Abstract
The chapter analyzes administrative silence in the French administrative system. The question of the regulation of silence of the administration, and the broader question of time limits in France, is a manifestation of the specificity of the French administrative system and the conception of administrative law. For a long time, the principle was that silence kept by the administrative authority meant rejection. Since a reform in 2013, the system has evolved significantly, establishing in principle the rule that silence kept by the administration is equivalent to acceptance (positive silence). However, there are so many exceptions, that they impact the scope of the general principle. Furthermore, it is rather unsure that it has brought simplification and a better access to rights for individuals.
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Notes
- 1.
Loi du 16 et 24 et août 1790 sur l’organisation judiciaire—Article 13: “Judicial functions are separate and shall always remain separate from administrative functions. Courts shall not, on pain of forfeiture, disrupt in any way the operation of administrative bodies, or summon administrators to appear before them by reason of their duties.”
- 2.
See Sordi (2017).
- 3.
Loi du 24 mai 1872 portant réorganisation du Conseil d’État—Article 9: “The Council of State (Conseil d’État) adjudicates … on actions for the annulment (annulation pour excès de pouvoirs) of the acts of the various administrative authorities”; see McCleave Cake (1972).
- 4.
Tribunal des conflits, 8 February 1873, Blanco.
- 5.
Conseil constitutionnel, Décision n° 80-119 DC, 22 July 1908, Loi de validation législative; Conseil constitutionnel, Décision n° 86-224 DC, 23 January 1987, Loi relative au Conseil de la concurrence.
- 6.
See Chevallier (2007).
- 7.
Code général de la propriété des personnes publiques (General Code on the Property of Public Entities), Code des marchés publics (Public Procurement Code), Code général des collectivités territoriales (Local Authorities Code), Code de justice administrative (Code on administrative justice).
- 8.
Articles 20 and 21 of the French Constitution (Constitution of 4th October 1958).
- 9.
Article 1 of the Declaration of human and citizen’s rights.
- 10.
Art. 1er al. 1 of the decree of 11 January 1965 relatif aux délais de recours en matière administrative: « La juridiction administrative ne peut être saisie que par la voie d’un recours formé contre une décision ».
- 11.
See Deguergue (2015).
- 12.
See CE, 30 July 1920, Servan, n° 65585, Rec. p. 780: the provisions of article 3 of the law of 17 July 1900 were adopted “in order to facilitate the exercise of judicial remedies before the Council of State for the defence of their rights by preventing administrations from making it impossible for claimants to bring legal proceedings by virtue of their silence on the claims they are hearing.”
- 13.
Circulaire n° PRMX1318686C, 17 July 2013 related to the administrative simplification and to the protocol of relations with the deventralized services relative à la simplification administrative et au protocole des relations avec les services déconcentrés (JORF n° 0165 du 18 juillet 2013, page 11993), https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000027721598&categorieLien=id.
- 14.
Report of the Council of State, L’application du nouveau principe “silence de l’administration vaut acceptation,” 2014 (La Documentation française).
- 15.
Council of State (2014).
- 16.
Loi n° 2013-1005 du 12 novembre 2013 habilitant le Gouvernement à simplifier les relations entre l’administration et les citoyens (JORF n° 0263 du 13 novembre 2013, page 18407).
- 17.
Council of State (2014).
- 18.
Council of State (2014).
- 19.
Article 1 of the Declaration of human and citizen’s rights.
- 20.
CE, 9 May 2001, Entreprise personnelle de transports Freymuth, n° 210944; CE, 10 April 2009, Association pour le maintien de l’élevage en Bretagne, n° 310184.
- 21.
CE, 24 March 2006, KPMG, n° 288460.
- 22.
CAA Marseille, 29 January 2013, n° 11MA02224.
- 23.
Constitutional Council, 26 June 1969, Protection des sites, n° 69-55 L; Constitutional Council, 18 January 1995, Vidéosurveillance, n° 94-352 DC.
- 24.
See also for the Council of State case law: CE, 14 February 2001, Ministre de l’emploi et de la solidarité c/M. Bouraïb, n° 202830.
- 25.
Loi n° 2000-321 du 12 avril 2000 relative aux droits des citoyens dans leurs relations avec les administrations (JORF 13 avril 2000, p. 5646).
- 26.
JORF 25 octobre 2015, p. 19872 et p. 19895.
- 27.
See Article L100-1 and Article L100-3 of the Code on relations between the Public and the Administration: « For the purposes of this Code and unless otherwise provided in this Code, the following definitions shall apply: 1° Administration: State administrations, local authorities, their public administrative establishments and bodies and persons governed by public and private law entrusted with a public administrative service mission, including social security bodies. (…) »
- 28.
