Diapositive 1

1
Simplification of law in Francethe time for
assessment
Charles-Henri Montin Head of (interministerial)
B.R. Unit Ministry of Finance, France charles-henr
i.montin_at_dgme.finances.gouv.fr
OECD 24 April 2006
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The right time to examine what has been done

• The tools
• 3 simplification laws (annual?) since 2003
• 15 codes
• Loi anti-loi
• Guide de légistique
• New assessments of results, introduction of new
  insights
• Conseil dEtat report (20 March 2006)
• Comité denquête report (26 January 2006)
• Much doubt and soul-searching. A new initiative ?

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Outline of the presentation

• Il ny a pas de liberté sans lois. (J.J.
  Rousseau)
• Origins of the issue in France
• The simplification procedures
• Enabling Acts
• Codification
• Loi anti-loi
• Two recent assessment of the results
• Comité sur le coût et rendement des service
  publics
• Conseil dEtat

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Simplification origins of the issue

• Concern about the normative inflation
• The OECD peer review of France (2003)
• The concern of the highest authorities . Civil
  rights spirit embodied by the Conseil
  Constitutionnel
• accessibility and understandability of the law
  justify simplification (decision 473 dated
  26/6/2003)
• Excessive complexity is illegal (decision 530 of
  29/12/2005) "en raison de son excessive
  complexité, qu'aucun motif d'intérêt général ne
  suffisait à justifier."
• Les longues lois sont des calamités publiques
  (St Just)

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The procedures

• The main instrument ordinances under Art.38 of
  the Constitution to empower the Government
• Two methods to select the contents of the
  simplification programme
• - asks ministries for their projects (LH1 et LH2)
• ask the citizens/users (PLS3
• Il y a tant de lois quil ny a personne exempt
  dêtre pendu. (Napoléon I)

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The third simplification law (examples of
articles)

• 1/ For the public
• Simplify election procedures (electronic vote,
  single commission, leaflets, etc)
• Suppress handwritten mentions in contracts
• Change of matrimonial contract without court
  proceeding
• Facilitate redress for victims of crime
• 2/ For businesses
• Unify multiple declarations (into single) for
  apprentices
• Harmonise rules about gaz transport by pipeline
  (7 laws at present)
• Simplify litigation procedures
• 3/ For local authorities
• Align procurement concepts
• Practical measures to facilitate operations of
  local authorities

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Codification
Codification a French tradition To promote
access and understanding of the law
No changes to the content
Static codification

• Il faut être sobre de nouveautés en matière de
  législation Portalis, discours prélimaire du
  code civil, 1804

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The new codification

• 3 types, between which you need to choose
  carefully
• 1/ re-writing redraft unclear laws, abrogate
  useless or obsolete articles, or regulations
  within legislative area, harmonize and simplify
  the legal concepts. LH2 authorizes such
  codification for Public Health, Expropriations
• 2/ inclusion of jurisprudence not truly new law,
  when it is simplu interpretation, but must be
  authorized if it includes extension. Example the
  Administrative code which will regulate
  relations with the public
• 3/ full scale renovation of existing texts, with
  reform of underlying principles. Example Code des
  propriétés publiques

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La loi anti-loi issues

• Official name law abrogating dispositions
  outdated or rendered meaningless
• A symbolic dossier favored by ministers
• Legal issues, leading to C.E. reserves about the
  idea
• Most texts have been codified (70), i.e. 212000
  articles. Not many orphans
• Need for an décret anti décret
• Simplification is the main tool, it includes
  abrogation
• Near impossible to find whole laws to fit the
  criteria
• Review the whole corpus to track down the
  suspects
• Les lois inutiles affaiblissent les lois
  nécessaires (Montesquieu 1754)

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The time for assessment

• Two major assessments published in recent weeks
• Conseil dEtat sécurité juridique et complexité
  du droit (March 2006)
• Comité sur le coût et rendement des service
  publics effets de la loi du 2 juillet 2003
  (February 2006)

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Conseil dEtat a new diagnostic of complexity

• 1/ Complexity from new sources of law
• development and extension of EU law (result of
  institutional reform). Primacy of EU law over
  internal law
• new regulators independent administrative
  authorities- the new principle of "free
  administration of territorial authorities
• - special legal regimes of overseas territories
• 2/ L'intempérance normative
• - misuse of legislative power to further
  political agendas, or pander to public opinion
  transient moods
• - answer to the "social demand" asking for new
  norms, specially in the fields of security and
  social affairs

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Consequences as listed by Conseil dEtat

• the simplification process itself contributes to
  cluttering the legislative agenda
• the new laws are not consistent with existing
  legislation hence complexity/ obscurity /
  instability for the judges
• there is a loss of control by Parliament
• lacunae in the implementation excessive use of
  internal instructions to provide guidance to
  services (not legally binding, and often not
  published)
• penalisation of economic actors and citizens
  (legal insecurity, administrative burden reaching
  3 to 4 of GDP), with the resulting loss of
  competitivity

