The National Assembly voted Thursday, July 6 in favor of the decried experiment of “economic activities courts” (TAE) expanding the jurisdiction of commercial courts, including in their field the agricultural professions, during the examination of a justice bill.
Like the senators before them, the deputies voted at first reading for a four-year experiment to “rename nine to twelve commercial courts” in TAE. They also voted in favor of the financial contribution planned to seize these courts, also controversial.
Currently, commercial and craft activities are subject, in the event of disputes and failures, to commercial courts, composed of non-professional and elected judges. While other economic activities fall under the judicial court, composed of professional judges.
The TAE would have, in matters of insolvency proceedings, jurisdiction extended to a very wide range of activities. The deputies however excluded in committee the regulated professions of law, such as those of lawyer or notary, whereas the text adopted in first reading by the Senate had integrated them.
The left and the National Rally unsuccessfully opposed the TAE experiment. They “will have neither the knowledge of the economic circles, nor of the practices of the new natural or legal persons on whom they will have to rule, nor the legal skills required”, criticized in particular the socialist deputy Cécile Untermaier.
The agricultural world at the heart of disagreements
The main source of concern concerns farmers, whom the left has asked in vain to exclude from the field of TAE. The agricultural world is “satisfied with the jurisdictional mission fulfilled by the judicial court”, estimated Ms. Untermaier.
The left also unsuccessfully demanded the presence of a professional magistrate in the TAE, a possibility that had been suppressed by the Senate. The Keeper of the Seals, Eric Dupond-Moretti, deemed the experimentation necessary, because the sharing of powers, for collective procedures, “very frankly lacks readability” in the current system.
It “will allow farmers to benefit from the culture of prevention and support for the entrepreneur in difficulty, which is at the heart of the professional practice of consular judges” of the commercial courts, he pleaded.
An amendment was passed to allow for the appointment of “a Farmer Judge” in EATs. Another excluded from the scope of these courts structures that do not have a lucrative activity.
The contribution planned to seize the TAE has also been strongly criticized, the RN castigating “a toll justice” and LFI a measure aimed “to dissuade litigants from making appeals”.
An amendment adopted in committee by the deputies exempted companies with fewer than 250 employees from this contribution. The Assembly will continue Monday afternoon the examination of the bill.