Article L231-4 of the Code on relations between the Public and Administration, see below.
- 29.
Article R423-23 of the planning Code.
- 30.
There are specific deadline for déclaration préalable (1 month) and three months for other projects.
- 31.
See, for example, Decree n° 2015-836 of 9 July 2015 on the reduction of time limits for the examination of urban planning authorizations (JORF n° 0158 du 10 juillet 2015, page 11770).
- 32.
Article L424-5 of the planning Code: “The building, development or demolition permit, tacit or explicit, may be withdrawn only if it is illegal and within three months of the date of this decision. After this period, the permit may only be withdrawn at the explicit request of the beneficiary.”
- 33.
See below.
- 34.
Article L741-1 of alien’s code: Registration shall take place no later than three working days after the request is submitted to the competent administrative authority, without any preconditions of domiciliation. However, this period may be extended to ten working days where a large number of foreign nationals apply for asylum simultaneously.
- 35.
See below for the exceptions to the rule of positive silence.
- 36.
CE, 9 May 1995, Époux Tchijakoff, no 127763; CE, 2 May 2007, Min. de l’Écologie c/ Coopérative agricole Le Dunnois, no 295024; CAA Marseille, 2 May 2011, Commune de La Roque-d’Anthéron, no 08MA04208.
- 37.
See below.
- 38.
CE, 28 February 1986, n° 38325 39132.
- 39.
Article R514-3-1 of the Environment Code.
- 40.
CE, 28 June 2002, Magiera, n° 239575.
- 41.
CE, 3 December 1999, Didier, n° 207434.
- 42.
CE, 7 mars 2008, Féd. nat. des mines et de l’énergie CGT, n° 298138.
- 43.
CE, 3 févr. 1999, Nodière, n° 178785.
- 44.
See Deffigier (2003).
- 45.
Article 22 of Loi du 12 avril 2000 relative aux droits des citoyens dans leurs relations avec les administrations: « Silence kept for two months by the administrative authority upon a request implies a positive decision when provided for by decree adopted following an opinion of the Council of State ».
- 46.
In 1995, in a Decision Loi relative à l’installation de systèmes de vidéosurveillance, the Constitutional Council stated that the positive silence regime provided for by the legislation was in breach with the Constitution “taking into account the risks that the installation of video surveillance systems may entail for individual freedom”.
- 47.
See Froger (2016).
- 48.
See Ribes (2014).
- 49.
Council of State (2014).
- 50.
Derosier (2014).
- 51.
Cassia (2015).
- 52.
Denoix de Saint Marc (1998).
- 53.
Lafaix (2012).
- 54.
Sirinelli (2011).
- 55.
Chevalier (2014).
- 56.
Deguergue (2015).
- 57.
Sirinelli (2011).
- 58.
Article L231-4 of the Code on the relations between the Public and the Administration.
- 59.
Article R. 543-162 of the Environment Code: Initial approval of the operator of an installation for the storage, depollution, dismantling, cutting or shredding of end-of-life vehicles; see also a deadline of 345 days in case of marketing authorization of GMOs (Articles L. 533-5 et R. 533-25 à R. 533-51 of the Environment Code).
- 60.
Conseil d’Etat, 15 juillet 1964, Dunand.
- 61.
In the field of public health, the legislator has established a rule according to which the absence of communication of the reasons for an implicit decision rejecting the request for the creation of medical beds leads to the birth of an implicit decision of acceptance, see Article L6122-10 of the Code on public health; see also CAA Marseille, 15 May 2008, n° 06MA01050.
- 62.
Article L232-3 du Code on relations between the Public and the Administration; see Koubi (2018).
- 63.
Article R421-2 of the Code on relations between the Public and the Administration.
- 64.
General principle stated by Article R421-5 of the Code on relations between the Public and the Administration.
- 65.
For a negative implicit decision in tax matter: CE, 8 February 2019, n° 406555, SARL Nick Danese Applied Research.
- 66.
CE, 13 juillet 2016, Epoux Czabaj, n° 387763.
- 67.
CE, 18 March 2019, n° 417270.
- 68.
See Article L232-3 of the Code on relations between the Public and the Administration: “The implicit decision of acceptance shall be the subject, upon the request of the individual concerned, of a certificate issued by the administrative authority.”
- 69.
CE, 6 February 2004, Hallal, n° 240560.
- 70.
CE, 25 June 2001, Société Toulouse Football Club v National Football League, n° 234363.
- 71.
This formula is frequently used by the administrative judge himself, see CE, 22 November 1968, Miss Y., n° 67843.
