétique est-il dans le numérique , 

Cela permet enfin de déboucher sur l'étude d'une question technique : 

Renégociation de l'Accès au tarif de l'Energie Nucléaire

Commentez l'arrêt du Conseil d’État du 20 mars 2013, Association "Robin des Toits"

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Accéder aux slides servant de base à la leçon.

Consulter la bibliographie générale du Droit commun de la Régulation

Consulter le  Dictionnaire bilingue du Droit de la Régulation et de la Compliance

Référence complète : Mounoussamy, L., Le smart contract, acte ou hack juridique ?, in Petites Affiches, n°37, 20 février 2020, pp. 12-19.

Résumé par les Petites Affiches : Dans cet article, l'auteur analyse l'arrivée du smart contract, système innovant né du développement des nouvelles technologies, dans un environnement juridique déjà structuré. Il commence par définir la nature du smart contract, et le positionne dans cet ensemble juridique mondialisé. Il en présente les impacts et les perspectives de développement, les forces et les faiblesses ainsi que l'intime relation que noues les technologies informatiques et le droit. Le smart contract est un outil dont l'utilisateur définira s'il viendra disrupter le contrat ou le parfaire.

Complete reference : Frison-Roche, M.-A., The tools of Compliance and the Theorie of Climates, in "Geographical pregance in Compliance Tools" (Les outils de la Compliance et la Théorie des climats, in La prégnance géographique dans les outils de la Compliance), February 4, 2020, Nice. 

Conference Summary: Starting from Montesquieu's "climate theory", affirming that human beings would be of a different nature in different places of the world, which therefore requires different rules of government according to these places, a theory which echoes the geographical confinement that Pascal operated on the Laws, we can think that, as with any rule, Compliance legal rules, which ensure compliance of the behavior of human beings to the rules, this will vary depending on whether we are below or beyond the Pyrenees. But on this geographical dimension so natural one can on the contrary and at first doubt. Indeed, by presenting it as a simple process, which artificial intelligence based on algorithms could fully take care of, by its absence of substance this dimension loses all relevance. Except falling into the other excess consisting in posing that everything is only a question of "pure compliance culture" or that this is only the dressing of a pure balance of power, between geographical areas, for example the United States and Europe, and in this Law of palisade geo-politics is to such an extent that it would have devoured Law.

It is necessary to keep the measure of things and on the contrary organize in a second time a kind of triptych and firstly find what comes from the accumulation of technical and immutable information, secondly what comes from local phenomena but requieres global standards of compliance which can be technically attached because of their "crucial nature" and thirdly also assume "political pretensions of monumental goals" which contest the borders and the branches of the Law which guard these. 

If we manage to do this, then Compliance Law not only manages to get rid of what undermines it, that is, its mechanical temptation offered by technology and its disappearance by political power, keeping substance without being violent. . Indeed by respecting geography the West does not have to dictate "its" law. On the contrary, it must take concrete lying to the Kanak Law, which does not define the Law as what is stated and applied, but as a 'path'. Thus in the technique of responsible investments, because the Law of Compliance is teleological, the Subject of law, that is to say the company (which is in position, for example that invests) does not prohibit but organizes the transition so that the beneficiary of the device is not himself sanctioned, for example abandoned to corruption, but accompanied towards the exit of the system. The integration of time and the concept of 'duration', common to compliance law and regulation law (the Law of Compliance being the internalisation of Regulations in entities capable of implementing them) involving the articulation between the territory and duration (which is not permitted by Competition Law).
 

Read the presentation of this conference on the Geographical pregnance in Compliance Tools 

See the other conferences of the complete cycle on Compliance Tools.

Read the general presentation of the conferences cycle.

Read the working paper which is the basis of this conference. 

Consult the slides on which the conference is based (in French).

