Exceptional conference by Jean-Paul JEAN, honorary chamber president at the Court of Cassation, to better understand the tensions between exceptional justice and the rule of law.
Military tribunals of the Dreyfus affair, Special Sections of Vichy, Courts of Justice of the Purge, Court of State Security. Until their abolition in 1981, have exceptional jurisdictions been a French political tradition, and what remains of it? How could judges, who swore allegiance to Marshal Pétain and served the Vichy regime, later preside over the Purge tribunals? What was the actual role of justice in the application of laws during the Occupation, in the persecution of Jews and the repression of resistors? The re-examination of this dark period in history, which is also illuminated by post-war reforms, including women's access to the judiciary and the beginnings of international criminal justice, opens the debate on contemporary issues of justice, a pillar of the rule of law everywhere threatened by populist and authoritarian excesses. Tuesday, April 28, 2026, at the Parliament of Brittany at 6:30 PM – Preceded by a book signing at the Le Failler bookstore from 5:15 PM to 6:00 PM.
Event from the official agenda of Rennes Ville et Métropole; location: Parliament of Brittany; address: Place du Parlement de Bretagne, Rennes.
Source: Rennes Ville et Métropole