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C.E.s recommendations for change

• Time limits OECD diagnosed that the system of
  written Roman law does not ascribe time-limits to
  legislation, hence the piling up of texts, which
  codification has failed to contain.
• ?Avoid sedimentation assess corpus and abrogate
  outdated/useless norms
• The simplification process has generated too many
  new texts 150 ordonnances, which in many cases
  have been changed several times, or haven't been
  implemented because the ministries cannot agree
  on the décrets d'application.
• ?Stem the flow of new legislation.

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CE recommendations

• Stricter respect of existing constitutional rules
• Emphasis on the political responsibility for the
  current situation
• Quoting the OECD, the C.E. recommends that an
  organic law (and a constitutional update) reform
  the legislative process, especially to introduce
  compulsory RIAs and other adjustments (limit
  amendments, facilitate transposition of EU
  directives, enhance parliamentary control on
  implementation of laws).

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The report of the Comité denquête

• New approach you must measure success of S.
  program in "transformation of administrative
  action", in terme of savings, instead of
  "evolution of law , hence a severe diagnostic
• Inappropriate scope of programs
• Ineffective tools (ordinances)
• Fautly implementation

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The inappropriate scope of the program

• Legal simplification is a necessary step but not
  always enough to bring about a simplification of
  practices
• inconsistencies in norms
• Volatility of practices ( rapidly changing texts)
• Still fair amount of purely formal (clearing) of
  texts going on
• there are two many exogeneous elements inserted
  into S laws
• Simplification of law can be useful when applied
  to elementary procedures

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The lack of effectivity of the tool

• The ordinance is not an efficient vector for
  reform
• no proper discussion in Parliament, hence risk
• piecemeal approach, no overall scheme to
  uniformise regimes dealing with similar
  situations
• only surface treatment of complexity
• the ordinance can even be harmful, dressing up as
  simplification what is just a lightening of
  procedure.
• many simplifications have been introduced without
  reference to the shift to LOLF
• the simplification agenda gets diluted or lost in
  the buzz of multiple reforms on the same subject

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The implementation of S. policy is faulty

• Implementation is generally chaotic and
  piecemeal
• the simplification measures are drowned in the
  mass of instructions the services receive, many
  of which get higher priority
• delays in issuing implementation rules. O
  1/7/04 on commissions still not in force
• stratification between the policy makers and the
  end-users.
• simplification is a resource-driven process
• Le législateur, en élaborant la loi, ne doit
  jamais perdre de vue l'abus qu'on peut en faire
  (Victor Hugo)

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CECRSP what simplification can do

• Simplification works best for technical
  improvements
• Open new exchanges of information between
  administrations
• Centralise operations hitherto distributed
  between different departments (example social
  affairs)
• Deal with operations and processes, example
  professsional elections, rather than principles
• Suppress least cost-effective tools, such as
  fiscal stamps
• Reduce ex ante control replace authorization
  regime by a declaration

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CECRSP you must manage simplifications

• ?(strategic)
• a better definition, and a strategy ? "réforme de
  l'Etat
• avoid introducing new norms
• simplify the process itself focus on simple
  measures.
• ?(practical)
• look at the process rather than the text
• measure the impact and cost each measure
• include the regulatory measures in the project
• monitor implementation (the complexity does not
  disappear when the text is published in the JO)
• weakness of the "big-bang" approach

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CONCLUSION

• Major issues for discussion stemming from the
  reports
• How to contain the growth of legal norms while
  meeting the expectations of citizens for security
  ?
• Should all legislation be codified ?
• The recognition of Consultation and AB to assist
  simplification
• Can more rules introduce quality into the
  political normative process
• Success of S. can depend on good project
  management

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Find the documents quoted in this presentation

• Central BR site for France http//extraqual.pm.
  ader.gouv.fr/
• 1/ The two recent reports
• Conseil dEtat   sécurité juridique et
  complexité du droit  (20 March 2006)
  http//www.conseil-etat.fr/ce/rappor/index_ra_li06
  00.shtml
• Comité sur le coût et le rendement des services
  publics   effets de la loi du 2 juillet 2003 
  (26 janvier 2006)
• http//www.ccomptes.fr/organismes/comite-enquete/b
  ilan-activites/ordonnances/simplification-droit-or
  donnances-02-2006.pdf
• 2/ Décisions du Conseil constitutionnel
• http//www.conseil-constitutionnel.fr/decision/200
  3/2003473/index.htm
• http//www.conseil-constitutionnel.fr/decision/200
  5/2005530/communiq.htm