Summary : Starting from Pascal's "climate theory", one might think, as with any rule, Compliance, which ensures that human behaviour conforms to the rules, it varies, depending on whether one is "below or beyond the Pyrenees". . But of this geographical dimension so natural, on the contrary and at first one can doubt. Indeed by presenting Compliance as a simple process, which artificial intelligence based on algorithms could fully support, by its absence of substance this geographical dimension loses all relevance. Except to fall into the other excess of asking that everything is only a matter of 'compliance culture' or that it is the dressing of a pure balance of power, between geographical political areas, for example the United States and Europe, and in this Law of façade the geo-politics is at this point all that it would have devoured Law.

We need to keep Reason, instead organizing a kind of tryptic and find what is the accumulation of technical and immutable information, which is local phenomena but to which standards of global Compliance can be technically attached because of their "crucial nature" and also assume "political pretensions of monumental goals" that challenge the borders and branches of Law that guard them.

If we manage to do this, then not only  Compliance Law manages to get rid of what undermines it, that is its mechanical temptation offered by technology and its disappearance by political power, keeping substance without being violent. . Indeed by respecting geography the West does not have to dictate "its" Law. On the contrary, it must take concrete conception, borrowing to Kanak Law, which does not define Law as what is stated and applied, but as a 'path'.

Thus in the technique of responsible investments, because Compliance Law is teleological, the subject of law, that is to say the company (which is in position, for example to invests) does not prohibit but organizes the transition so that the beneficiary of the device is not himself sanctioned, for example abandoned to corruption, but accompanied towards the exit of the system of corruption. The integration of time and the concept of 'duration', common to Compliance Law and Regulation Law (the Law of Compliance being the internalisation of Regulations in entities capable of implementing them) involving the articulation between the territory and duration (which is not the rule of Competition Law). 

Résumé de la leçon n°1. La "Régulation" ne se confond pas avec la "réglementation". Elle constitue un "Droit" spécifique, dont la "réglementation" n'est qu'un outil, comme le sont les lois, les décisions de justice, etc., qu'ils soient obligatoires (hard Law) ou pris en considération par ceux qui sont concernés (soft Law). La "Régulation" ne se confond pas davantage avec la "Supervision", avec laquelle elle se cumule, en matière bancaire et financière. Ainsi, en-deçà des multiples Codes, par exemple le Code monétaire et financier, ce sont avant tout les Autorités de régulation et de supervision qui fabriquent et font vivre ce "Droit de la Régulation bancaire et financière". 

Il convient donc de débuter par les institutions françaises : l'Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) et l'Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution (ACPR).

Ces autorités sont elles-mêmes ancrées non seulement entre elles et entremaillées au niveau européen, dans des relations internationales constantes, mais encore elles sont ancrées dans le système juridique français, lequel se déploie entre les deux ordres de juridictions, juridictions judiciaires et juridictions administratives, substantiellement unis autour des principes constitutionnels, et s'ancre dans l'ordre de l'Union européenne. Mais de fait, parce que la banque, et plus encore la finance, ne sont pas contenus dans les frontières des systèmes juridiques, le Droit américain, plus proche du Droit britannique (Common Law) que du Droit européen continental (Civil Law) dont la France et l'Allemagne demeurent l'expression, demeure la source première d'influence. 

Après avoir fixé quelques définitions et avoir rappelé le raisonnement privilégié en Droit de la Régulation, prenant l'une puis l'autre, la description de l'AMF, qui succéda à la COB, née en 1967 par copie de la SEC américaine, suppose que l'on expose son statut, sa composition, ses pouvoirs et les contrôles dont elle est l'objet.

De nombreux modèles institutionnels existent et on les expérimente les uns après les autres. Le secteur des banques et des assurances continue d'être régulé par une Autorité adossée à la Banque de France, l'ACPR, dont il convient de faire une semblable description. 

Regarder les slides servant de base à la leçon n°1 relative aux institutions bancaires et financières de régulation et de supervision. 

Revenir aux bases avec le Dictionnaire bilingue du Droit de la Régulation et de la Compliance.

Documentation spécifique à la leçon :

• Règlement général de l'Autorité des marchés financiers
• Présentation de l'AMF par elle-même
• Présentation de l'ACPR par elle-même
• La mission de la BCE vue par elle-même
• Loi du 20 janvier 2017 portant statut général des autorités administratives indépendantes et des autorités publiques indépendantes
• Présentation de l'application mondiale et contestée du FCPA

Approfondir par la Bibliographie générale du Droit de la Régulation bancaire et financière

Revenir à la présentation générale du Cours. 

