Foreign language ban ties modern court

Paris lawyers keen for a slice of the Brexit pie are trying to skirt around a 16th century law that requires court matters to be dealt with entirely in the French language.

The Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts signed by King François I in 1539 requires court affairs to be: en langage maternel francoys et non aultrement (in the native French language and not otherwise).

At that time it was Latin that was the target of the law, but as the French plan for the UK leaving the Euro­pean judicial space, they hope that more international commercial cases will be heard at the Tribunal de commerce de Paris, which has a chamber for international disputes, instead of in London.

Now they think they have a solution: the summons and judgment will be in French, but every­thing in between can be in English.

They want to re­cruit bilingual judges familiar with UK law, because choosing Paris does not necessarily include choosing French law.