ABSTRACT
The French civil service model was developed gradually as public administration developed. The general principles identified by the administrative case law in the 19th and early 20th centuries were systematised by the adoption of a General Civil Service Statute in the immediate post-war period. The civil service is a career civil service, whose Statute applies in principle to all employees, regardless of their hierarchical level. This model has endured, and the changes it has undergone over the years, most recently through the reforms that have come into force since 2020, have tempered it in ways that do not really call its structure into question, whether it be the increased scope for using contract staff or the greater flexibility of its organisation into corps.