Se reporter au plan général du Cours.

This Working Paper written in English is the basis for an article published in French in the French journal Dalloz Avocat , in March 2020.

Summary of the working Paper.

If we perceive Compliance Law as an aggression of the private company and a binding set of mechanisms that have no meaning and added value for it, then the attorney has a utility: defending the business. It can do so not only during the sanctions phase, but also to prevent it.

But this function is not central.

It becomes so if we understand Compliance Law as a body of substantial rules, pursuing a "monumental goal": the protection of the person, goal injected by political bodies and taken up by the operator. From this, the company must convince everyone to take it back, inside the company and outside. In a general and contradictory debate, the attorney carries this conviction, because he and she is always convincing those who at the end judge (market, public opinion, etc.) that is their raison d'être.

(In this short document, the pop-ups refer to the different works that develop each of the points)

Reference: Patrick BOLTON - Morgan DESPRES - Luiz Awazu PEREIRA DA SILVA - Frédéric SAMAMA - Romain SVARTZMAN, The green swan: central banking and financial stability in the age of climate change, Banque des Règlements Internationaux, Janvier 2020

Accede to article

Full reference: Féral-Schuhl, C., Cyberdroit. Le Droit à l'épreuve de l'internet, Collection Praxis Dalloz, Dalloz, 8th edition, 2020, 1731p.

Read the forth of cover (in French)

Read the table of contents (in French)

Watch the video commenting on the decision of the Commission des sanctions of the Autorité des marchés financiers - AMF (French Financial Market Authority Sanctions Commission).

Read the decision.

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In 2015, a document supposedly emanating from the Vinci company reached the Bloomberg media announcing unexpected catastrophic results. The two journalists who received it immediately published it without checking anything, the Vinci listed shares losing more than 18%. It was a rude forgery, which a basic check would have established, a check which the journalists had not done.

4 years later, the Bloomerg company is punished for the breach to "disseminate false information" on the financial market, by a decision of the Sanctions Commission of the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (French Financial Markets Authority) of December 11, 2019.

The company being sued argued that it was up to journalists to be accountable and not to itself, because on the contrary the firm had implemented both detection software and a code of conduct, even though there was no legal rule constraining it. In consequence, it would not possible to pursue it.

But the AMF Sanctions Commission stresses that, independently of this, it is a general rule of ethics for journalists that obliges them to verify the authenticity of the documents they publish, which they did not, whereas an elementary check would have allowed them to measure that it is a rude forgery.

In addition, the Sanctions Commission refers to the European Regulation on market abuses which in its article 21 targets the special status to be reserved for press freedom and the special status of journalists, but associates this ethical obligation to verify documents . However, the Sanctions Commission notes that this obligation, which was targeted by both the journalists' ethics and the reference text of Financial Law, was completely ignored by the two journalists. It is therefore up to the press agency to be accountable and to be punished.

However, the media entreprise maintained that the balance between the principle of freedom of the press and the principle of freedom of opinion on the one hand and the principle of the protection of the financial market and of investors against false information disseminated requires an interpretation of the European Union Law, which must oblige the Sanctions Commission to ask a preliminary question to the Court of Justice of the European Union.

The Sanctions Commission dismisses this request because it considers that the European texts are "clear", which allows the Sanctions Commission to interpret them itself. And precisely the European Regulation on market abuse in its article 21 provides for the exception in favor of the press and journalists but compels them to respect their ethics, in particular the verification of the authenticity of documents. In this case, they did nothing. They are clearly the authors of a breach attributable to the company.

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In a less clear case, one could consider that this balance between two principles, both of public interest, is delicate and that an interpretation by the Court of Justice would always be useful.

