What four cumulative characteristics does a legal rule have?
It is general, permanent, conditional, and prescriptive.
Why is a legal rule general, abstract, and impersonal?
It addresses an indefinite number of people without designating particular individuals.
What happens to a legal rule despite changes of government or Parliament?
It remains in force.
What can happen to a permanent legal rule?
It can be amended.
What does a legal rule state instead of describing what is?
What ought to be.
What is a legal sanction?
A consequence enforceable through state coercive power.
What forms can soft law take?
Advice, recommendations, or resolutions.
How does soft law seek to guide conduct?
Through encouragement rather than imposed obligations.
What does religious sanction primarily regulate?
The relationship with divinity.
What do good morals assess?
The social acceptability of conduct.
What distinguishes an individual norm from a legal rule?
It governs a specific situation defined in time and space and cannot be repeated indefinitely.
What does natural law claim exists above positive law?
Immutable and universal unwritten laws.
How is positive law defined by society and time?
Law laid down in a particular society at a particular time.
What grounds legal validity in state positivism?
The state's enactment.
What is the risk of sociological positivism following social aspirations and customs?
Law may follow society rather than help it progress.
What social outcome does law seek by organizing social life and regulating conduct?
Social peace and harmony.
What are the four functions of law?
To organize, impose, propose, and express.
What makes an imperative law binding on its subjects?
Its subjects cannot avoid the rule it imposes.
When may parties displace a supplementary law’s model of conduct?
When they express a contrary intention.
How does distributive justice allocate common resources?
Proportionally, according to merit.
What does human dignity require regarding a person's treatment?
A person must not be treated or reduced to a thing or an animal.
What does public law comprise?
Rules organizing the state and governing relations involving public authorities.
What does private law govern?
Relations between private individuals and between individuals and private entities.
Which interest does public law primarily serve?
The general interest.
Which court hears contraventions in France?
The police court.
What does the Court of Cassation review in the ordinary judicial process?
The application of law and procedure, without retrying the facts.
Which branches are listed as main branches of private law?
Commercial and business law, social law, criminal law, civil procedure, and private international law.
What does civil law broadly cover?
Individuals and their activities.
What are the four main divisions of civil law?
Persons and family, obligations, property, and security interests.
When does common law apply in private law?
When no special rule governs.
Which rule prevails when common law conflicts with a special rule?
The special rule prevails.
What does objective law govern within a society?
Relations between individuals.
What does a constitution govern in a society, country, or nation?
The transfer and exercise of power.
What two principal purposes does a constitution serve?
It organizes political institutions and protects citizens’ rights and freedoms.
What three conditions qualify a principle as fundamental under the laws of the Republic?
It appeared in a Republican law before 1946, conforms to Republican tradition, and has no exception.
What is included in the constitutional block?
Texts given legal value by the Constitutional Council through the Preamble to the 1958 Constitution.
Which texts and principles are included in the constitutional block?
The 1789 Declaration, the 1946 Preamble, the 2004 Environmental Charter, and fundamental principles recognized by the laws of the Republic.
What defines an international treaty under international law?
A written agreement between states governed by international law, whatever its title.
Between whom is a bilateral treaty concluded?
Between two states, or between a state and an international organization.
What are the usual stages of an international treaty?
Negotiation, signature, ratification, and entry into force.
What does pacta sunt servanda require of states?
States must perform their commitments in good faith.
Under Article 55 of the Constitution, what authority do regularly ratified or approved treaties have?
Authority superior to statutes, subject to reciprocity.
What does European Union primary law consist of?
The treaties that established and organized the Union.
How can a legal rule express its conditional character?
As “if…then.”
What does Article 1101 of the Civil Code define as a contract?
An agreement of wills between two or more persons intended to create, modify, transmit, or extinguish obligations.
How can state coercion make a legal sanction effective?
Through forced execution by a judge and the state.
What preventive role can the threat of state coercion have?
