Brunet, Pierre

The Deductive Style of the Conseil d’État and the “Wordshed” - 2015.


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Judgments issued by the Conseil d’État retain a very formal style and seem to be reserved for an elite: judgments are less addressed to plaintiffs than to other jurists, many of whom are, in fact national or supranational judges. In order to maximize comprehension by these judges, the Conseil d’État is considering a change in the writing style of public legal decisions. There is no discussion, however, about abandoning the ideal of deduction and concision still modeled as a rigorous syllogism. Such concision is tempered by the conclusions of the rapporteurs, who provide informal reasons for formal decisions.