Indeed and more fundamentally, does Financial Law remain an autonomous Law, putting first the objective of the preservation of the integration of the financial market and the protection of investors or is it the advanced point of an Information Law protecting everyone against the action of any "influencer" (category to which Bloomberg belongs) consisting in disseminating inaccurate information (notion of "misinformation")?

And that is not so "clear" ....

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Complète Reference : Frison-Roche, M.-A., Théorie juridique de la cartographie des risques, centre du Droit de la Compliance (Legal Theory of Risk Mapping, center of Compliance Law), D.2019, chronique Compliance, p. 

Summary : The act of mapping risks is not currently defined by Law. It is only described in special laws. While risks mapping is central to preventing in Ex Ante the occurrence of crises or behaviors from which the occurrence is excluded, no legal regime is available, due to the lack of a legal definition available. This legal definition is proposed here in 5 stages, starting from special laws and specific cases to go towards a general conception. Risk mapping then appears as a concern for others taken care of willingly or by force by crucial operators, through a new subjective right: the “right to be alarmed”, the map being the structural counterpart of the character of the whistleblower. Two articulated systems of Compliance Law.

Read the article, published in French.

Read its translation in English. 

Read the English Working Paper  on which this article is based, working paper with additional developpments, technical references and hypertext links. 

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Reference Frison-Roche, M.-A., Le droit de la compliance pour réguler l'internet  (Compliance Law to Regulate the Internet), Interview given in French to Sylvie Rozenfeld, Expertises, December 2019, p.385-390.

Summary. Law seems increasingly powerless to stem the social disorder generated by the Internet. For Marie-Anne Frison-Roche, Law professor and specialist in Regulatory Law, the solution is to be found in Law, and more particularly in Compliance Law. This specific Law is already applied in the banking and finance sector, or in the area of ​​personal data. As it has done for green finance and through the GDPR, Europe could impose a compliance system which internalizes concern for the individual in large digital operators. It is up to them to put in place the means and bear the cost, such as the right to be forgotten erected by the CJEU. Marie-Anne Frison-Roche does not offer anything revolutionary, she is content to take elements of positive law that already exist and to correlate them.

Read the interview (in French)

Read the presentation of the official Report for the French Government about which this interview is given:: The contribution of Compliance Law to the Governance of Internet. 

Référence complète : Malik, A., La conformité dans les établissements financiers sous le prisme du droit pénal, thèse Toulouse, 2019. 

Lire la thèse. 

Référence : Frison-Roche, M.-A., La sanction comme incitation dans les techniques de compliance, in Faculté de droit de l'Université Toulouse-Capitole,   Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRc),Les incitations, outils de la Compliance, 12 décembre 2019. 

• Lire la présentation générale du cycle de conférences, consacré au thème Les outils de la Compliance
• Lire la présentation de l'ouvrage qui sera publié ultérieurement
• Lire la présentation de la collection Régulations & Compliance dans laquelle l'ouvrage sera publié

Résumé de la conférence

La Compliance ne se réduit pas à une méthode d'efficacité du Droit. Sinon il convient de l'appliquer à toutes les branches du Droit, ce que l'on ne fait pas. Mais même substantiellement défini, en ce qu'il est un prolongement du Droit de la Régulation, internalisé dans des "opérateurs cruciaux", délié ainsi de la détermination préalable d'un secteur, il conserve la nature téléologique de celui-ci. Le Droit qui est aussi un outil ne devient plus alors que cela, puisque la norme est placée dans le but.

Le renversement du traitement juridique de la matière pénale par la théorie appliquée des incitations

