ABSTRACT
Judges have played an increasing role outside the judicial arena as public policymakers. The British tradition of asking judges to chair ad hoc commissions on specific policy issues has spread to France. Marceau Long, a distinguished vice-president of the Conseil d’État, was a ubiquitous policy-maker, chairing several important commissions, including one established on the vexed question of citizenship rights (especially sensitive in relation to second-generation immigrants). The new independent administrative authorities also recruit members of the Conseil d’État as members – or, indeed, as chairpersons: in 1995, the Commission des Opérations en Bourse, the Commission Nationale d’Informatique et des Libertés, the Commission d’Accès aux Documents Administratifs, and the Commission des Sondages were all chaired by members of the Conseil d’État. Another, Paul Legatte, held the post of Médiateur from 1986 to 1992. Administrative judges are also ubiquitous within the executive and legislative branches of government. Pompidou was a conseiller d’État, Chirac entered Pompidou’s cabinet from the Cour des Comptes; among prime ministers, Michel Debré, Pompidou, Laurent Fabius and Édouard Balladur have all been conseillers d’État; members of the grands corps in general and of the Conseil d’État in particular have penetrated the Council of Ministers, the National Assembly, the Senate, the General Secretariat of the Government, and the ministerial cabinets, as well as major posts in public and private business. Members of the Conseil d’État have also chaired many of the disciplinary sections of the various professional selfregulating bodies.
