Parlement (Ancien Régime)
고등법원 (앙시앵 레짐)
Regional appellate and sovereign courts of Ancien-Régime France. Despite the name's resemblance to the English parliament, they were not legislative bodies; royal laws and edicts took effect in a court's jurisdiction only once it registered them, and a court could refuse registration and address remonstrances to the king. Staffed by judges of the noblesse de robe, they numbered thirteen in 1789, with the Parlement of Paris preeminent.
In depth
Origins and Composition
The parlements originated in the curia regis, the feudal royal council. Philip IV fixed a court at Paris in 1302 and formally separated it from the royal council in 1307; the Parlement of Paris met in the medieval royal palace on the Île de la Cité. Its judges came from the noblesse de robe and generally purchased or inherited their offices (made hereditary by the paulette tax); some 1,100 judges served throughout the kingdom. The French-language definition holds that a parlement was an appellate court exercising royal justice over a territory in the king's name, with the highest instance resting in the Conseil du roi, which held the king's own jurisdiction.
Registration and Remonstrance
Laws and edicts issued by the king took effect in a parlement's jurisdiction only once it registered (published) them. A parlement could refuse registration or submit remonstrances; the king in turn could send a lettre de jussion ordering registration or hold a lit de justice to suspend the court's powers temporarily. Louis XIV limited remonstrances to a single instance in 1667 and, in 1673, allowed them only after registration.
Conflict with the Crown
The Parlement of Paris played a leading role in the first Fronde of 1648–1649, demanding control over royal finances, and was humiliated by Louis XIV's victory. After Louis XIV's death, the regent Philippe d'Orléans restored its powers in 1715, and from 1750 it blocked royal reforms such as the principle of equality in taxation. On 3 March 1766, during the Flagellation Session, Louis XV declared that sovereignty resided in him alone. In 1770–1774 Chancellor Maupeou sought to abolish the Parlement of Paris to strengthen royal power (the French source gives 1771, limiting remonstrance and splitting its jurisdiction among six Conseils supérieurs); it was restored in 1774 after Louis XV's death. Louis XVI restored the parlement at his first lit de justice on 12 November 1774 and thereafter repeatedly yielded to its opposition.
Revolution and Abolition
The parlements were central to the political agitation on the eve of the Revolution in the 1780s, claiming to protect the people against royal despotism and drawing some popular support. Yet by obstructing reform, including fiscal reform, in defence of noble privilege and Ancien-Régime institutions, they helped prepare the Revolution and became its first casualty. The historian Alfred Cobban judged them the greatest obstacle to every pre-revolutionary reform and the strongest enemy of the French crown. In November 1789 the National Assembly suspended the parlements, and after more than three centuries they were definitively abolished in 1790 and replaced by elected, salaried judges (the English source specifies that the Constituent Assembly abolished them on 6 September 1790). Their conduct was one reason French courts after the Revolution were barred from creating law and acting like a legislature.