Judicial Case Management in France

Abstract

This chapter discusses contemporary tendencies in French civil procedure. These tendencies are situated within the context of the modern history of civil procedure, blending the liberal tradition and the social function of procedure, and they are viewed from the perspective of a plural system of justice destined to respond to the democratic needs of a complex society. This new procedural culture exhibits the triple tendencies of dejudicialisation of cases, rationalization of procedure and reorganization of proceedings. At the same time, computerization increases the necessity of cooperation between the courts and the parties, whilst judicial and procedural case management are also increasingly becoming subject to agreement, something which one may refer to as contractualization, which is an important tool for cooperation. A certain complexity of procedural legality results from this ensemble of sources, this source of conflicts, which complicates even more the identification of the tendencies of civil procedure. Keywords:computerization; cooperation; dejudicialisation; French civil procedure; judicial case management; reorganization