No Longer that Small to Fall Through the Cracks: A French Story of Adaptation to the Petites Sources of EU Law

This chapter explores the capacity of the French legal system to adapt and accommodate EU soft law. Such question is topical for three reasons. First, because France, a founding Member State, has been straddling between its role of promoter of European integration and, at least up until 2016, its status as not the most compliant EU Member State. A French case study on the reception of EU soft law can thus potentially reveal everything from full compliance, a cherry-picking attitude with regards to EU soft law, or rejection of such instruments. Second, the French legal system belongs to the continental legal tradition. Rooted in Romano-Germanic law, the French legal system is identified as a legal system which is written, centralised, and based on formal law, codification and parliamentary democracy. In principle, such characteristics would make it unlikely for the domestic legal system to naturally accommodate soft law. Similarly to Italy or Hungary, France has not yet developed, nationally, a soft law culture, with the exception of administrative circulars. Third, this research takes place at a crucial moment in French doctrinal and case law development. Perhaps paradoxically, France is now at the forefront of soft law practice, with the Conseil d’État (the French Administrative Supreme Court) showing a positive attitude towards such instruments.