Conference paper
https://doi.org/10.31141/zrpfs.2026.63.159.83
The Administrative Judge’s Control over the Administration’s Execution of Court Decisions
Jérôme Michel
; Conseiller d’État
Abstract
Drawing on the author’s role within the Conseil d’État’s delegation for the execution of court
decisions, this contribution analyses the control exercised by the administrative judge over the
administration’s execution of judicial decisions. The author first recalls that the proper and complete
execution of court decisions is an essential component of the rule of law and, since the case law of
the European Court of Human Rights and the French Constitutional Council’s decision of 6 March
2015, a dimension consubstantial with the right to an effective judicial remedy. Long left to the
administration’s goodwill, execution was truly brought under judicial control only by the law of 8
February 1995, whose thirtieth anniversary is celebrated this year. The study then presents the two
stages of control. Upstream, the prevention of non-execution: the judge may, where appropriate
of his own motion, indicate the execution measures and issue preventive injunctions and penalty
payments (astreintes), sometimes going so far as to impose quasi-obligations of result without,
however, substituting himself for the administration. Downstream, the combating of established
non-execution: execution requests handled in an administrative phase and, where necessary, a
jurisdictional one; increasingly dissuasive penalty payments; the Conseil d’État’s self-referral; the
clarification procedure; and fines imposed by the Court of Audit (Cour des comptes). Supported
by statistical data, the author concludes that the French system is robust, pragmatic and effective,
contributing to the administration’s respect for res judicata and to the effective guarantee of rights.
Keywords
execution of court decisions; administrative judge; injunction; astreinte (penalty payment); rule of law
Hrčak ID:
347924
URI
Publication date:
31.3.2026.
Visits: 74 *