Application of New Law to Ongoing Contracts

Extract

[...] The motivation of the high judges is inscribed in the logic of common law of the territorial application of laws. In fact, except for an expressed text,ispreventing a particular regime or a postponement of theentercomes into force, a national law automatically applies to the entire French territoryais. L'article 83 is therefore not a prior condition of application, but an enabling clause allowing the legislator toadjust ultpreviously certain aspects. In linking article 83 to a logic of optional and non-suspensive adaptation, the July ruling therefore reinforces the effectiveness of protective laws throughout the national territory. [...]

[...] This principle of 'survival of the old law' », rests on the idea that the parties have built their agreement in consideration of the law in force at the time of its conclusion. This vision of civil law is reflected in the jurisprudence which considerisin that the parties have an acquired right to maintain the applicable legal regime at the time of the contract's conclusion since the contract is an 'act of foresight' » do not let the obligations remain stable during the exécutionexecution. [...]

[...] This legal framework is an a determining element to understand why the law applies immediately to the employee's contract. Since the ordinance of March the part-time contract was already required to be written and specify 'the weekly or, as the case may be, monthly duration of work, the distribution, except for employees of home help associations, of the duration of work between the days of the week or, as the case may be, the weeks of the month, as well as the conditions for any possible modification of this distribution'. [...]

[...] The employee claimed that he worked '169 hours per month' » from handisconstant, which ultimately corresponds to a full-time job. In the absence of writing, the presumption of full-time work was therefore fully applicable. The law of December constitutes a protective law whose immediate application is justified. It affects structural elements of the contract (working hours, remuneration, qualification of the employee's status), c'i.e. to legal effects, independent of the will of the parties. DisTherefore, the survival of the old law has no legitimacy in this field. [...]

[...] However, what justifies immediate application is not public order itself, but rather the nature of the contract effects. In fact, when they are legally determined (such as in materialisin the case of part-time work, they must be governed by the law in force at the time of entry into force of the contract.u they occur. If the Court thus specifies the conditions for the application of the new law in time, it will determinetermine in addition to its territorial and material field of applicationriel. [...]