On observe très souvent que le Droit de la Compliance a pour cœur des sanctions, auxquelles Droit, dans son exercice inhérent de qualifié, donne le nom qui correspond à la chose : la "matière pénale". Logiquement, comme pour le droit pénal, qui n'est que la forme juridique de la matière pénale, le régime juridique devrait être le même que le Droit pénal. Mais il n'en est rien en raison de l'application de la théorie des incitations. De cela, les juristes et les juges n'en reviennent pas et c'est pourquoi il y mettent des limites que les tenants de la théorie des incitations n'admettent pas. Cela ne tient pas de la simple technique, de tel ou tel cas, mais de l'opposition de fond. En effet, pour le Droit pénal, celui-ci a vocation à être "autonome" dans le système juridique, c'est-à-dire développe des notions et des régimes qui lui sont propres parce qu'il est une exception légitime au principe de liberté auquel il rend par essence hommage et ne saurait se définir autrement, tandis qu'insérée dans la notion "d'incitation" la technique de la sanction n'intègre en rien cela et se contente d'emprunter à l'efficacité de la dureté pénale pour rendre efficace la règle sous-jacente ainsi dotée, la sanction étant ainsi et par un semblable effet de nature dans une parfaite dépendance. Il y a donc à première vue opposition de fond entre "sanction" et "incitation" alors qu'intuitivement frapper fort est si "commode et dissuasif" lorsqu'on veut obtenir d'une entreprise tel ou tel comportement..

En effet, certes la perspective d'une sanction en Ex Post en cas de manquement est la meilleure incitation à l'obéissance en Ex Ante à la norme d'interdiction et de prescription. C'est pourquoi le droit financier le plus libéral est également le plus répressif, l'analyse économique du droit conduisant à calculer des normes qui amènent l'agent à ne pas avoir intérêt à commettre un manquement. A l'obéissance se substitue l'intérêt. Le Droit de la concurrence et le Droit des marchés financiers en sont à ce point familiers que certains ont douté de la juridicité. 

Mais cela produit aussi des chocs en retour très importants, dans une méconnaissance assurée des principes, pourtant de valeur constitutionnelle, constituant la base de la matière pénale. On peut en dresser la liste :

• des sanctions qui ne sont plus l'exception mais l'ordinaire, le cœur dans les régulations des marchés et le droit des entreprises supervisées, contraire aux principes économiques libéraux 
• des sanctions d'autant plus élevées qu'elles sont négociables en échange de ce que veut la puissance publique : ainsi la pénalisation n'exclut en rien la contractualisation, au contraire elle en est un sous-outil entre les mains de l'autorité administrative ou politique de poursuite 
• des sanctions qui sont conçues indépendamment des principes procéduraux, le couple "droit pénal/procédure pénale" perdant son intimité 
• des sanctions qui sont échangées contre des preuves (programmes de clémence, qui sont des outils de Compliance)  
• des sanctions qui ne sont pas arrêtées par le temps : application immédiate et rétroactivité dans le temps
• des sanctions qui ne sont pas arrêtées par l'espace : extraterritorialité de l'application des sanctions 
• des sanctions contre lesquelles, la matière pénale étant indissociable de la façon de les appliquer ("Procédure pénale") les entités aptes à en répondre devant justifier leur comportement et non être présumées conformes dans celui-ci  
• des sanctions qui se cumulent pour un même fait si cela est efficace ;
• l'abandon des notions classiques d'intentionnalité et de causalité, puisque le raisonnement est fonctionnel et non causal. 

Cela est-il admissible ? 

Non car en premier lieu dans une conception classique du Droit pénal c'est une succession de principes constitutionnels qui sont méconnus et les juges vont bloquer un Droit de la Compliance dont le seul principe serait l'efficacité : le Droit ne peut être un seul "outil d'efficacité", sauf à n'être plus le Droit. Le Droit pénal est un outil d'inefficacité parce qu'il se définit comme une exception légitime à la liberté des êtres humains et donc le gardien de ce principe de liberté, ce qui est étranger à la théorie des incitations, mais lui est supérieur et bloque les effets déroulés par celle-ci.

Non car en second lieu  dans une conception trop étendue de la Compliance, consistant à l'appliquer à toutes les règles dont on voudrait qu'elles soient effectives parce que celui-ci qui les a émises le veut, ce qui voudrait pour toutes les règles, même celles qui ne sont pas d'ordre public. Dans une telle "passion pour la Réglementation" mettant fin au libéralisme et au Droit,  les sanctions permettent à une Autorité publique d'imposer en Ex Ante avec l'accord des intéressés ce qu'il veut, comme on peut le voir en Asie, la répression passant en Ex Ante se transformant en rating et obtention volontaire d’obéissance pour toute prescription. 

