French Legal Culture and the Shock of 'Globalization'
| Author | Antoine Garapon |
| Published date | 01 December 1995 |
| DOI | 10.1177/096466399500400404 |
| Date | 01 December 1995 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
FRENCH
LEGAL
CULTURE
AND
THE
SHOCK
OF
’GLOBALIZATION’
ANTOINE
GARAPON
Institut
des
Hautes
Etudes
sur
la Justice
N
RECENT
YEARS,
French
law
has
been
subjected
to
challenges
of
considerable
importance.
The
encounter
with
other
legal
systems
stemming
from,
among
other
things,
the
globalization
of
economy
and
European
integration,
led
to
more
than
just
the
renouncing
of
state
sovereignty
or
the
making
of
legislative
adjustments;
it
is
less
a
matter
of
positive
law
than
of
legal
culture.
Along
with
American
law,
American
lawyers
introduce
new
ways
of
working,
counselling,
defending,
and
the
like.
Thus,
reflecting
on
this
should
from
now
on
be
done
in
terms
of
legal
culture -
not
in
terms
of
the
legal
system.
It
seems,
in
fact,
as
if
France
was
currently
undergoing
a
legal
acculturation,
where
two
cultures
coexist:
on
the
one
hand,
national;
on
the
other,
supranational.
Today,
the
political
debate
in
France
revolves
round
this
new
legal
culture:
the
conflict
no
longer
takes
place
between
conservatives
and
liberals,
but
between
Jacobins,’
or
supporters
of
a
strongly
centralized
system,
and
Anglomaniacs,
x
those
who
favour
the
current
evolution.
Although
our
hexagonal
narcissism
has
been
abused,
the
old
Jacobin
base
is
now
giving
way,
notwithstanding
great
efforts
to
resist,
to
a
renovated
political
culture.
New
influences,
aspirations
and
mentalities,
as
well
as
unprecedented
restrictions,
have
already
generated
numerous
cultural
and
institutional
innovations
which,
irreversible
as
they
may
be,
fail
to
achieve
any
coherence
on
the
whole
or
theoretical
grounding
and
response
within
our
tradition.
These
mutations
are
frequently
in
conflict
with
the
institutional
and
ideological
substratum
upon
which
are
grafted
not
only
the
texts,
but
even
more
so
the
sedimentation
of
the
history
and
culture
of
institutions,
behaviours
and
mentalities.
(Cohen-Tanugi,
1989:186)
SOCIAL
&
LEGAL
STUDIES
(SAGE,
London,
Thousand
Oaks,
CA
and
New
Delhi),
Vol.
4
(1995), 493-506
493-5
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