Incompatibility between the ‘French Republican Model’ and Anti-Discrimination Law?

Stéphanie Hennette-Vauchez (1, 2) , Elsa Fondimare (1, 2) , Barbara Havelková , Mathias Möschel

1 CTAD - Centre de Théorie et Analyse du Droit
2 CREDOF - Centre de recherches et d'études sur les droits fondamentaux

A form of incompatibility between the ‘Republican’ legal and political tradition and some concepts or modus operandi of anti-discrimination law is a familiar trope of French constitutional and political narratives. This chapter seeks to revisit this common affirmation by making two main claims. It first acknowledges that specific twists and forms of tailoring imposed on anti-discrimination law rules were necessary in order to integrate them into the French legal order. It then mitigates the absoluteness of the ‘Republican’ tradition of universalism by unearthing past and present legal rules that have always allowed the constitutional principle of equality to apply only to some (groups) and/or to allow forms of differentiation. It thus concludes that much of the resistance of French legal actors to the paradigm of anti-discrimination law is political, rather than legal. Routinely alleged legal incompatibilities are largely mythical.

Mots clés: France; Republicanism; universalism; equality principle; incompatibility; anti-discrimination law

Domaines: Droit

Stéphanie Hennette-Vauchez, Elsa Fondimare, Barbara Havelková, Mathias Möschel. Incompatibility between the ‘French Republican Model’ and Anti-Discrimination Law?: Deconstructing a Familiar Trope of Narratives of French Law. Anti-Discrimination Law in Civil Law Jurisdictions, 1, Oxford University Press, 2019, 9780198853138. ⟨10.1093/oso/9780198853138.001.0001⟩. ⟨halshs-03272547⟩