Judges and divisions

Overall, the Court consists of nearly 85 trial judges (conseillers) and about 40 deputy judges^{[lower-alpha 1]} (conseillers référendaires), each divided among six different divisions (chambres):

• First Civil Division (première chambre civile) deals with contractual liability, international private law, arbitration, consumer law, family law, successions (wills), child custody, professional discipline, individual rights
• Second Civil Division (deuxième chambre civile) handles civil procedural issues, torts, insurance law, social insurance law and electoral matters
• Third Civil Division (troisième chambre civile) (or "Land Court") for immovable property (real estate), housing, commercial leases, construction law, urban planning law, environmental law
• Commercial Division (chambre commerciale, financière et économique) handles corporate law, bankruptcy, commercial law, business contracts, competition law, financial law and intellectual property rights
• Labor Division (chambre sociale) handles labor disputes, worker compensation.
• Criminal Division (chambre criminelle) deals with criminal cases and criminal procedural rules

Each division is headed by a presiding justice^{[lower-alpha 2]} referred to in French as a président, or President of Division. The Chief Justice bears the title of the premier président, or President of the Court, who supervises the presiding justices of the various divisions. The Chief Justice is the highest-ranking judicial officer in the country and is responsible for administration of the Court and the discipline of justices. The current Chief Justice is Bertrand Louvel. The Court also includes 12 masters (auditeurs), the lowest rank of justice, who are primarily concerned with administration.

There is, in addition to the abovementioned six divisions, a separate organization known as the Divisional Court (chambre mixte). The Divisional Court adjudicates where the subject matter of an appeal falls within the purview of multiple divisions. The Bench of the Divisional Court seats the Chief Justice and a number of other judges from at least three other divisions relevant to a given case. Any participating division is represented by its Presiding Justice and two puisne judges.

Finally, a full court (Assemblée plénière) is called, presided over by the Chief Justice or, if he is absent, by the most senior presiding justice. It also seats all divisional presiding justices and senior justices, assisted by a puisne judge from each division. The full court is the highest level of the Court.^[2]

Office of the Prosecutor

The building of the Court of Cassation

The prosecution, or parquet général, is headed by the Chief Prosecutor (procureur général).^{[lower-alpha 3]} The Chief Prosecutor is a judicial officer, but does not prosecute cases; instead, his function is to advise the Court on how to proceed, analogous to the Commissioner-in-Council's^{[lower-alpha 4]} role within the Conseil d'État (lit. Council of State, but function may vary). Duties include filing motions to bring cases before the Court "in the name of the law" and bringing cases before the French Court of Justice (Cour de justice de la République), which tries government officials for crimes committed while in office. The Chief Prosecutor is assisted by two Chief Deputy Prosecutors (premiers avocats généraux) and a staff of about 22 deputy prosecutors (avocats généraux), and two assistant prosecutors (substituts).

Supreme Court bar

Barristers (avocats), though not technically officers of the court, play an integral role in the justice system. Except for a few types of actions, advocate counsel in the form of a barrister is mandatory for any case heard at the Court or Council of State. Barristers with exclusive rights of audience and admitted to practice law in either senior court are titled avocat au Conseil d'État et à la Cour de Cassation, or avocats aux Conseils ("Counsel at Senior Court") for short. Admission to the Supreme Court bar^{[lower-alpha 5]} is particularly difficult, requiring special training and passing a notoriously stringent examination. Once admitted, bar members can advise litigants on whether their actions are justiciable, that is, issuable and exceeding de minimis requirements—an important service since the court hears appeals only on points of law and not issues of fact. Membership is restricted to 60 total positions and is considered a public office.