Oui si l'on définit correctement le Droit de la Compliance dans un seul lien avec des "buts monumentaux" qui seuls peuvent justifier la violence des mécanismes de sanction, en tant qu'il est le prolongement du Droit de la Régulation. La Régulation de l'économie est plus que jamais nécessaire, alors que les Etats n'ont plus de prise. Par l'internalisation dans les entreprises, si des "buts monumentaux" sont visés et contrôlés, alors le caractère restrictif de la matière pénale passe de l'outil au but : seuls les buts monumentaux peuvent justifier tous les effets précédemment décrits, mais ils le justifient.  

L'enjeu est donc de redessiner le principe restrictif des sanctions non plus en celles-ci mais dans le but de Compliance servi par celles-ci.  Par ce passage de la conservation de la nature restrictive de la sanction, non plus dans l'outil-même de la sanction mais dans le but servi par celle-ci. Non pas n'importe quelle règle, comme dans certains pays, non pas toutes les règles de ce que l'on appelle d'une façon trop extensive la Compliance, qui est juste le "fait d'obéir aux normes applicables".

Ainsi et par exemple, l'application extraterritoriale de normes nationales répressives adoptées dans un seul but national (embargo) est inadmissible et doit être rejetée par les Tribunaux, alors que cette même application extraterritoriale de normes pour lutter contre le blanchiment d'argent est admissible et pratiquée par tous. Suivant la nature du risque combattu, le terrorisme par exemple, le régime de la sanction est ou n'est pas légitime. 

D'une façon plus générale, les "buts monumentaux" qui donnent au Droit de la Compliance sa définition substantielle, alors que beaucoup réduisent encore la Compliance à une simple méthode d'efficacité, voire n'y voient rien de juridique, permettent de distinguer là où la sanction doit être un outil plus ou moins violent pour atteindre le but en raison de la légitimité de celui-ci, du phénomène caché qu'il s'agit de combattre (par exemple terrorisme ou blanchiment) ou du caractère global (par exemple risque environnemental).

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► Référence complète : Frison-Roche, M.-A., Articuler les principes gouvernant les sanctions et les principes animant le Droit de la Compliance, décembre 2019.

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► Ce document de travail a servi de base à la première des conférences faites dans le colloque qui s'est tenu sous la direction scientifique de Marie-Anne Frison-Roche et de Lucien Rapp, Les incitations, outils de la Compliance,  le 12 décembre 2019,  à Toulouse,

🚧 voir le document de travail, sous-jacent au thème général:  Incitations et Droit de la Compliance, ayant conclu le colloque

Il a ensuite servi de base à un article dans l'ouvrage Les outils de la Compliance, dans la collection Régulations & Compliance.

Lire une présentation générale de cet ouvrage.  

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Résumé du document de travail : 

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Lire ci-dessous les développements.

Full reference: ARAFER, Opinion n°2019-083 relatif aux projets de décrets approuvant les statuts de la société nationale SNCF, de la société SNCF Réseau, de la filiale mentionnée au 5° de l’article L. 2111-9 du code des transports et de la société SNCF Voyageurs, et portant diverses dispositions relatives à ces mêmes entités (related to the project of decrees approving the status of the national societies SNCF, SNCF réseau, of the subsidy mentionnes at the 5° of the article L. 2111-9 du code des transports and of SNCF Voyageurs, and carrying some dispositions related to this bodies), 9th of December 2019

Read the opinion (in French)

Read the décret approuvant les status de la société nationale SNCF (in French)

Read the opinion of 9th of May 2019 having preceded the one of 9th of December 2019

Watch the video explaining the content, meaning and scope of the decision made by the Conseil d'Etat (French Council of State) on November 15, 2019, La Banque Postale v. Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution (ACPR).

The Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution - ACPR (French Authority of prudential control and resolution) pronounced a very high sanction, representing 7% of La Banque Postale's net annual result. The breach is constituted by the fact of not having prevented the use of the banking technique of the "money order" which was used to escape the freezing of the assets.

