Serge Guinchard (born May 9, 1946) is a French jurist who formerly taught at the Law School of Dakar and Jean Moulin University Lyon 3 and most recently at Panthéon-Assas University, where he is now Professor emeritus. He has also held political posts in the metropolitan government of Lyon.
Education Guinchard was born in the 4th arrondissement of Lyon and was educated in Caluire-et-Cuire and the northern suburbs of Lyon. After completing his secondary education in Lyon, he studied at the Faculty of Law of Lyon. He obtained his J.D. in 1974 and the Agrégation in law the year afterward.
Academic career From November 1969 to September 1974 Guinchard was an Assistant in the Faculty of Law at the University of Lyon 2, then at Jean Moulin University Lyon 3 after its creation. He then became a lecturer at Lyon 3 until December 1975.Coulon (2010), p. xii. From January 1976 to September 1980, he was a professor in the Faculty of Law at Dakar University, heading the Private Law Section from October 1978.Coulon (2010), p. xvii. He then returned to the University Jean Moulin Lyon III, serving as director of the insurance section then of the Institute of Judicial Studies ; he was Dean of the Faculty from May 1982 to September 1988. In 1988 he moved to Panthéon-Assas University (Paris 2), where he was director of the Institute of Judicial Studies for ten years, from 1990 to 2000.Institutions juridictionnelles, ed. Serge Guinchard, Gabriel Montagnier, André Varinard, et al., 10th ed., Paris: Dalloz, 2009, , p. 798. In 2001–02, he headed the Center for Research into Justice and Alternative Modes of Conflict Resolution, then from October 2001 to July 2003, he was director of the Center for Permanent Training.For a full account of his academic career, see Coulon (2010), pp. xii–xxviii.
He also served outside the university in several capacities: in 1988–89 and 1993–94, as head of the specialist commission on the legal disciplines for the French University of the Pacific; from 1992 to 1999 as a member of the Commission on Education for the National Council of Bar Associations;Coulon (2010), p. xix. from 1991 to 1993 as director of the Bar Association training school for the Paris Court of Appeal;Archives of the Paris Bar, 11 Place Dauphine, 75001 Paris and the Training School of the bars the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal of Paris, 63 rue de Charenton, 75012 Paris from 1996 to 2000 as a member of the administrative board of the National School for the Judiciary; and from 2000 to 2003 as director of legal studies at the École Normale Supérieure. He also served on the jury for the national agrégation in private law and forensic science: in 1984, 1988–89, and 2000–01,Coulon (2010), pp. xvii–xviii. and from January 1992 to December 1995 was president of the National Council of Universities of which he was a member from 1987 to 1995 and again in 2000.Coulon (2010), p. xviii.
From 2003 his career became focused on administration when he became rector of the Academy of Guadeloupe, then in 2005 took up the same position at Rennes, which he held for a year.Coulon (2010), p. xiv.
In June 2007 he became Professor Emeritus at Panthéon-Assas University, and in May 2010 a Festschrift was published in his honour.Coulon (2010)
Legal reports Guinchard has produced numerous reports at the request of international organizations and of the French and Senegalese Ministries of Justice (France and Senegal), many of which led to legislation:
French Ministry of Justice Chairman of the Commission named for himLetter of mission from the Minister of Justice, December 20, 2007, published in the committee's report, L’ambition raisonnée d’une justice apaisée, Documentation française, Official reports, August 2008, . established on January 18, 2008, by Minister of Justice Rachida Dati,Speech on the site of the Department of Justice. concerning the distribution of first instance civil litigation and possible civil diversions (including the issue of transferral to notaries of divorce by mutual consent) and criminal diversions. Report submitted June 30, 2008.L’ambition raisonnée d’une justice apaisée The report contains 65 proposals for reform; , 26 had been enacted into law. Chairman of the Commission established on November 28, 2002, by Minister of Justice Dominique Perben on the quality of civil justice.Records of the Department of Justice. Specifically, implementation of a working group on training local judges and lay judges. Reports submitted in January and March 2003.Archives of the Ministry of Justice, 13, place Vendôme, 75001 Paris. Commission's work behind the decree No. 2004-836 of 20 August 2004 on the reform of civil procedure. Chairman of a working group established by Minister of Justice Jacques Toubon on foreclosure reform of foreclosure, July 1996–June 1997. Bill introduced in November 2005, became Ordinance No. 2001-461 of 21 April 2006.
Senegalese Ministry of Justice Co-author of draft law on commercial companies and draft code, which became the fourth part of the Code of Obligations after its adoption by the Senegalese National Assembly.Coulon (2010), pp. xviii–xix.Archives of the Presidency and of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Senegal.
