France

Abstract

France has a distinctive system of labour jurisdiction, anchored in a bipartite first-instance court with lay judges elected by employers and employees, and scope for appeals to forums consisting only of professional judges. Election has endowed the system with democratic roots, but has also rendered current arrangements vulnerable to erosion in the level of turnout. For a society often portrayed as characterised by an adversarial relationship between employers and — competing — trade unions, labour courts (conseils de prud’hommes) would appear to represent an island of constructive discourse and consensus.