It can deter noncompliance.
What is an imperfect law?
A legal rule for which no sanction is provided.
What sanctions can ARCOM impose on certain media outlets or programmes?
Financial sanctions.
What does ARCOM largely rely on in its regulatory activity?
Advice and recommendations.
Which actions does French law permit, according to the statement?
Divorce, contraception, voluntary termination of pregnancy, same-sex marriage, and self-defence.
What does social morality respond to?
The needs of the group.
What did the Court of Cassation hold about Gleeden’s infidelity advertisements?
They could be immoral without being unlawful.
In which year did adultery cease to be considered contrary to good morals?
2004.
Which types of decisions can constitute individual norms?
Court judgments, administrative decisions, and private unilateral decisions.
Which three kinds of law did Thomas Aquinas distinguish in the thirteenth century?
Lex humana, lex naturalis, and lex divina.
How did the Enlightenment make natural law discoverable?
Through human reason.
Which modern declaration was influenced by natural-law ideas?
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
What does state positivism fail to assess about a law?
Whether the law is just.
When does the legal matrimonial regime apply?
In the absence of a marriage contract.
What kind of justice is geometric and illustrated by proportionate criminal punishment?
Distributive justice.
What does codification gather into a code?
Texts concerning the same subject.
Which year was the Napoleonic Civil Code enacted?
1804.
Which order handles private-law disputes?
The judicial order.
What does publicization bring into private law?
Greater state intervention and mandatory rules.
Which fields combine public and private law?
Environmental law, labour law, and European Union law.
Which court ordinarily hears civil disputes between individuals in France?
The tribunal judiciaire.
When may the tribunal de proximité hear everyday civil disputes?
When the financial stakes are below 10,000 euros.
Which disputes does the conseil de prud’hommes hear?
Individual disputes between employees and employers.
Which matters does the tribunal de commerce hear?
Disputes between merchants and commercial acts.
Who composes the departmental criminal court?
Only professional judges.
When may a case go directly to the Court of Cassation without appeal?
When the financial stakes are below 5,000 euros.
How does the abuse-of-rights theory appear in company law?
As abuse of majority.
Which ordinance reformed obligations law and added concepts to the Civil Code?
The ordinance of 10 February 2016.
What concepts did the 10 February 2016 ordinance incorporate into the Civil Code?
Unfair terms and the pre-contractual duty to inform.
What distinguishes customary constitutions from written constitutions?
Customary constitutions are based on repeated practices; written constitutions are set out.
Which republic did the French Constitution of 4 October 1958 establish?
The Fifth Republic.
How many articles does the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen contain?
17 articles.
What kinds of rights does the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen establish?
Individual and political fundamental rights.
What kinds of principles does the Preamble to the Constitution of 27 October 1946 contain?
Political, economic, and social principles considered necessary for the time.
Which rights and principles does the 2004 Environmental Charter recognize?
The right to a healthy environment, ecological responsibility, and the precautionary principle.
In which year did the Constitutional Council recognize human dignity as having constitutional value?
1994.
What is the rule on unilateral modification of a signed international treaty?
It cannot be modified unilaterally.
What legal effect can a treaty reservation have?
It can exclude or modify the legal effects of certain treaty provisions.
What effect may some treaty provisions have directly?
Direct effect.
Which treaty is dated 1951 in the development of EU primary law?
The Treaty of Paris.
Which treaty is dated 1957 in the development of EU primary law?
The Treaty of Rome.
Which treaty is dated 1992 in the development of EU primary law?
The Treaty of Maastricht.
Which treaty is dated 2007 in the development of EU primary law?
The Treaty of Lisbon.
Which two treaties reorganized EU primary law under the Treaty of Lisbon?
The Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
Answer 34 questions on Introduction to Private Law.
1. A regulation applies to every licensed pharmacist but names no individual. Regarding its general and impersonal character:
2. Regarding the permanence of a legal rule:
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