The Conseil d'Etat recalls that by nature if the assets are frozen, it is not possible that anyone is able to dispose of these assets. However, by the use of "money orders", persons targeted by asset freezing decisions, tools used in connection with the fight against money laundering and the fight against terrorism, had been able to circulate money to from accounts managed by La Banque Postale, of which they were not customers.

This case was not foreseen at the time when the Bank Postale was sanctioned by the ACPR for not having prevented such a use, the texts forcing it under its obligations of "conformity" to prevent this behavior of violation background gels on the part of his customers, but only that.

This case of a use of a means by a person who is not a customer of the bank was not foreseen at the time when the alleged facts took place and the Bank claims not to be able to be punished since in the repressive matter it is necessary to respect the principle of non-retroactivity of the texts, - in this case texts later supplemented to aim at such an assumption -, the non-retroactivity being a major principle itself related to the principle of the legality of the offenses and the penalties.

We are therefore in the hypothesis of a silence of the texts.

What to decide? Can the Bank be condemned and so heavily or not by the ACPR?

The Bank does not think so. 

It acted against this sanction decision firstly because those who used these money orders were not its clients. It has strong reasons to avail itself of this fact, since subsequently the texts needed to be modified to aim not only the use of this technique of money order by those who have a count in the bank and also by those who act with cash through the bank without a count, that is to say without an account holder to look at. Because we are in criminal matters, the restrictive interpretation and non-retroactivity of the text should lead to follow the reasoning of the Bank. But the Conseil d'Etat does not because it considers that implicitly but necessarily even with this subsequent modification of the text, it had aimed that use before.

By this way, the Conseil d'Etatuncil develops a very broad concept of the obligations of banks in their role in the fight against money laundering, and therefore a very repressive point of view, which permeates their "obligation of Compliance". Thus, when the bank also argues that it can not be sanctioned since for it this activity of money order is  deficit and that it did not cause harm to its customers even by assuming badly its obligations, theConseil d'Etat stresses that this is not a pertinent perspective since the Compliance obligations falls within the "overriding general interest of protection of public order and public security, to which the freezing of assets legislation responds".

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Read the  judgment of the Conseil d'Etat ( in French). 

Regarder le film de 5 minutes sur le contenu, le sens et la portée de l'arrêt rendu par la première chambre civile de la Cour de cassation du 27 novembre 2019, M.X.A. c/ Google.

Cet arrêt casse l'arrêt de la Cour d'appel de Paris qui valide le non-déférencement, après que la CNIL a demandé l'interprétation des textes, notamment du RGPD, parce que le droit à l'oubli doit limiter l'exception ici invoquée, à savoir le droit à l'information, même s'il s'agit d'une décision pénale concernant un commissaire-aux-comptes, car il s'agit d'une affaire privée et non pas ce qui concerne l'exercice de sa profession réglementée coeur du système financier. 

Lire la décision de la Première Chambre civile de la Cour de cassation du 27 novembre 2019, M.X.A. c/ Google. 

► Référence complète : De Backer, N., « Le principe de proportionnalité à l’épreuve de la liberté d’expression numérique », J.E.D.H., 2019/4, p. 243-277. 

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Reference : Frison-Roche, M.-A., General presentation of the cycle of conferences on Les outils de la Compliance  (Compliance Tools) and  "Théorie générale de la cartographie des risques" (Legal Theory of Risk Mapping), conference made in French, in Département d'Economie de Sciences Po & Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC),  La cartographie des risques, outil de la Compliance (Risk Mapping, as Compliance Tool), November 28th, 2019, Sciences Po, Paris. 

• Read the  General Presentation ot the cycle of conferences about the Compliance Tools

• Read the General Presentation of the book written in English to be published

• Read the General Presentation of the serie Régulations & Compliance in which the book will be published

Summary of the conference

Risk mapping is both central to the obligations or practices of companies and little apprehended by the legal systems. It is not expressly referred to by the French legal system, except for the special national laws known as "Sapin 2" and "Vigilance". But if we are out of this field, because there is only a description and not a legal definition, even less a legal notion, we do not know what legal regime to apply to the action of mapping risks. It is therefore useful, indeed compelling, to define the legal concept of risk mapping. Starting from what is still the safest ground, namely these two special laws, to go towards less secure legal grounds, such as the doctrine of the authorities or the commitments of the companies, even the ISO certifications obtained in this matter. Through a few judicial decisions and legal reasoning, a legal notion of the action of mapping risks emerges.