General counsel

In May 2019, Jean-François Ricard was appointed General Counsel at the Court of Cassation to exercise the function of anti-terrorism public prosecutor at the Tribunal de grande instance de Paris, heading a new National Terrorism Prosecution Office (Parquet national antiterroriste; PNAT), beginning on 25 June 2019.^[3] He leads a team of 25 magistrates.^[4]

Appeals

The Court has inherent appellate jurisdiction for appeals (called pourvois en cassation) from courts of appeal or, for certain types of small claims cases not appealable to appellate courts, from courts of record. The Supreme Court reviews the appeal on the record and may affirm or set aside lower court rulings; if set aside, the ruling is said to be cassé (French for "quashed"), hence the French name of Cour de cassation, or "Quashing Court". The Court adjudicates by strict appeal, or appeal stricto sensu, which is limited to review of the decision and of the decision-making process on a point of law, and may only allow the appeal in cases of serious error; fresh evidence is not admissible. The typical outcome of a successful appeal is setting aside of the lower court's decision and remittal for reconsideration.

An intermediate appellate court, the Cour d'appel, hears general appeals de novo on points of law and procedure as well as errors of fact and reasoning. The Court of Cassation only decides matters of points of law or procedure on the record, as opposed to factual errors. Lower courts may petition the Court for an interlocutory order during the proceedings on any new and complex point of law; any such order, however, is not final or conclusive.

Appeal procedure

A case is heard by a bench of three or five relevant divisional justices. For either civil or criminal appeals, the bench seats by three judges unless the Chief Justice or the divisional presiding justice orders a full bench of five judges. Furthermore, any one of the three judges originally assigned to the bench may order it expanded to five. If the case falls in the legal areas handled by more than one division, the Chief Justice may order the divisional court, rather than a Bench, to consider the case.

The Court can affirm a decision from below by dismissing the appeal (rejet du pourvoi) or overturn or amend the decision by allowing the appeal (accueil du pourvoi).^[5] If it finds that the lower court erred, it sets aside the lower court decision and remits the case with its opinion to an appellate court for reconsideration (cassation avec renvoi). If only a portion of a ruling is overturned, it is called cassation partielle, or partial setting aside. Sometimes, the Court may overturn a lower court ruling and judge the case ex proprio motu without being petitioned (cassation sans renvoi), as long as the merits and facts of the case are on record.

When overturned, the case is remanded to a second appellate court, in other words not the appellate court whose decision is being appealed; never to the same judges. The decision of the Bench of the Court of Cassation or Divisional Court is not binding on the lower court, and the appellate court has full discretion to decide the case, but the higher court's ruling has persuasive authority. The appellate court's ruling may again be appealed to the Court of Cassation. If so, the Full Court hears and judges the case. It may, again, uphold an earlier decision or reverse it and remand the case to another appellate court. In the latter case, the determination of the Full Court is binding; the facts, however, may be reviewed by the court retrying the case.

Published judgments are extremely brief, containing a statement of the case—citing relevant statutory authorities—and a summary of ruling. The ruling does not contain a ratio decidendi in the style of common-law jurisdictions.^{[lower-alpha 6][6]} Instead, it is left to legal experts to explain the importance of rulings. The Court often drastically changes the way the Civil Code or other statutory laws are interpreted. Legal digests, such as the Recueil Dalloz, and treatises written by legal scholars analyze and explain rulings through precedents. Much of this information is available through online databases.

Unlike common-law jurisdictions, there is no doctrine of binding precedent (stare decisis) in France. Therefore, previous decisions of higher courts do not bind lower courts in the same hierarchy, though they are often followed and have persuasive authority. Instead, the French legal system subscribes to the legal doctrine of jurisprudence constante according to which courts should follow a series of decisions that are in accord with each other and judges should rule on their own interpretation of the law.

Other duties

The Court publishes an annual report on the French court system. The report includes a section with suggested changes to laws concerning the legal system, including criminal procedure. The Court awards damages to defendants exonerated after incarceration. Some high-level members of the court are ex officio members of special ad hoc courts; the investigatory commission of the High Court of Justice (Haute Cour de Justice), which may be convened to try the French President for high treason; the French Court of Justice (Cour de Justice de la République), which may be convened to try current or former cabinet ministers for crimes committed while in office; and the National Judicial Council (Conseil supérieur de la magistrature), which serves as a court of judicial discipline and disciplinary counsel. The High Court of Justice has never been convened during the Fifth Republic and the French Court of Justice, only rarely.