Council of Europe Expert assessment of judicial system and criminal procedure in Armenia with respect to its becoming a member of the Council of Europe and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms; expert mission to Yerevan, September 1996; summary report submitted in 1997.Coulon (2010), p. xx.Archive of the Council of Europe, Strasbourg
NATO Summary report in October 1974 on research concerning consumer protection under French and Canadian law, funded by a research grant (Laval University, July 1973; University of Montreal, September 1974).
Research and doctrinal positions
Comparative law Recognizing the importance of studies in comparative law for training lawyers, Guinchard pursued such studies beginning with his second doctorate, for which his dissertation compared French and Swiss law. He studied the university system in Quebec in 1971Dalloz, p. xxv. and in 1973–74 returned for a study of consumer protection under a NATO grant. As dean of the Faculty of Law at Lyon (1982–88), one of his concerns was the development of exchanges with other European and with American universities including Boston University, the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Georgetown University, the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and Saint Louis University, Missouri.Coulon (2010), p. xvi.Archives of the Faculty of Law, University Jean Moulin-Lyon III. He instituted seminars in foreign law conducted by visiting professors from countries including Germany, Belgium, Canada, and Israel. When in 1995 he founded the law review Justice, published by Dalloz, he included a section on judicial systems in other countries,Coulon (2010), p. xxxi. and also included such coverage in the journal Droit et procédures, where he headed the scientific committee, then the peer.Coulon (2010), p. xxxii.
Human rights From the beginning of his doctoral studies in 1969, Serge Guinchard became interested in fields other than trial law, such as consumer protection and civil law. Some of his writings are outspoken, even causticDo not touch my code! in Mélanges (liber amicorum) Jean Buffet, The procedure in all statements, Petites affiches/LGDJ editor, p. 269.Imaginary dialogue between a litigant and a lawyer desperate means by the case Kress v/France,Recueil Dalloz (French law review) 2003, chron. p. 152 and cover responsibility for miscarriages of justice,The liability of officers of justice, summary report to the XXII Conference of Institut of studies judiciaries, Nantes November 9, 1996, Justice (French law review) 1997/5, p. 109, Dalloz ed. "Judicial Accountability",in The judges of irresponsibility to responsibility?Proceedings of the Conference of the Institute of Criminal Science and Criminology from Aix-en-Provence, 5 - May 6, 2000, Aix-Marseille University Press, December 2000, p. 115. From the irresponsibility of the judge: for how long? in Mélanges (liber amicorum) Jean Pradel, Cujas ed., 2006. The responsibility of judges, Gazette du Palais (French law review) 2006, p. 834, publication of the intervention of the author before the national Commission on miscarriages of justice in the case of Outreau, Paris, National Assembly, April 4, 2006. Hearing is available on the website of the National Assembly. Institutions judiciaires, Dalloz, 10th ed., 2009, sections 238–39. and his books include proposals for reform.Thus in Institutions judiciaires, sections 123 to 129 are devoted to proposals for reform of the judiciary and the status of judges Some of these have led to changes in the law, while others have not. He has harshly criticized the function of the Court of Cassation, the French supreme court,In his article in Mélanges (liber amicorum) in honor of Professor François Terré, Dalloz/Technical Publishing/PUF, 1999 761, "The law is there still a future for the Supreme Court?" and contributed to the debate on judges' being Freemasons,Can one be Jewish or Buddhist or Christian or a freethinker or a Freemason and Judge. Answer a question impertinent wrongly put on the independence and impartiality of judges belonging to the Freemasons,in Mélanges (liber amicorum) Pierre Julien, The Civil Justice in the XXIst century,Edilex ed., p. 203 and s. regularly updated his contribution to the Dalloz Encyclopedia of Civil Procedure concerning the liabilities incurred due to miscarriages of public justice, and has studied judicial actions that may constitute a threat to human rights.Threats to Justice for human rights and fundamental procedural rights, in Mélanges (liber amicorum) Jacques Normand, editor Litec, 2003, pages 209 and Justice, consumer good, Mélanges (liber amicorum) Jean Calais Auloy, publisher Dalloz, 2003, pages 461 and written on the removal of judges.Requiem for the funeral joyous announced the judge, in Bi-centenary of the Criminal Code and Criminal Procedure Code, a publication of Panthéon-Assas University Editions Dalloz, 2010. In his writings he focuses on the assurance of rights as it emerges from the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights or, more recently, that of the Constitutional Council on priority issues of constitutionality, particularly in the areas of criminal procedure and jurisprudence.Manual of Criminal Procedure, co-authored with Jacques Buisson, editions LexisNexis/Litec, he has written including the entire section devoted to procedural guidelines, i.e. guarantees of fair trial. Procedure law / human rights trial, Dalloz ed., 6th edition, Jan. 2011.
Consumer protection