It is advisable to proceed in 5 steps (the working document follows another approach).
The first, based directly on the two available laws, apprehends the action of mapping when it comes into execution of a special legal obligation. The decision rendered in 2019 by the French Commission des sanctions of the Agence Française Anticorruption (French Corruption Agency's Sanctions Commission) draws probate games as to the demonstration of the execution of the obligation and the probationary system can be extended. In the same way the decision of the French Conseil constitutionnel (Constitutional Council) in 2017 on the "Vigilance Act" shows that a mechanism referred to as a "modality" is legitimate with regard to the goal, which is, concerning this tool, the establishment of a responsibility for others. It is therefore the concern for the situation of others that can be targeted by the Law thanks to Compliance Tool, especially Risk Mapping.

The second theme aims to map risks as a fact of good management for a company, while the enterprise is not constrained by a legal obligation. This fact is a paradox because the Regulatory Authority and the Judge may, where the conduct that was to be prevented occurs, for example a market abuse or an anti-competitive behavior, either qualify as an aggravating circumstance or as an attenuating circumstance. Consideration of the theory of incentives should lead to the adoption of the American solution, that is to say the qualification of an effective cartography as a mitigating fact. European case law is not yet fixed, especially in terms of Competition Law's compliance.

The third theme is the mapping action carried out by an entity which, in doing so, exercises power over a third party. Because cartography is as much an obligation as a power, possibly on a third party. The Conseil d'Etat (French Council of State) in 2017 qualified risk mapping as an act of grievance, but doing so legitimately, since it was to prevent forest fires efficiently. This solution based on the teleology attached to Compliance Law can be transposed to other areas.

Going further, one may consider transforming this action from de facto status to legal status on the part of the company, if it thus identifies risks for third parties. It would thus give third-party creditors the right to be in a position to measure the risks that weigh on them. Risk mapping would thus be part of a broader unilateral commitment by powerful companies, recognizing the existence of risks for third parties to enable them to know their nature and extent. If this responsibility Ex Ante (characteristic of Compliance Law) is fulfilled, then the Ex Post liability of the company could no longer be retained. This is the ongoing issue of the Johnson & Johnson trial (2019 American judgment), in terms of medical compliance. Because if one can argue that there exists through this kind of risk mapping that the posology a "subjective right to be worried about the risks related to the taking of the drug", the patient remains free in the use of it. The question of whether third-party education is included in the mapping, since the alert is already included in it, is an open question. For now, the answer is negative.

Indeed and in a fifth time, appears the liberal definition of Compliance Law through the apprehension that the Law must make of the cartography of the risks. Beyond the rational act that any person has to control their risks for their own interest, by preventing the damaging effects of that from the crystallization of risk has in fact proved, it is a question of preserving an external interest for the preservation of which the Law must intervene because the subject of law, in particular the company will be less likely to be concerned.

By the imprint of the law, risk mapping expresses the concern for an external interest, either of a system or of a third party. But this support in Ex Ante implies force (Sapin 2, Vigilance, financial market information obligation) or will (social responsibility, ethical commitment, adoption of non-financial standards) relates only to information, its constitution, its intelligibility and its hierarchy. Then it is the actors exposed to the risks, able to understand in Ex Ante the extent as far as they are concerned, either the entity itself, or the thirds, to choose to run them to no.

• Consult the two sets of slides as basis of the conference: 

• Slides served as basis for the General Presentation of the cycle of conference on the Compliance Tools (in French) 
• Slides served as basis for the specific contribution "Théorie générale de la cartographie des risques / Legal Theory of Risk Mapping" (in French).

• Read the working paper served as basis for the conference

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