- 72.
- 73.
Law n° 95-125 of 8 February 1995 on the organization of courts and civil, criminal and proceedings (Loi relative à l’organisation des juridictions et à la procédure civile, pénale et administrative, JORF n° 34 du 9 février 1995, p. 2175). See also Sauvé (2014).
- 74.
CE, 7 February 2003, Haras d’Achères, n° 220215.
- 75.
CE, 26 July 1996, Association lyonnaise de protection des locataires, n° 160515; CE, 28 July 2000, Association France Nature Environnement, n° 204024. See Deffigier (2003).
- 76.
Article D. 1332-5 of the Code on Public Health: a one-month silence kept by the administrative authority is an authorization of derogation to the applicable norms of swimming waters.
- 77.
Article L114-2 of the Code on relations between the Public and the Administration.
- 78.
Article L114-3 of the Code on relations between the Public and the Administration.
- 79.
Deguergue (2015).
- 80.
- 81.
Article L242-1 of the Code on relations between the Public and the Administration.
- 82.
Article L242-3 of the Code on relations between the Public and the Administration.
- 83.
See Deguergue (2015): It seems that “the legislator wanted to reduce the litigation generated by implicit decisions and therefore favoured an administrative logic, which should encourage the Administration to respond expressly to the request.”
- 84.
Cassia (2015).
- 85.
Chapus (2008).
- 86.
See below.
- 87.
Backes et al. (2010).
- 88.
See Articles 7 and 8 of the Marianne Charter (Charte Marianne), available at https://www.modernisation.gouv.fr/etudes-et-referentiels/referentiels/le-referentiel-marianne-nouvelle-version.
- 89.
Chevallier (2000).
- 90.
Baudot (2015).
- 91.
Loi organique n° 2001-692 du 1 août 2001 relative aux lois de finances.
- 92.
- 93.
For a study of the management of deadline in a public service of allowance of social benefits: see Baudot (2015).
- 94.
Article 70 of Loi n° 84-16 du 11 janvier 1984, portant dispositions statutaires relatives à la fonction publique de l’Etat.
- 95.
See below.
- 96.
CE, 23 December 2011, Danthony, n° 335033.
- 97.
Cassia (2015).
- 98.
CE, 23 June 2014, M. Wespelaere, n° 369946.
- 99.
See above.
- 100.
See above.
- 101.
CE, Sect., 26 January 1973, Ville de Paris c/Driancourt, n° 84768.
- 102.
CE, 15 July 1964, Prat-Flottes, n° 59536.
- 103.
See, for example, Cour administrative d’appel de Paris, 2 May 2017, M. A., n° 15PA00325; Cour administrative d’appel de Marseille, 30 March 2017, Centre hospitalier d’Avignon, n° 16MA02034.
- 104.
CE, 27 January 2010, n° 320642; CE, 21 January 2011, n° 339647.
- 105.
CE, 27 November 1964, Veuve Renard, n° 59068; CE, 27 July 2005, n° 261694.
- 106.
Article 71-1 of the French Constitution; Organic Law no. 2011-333 of 29 March 2011 on the Defender of Rights.
- 107.
See, for example, decision 2018-005 of 25 January 2018 concerning a refusal to send Roma children to school by a major; decision 2018-011 of 30 March 2018 concerning a refusal of schooling by a mayor for a family hosted by an association; decision 2018-221 of 12 October 2018 concerning the refusal by the mayor to allow a child to attend a nursery school on the grounds that a procedure to expel him from the squat in which he was domiciled with his family was in progress.
- 108.
Decision 2018-137 of 29 April 2018 relating to the refusal by the department of a contract for the reception of a young adult in favor of an unaccompanied minor who has reached the age of majority.
- 109.
Defender of Rights, Annual Report for 2018, p. 28, available at https://www.defenseurdesdroits.fr/sites/default/files/atoms/files/raa-2018-num-19.02.19.pdf.
- 110.
Braconnier et al. (2013).
- 111.
Pauliat (2013): If certain provisions contained therein were expected, in light of the main principles laid down by the inter-ministerial committees for the modernization of public action, such as, for example, the adoption of the legislative part of a Code on relations between administrations and the public, others have emerged as a result of a government amendment; this is the case with the principle that silence for two months by the administrative authority on an application is equivalent to a decision to accept it; see Pastor (2016).
- 112.
Seiller (2014).
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Chevalier, E. (2020). Silence in the French Administrative System: A Failed Revolution?. In: Dragos, D., Kovač, P., Tolsma, H. (eds) The Sound of Silence in European Administrative Law. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45227-8_4
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