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Please note: This article concerns French legislation. The requirements described may not apply in other countries.
You hear terms like "order," "decree," and "code" every day. But what do they actually mean? How does regulation work in France and at the European level? Who is subject to a directive or a regulation? These are all valid questions. We invite you to take a closer look at decoding regulations in France and Europe in general. The next two articles on this topic will illustrate this decoding process through specific examples related to HSE regulations.
Decoding regulations: how do they connect?
Before diving into the details of decoding regulations, we will first outline the regulatory framework and the connections between international, European, and French law.
International Law
International treaties and agreements are acts established between states at the international level. For example, through the Kyoto Protocol, signatory states committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
These are not directly applicable to companies, but rather to the signatory state. It is up to the state to implement rules within its own legal system to meet the requirements of these treaties, agreements, or protocols.
European Union Law
A European regulation is a binding legislative act applicable to everyone (for example: the REACH and CLP regulations).
A directive is a legislative act that sets objectives for member states, which they must then transpose into their national law (in France, via a law, ordinance, or decree). States are free to choose the measures to implement to achieve the directive's objectives. Therefore, it is not directly applicable to companies.
Decisions are binding legal acts that may have general scope or be addressed to specific recipients.
French Law
General Principle
The Constitution is considered the highest rule in the French legal order. Since 2005, it has included the Charter for the Environment.
Below these are laws and ordinances. They are often used to create articles (codification) at the legislative level within codes (Labor Code, Environmental Code, etc.).
- Laws are enacted by Parliament (consisting of the Senate and the National Assembly);
- Ordinances are acts issued by the Government in areas that normally fall under the scope of law. An enabling act must be passed by Parliament to authorize the Government to issue the ordinance, and once published, Parliament must pass a ratification act to make it legally binding.
Laws and ordinances define general rules and the broad operating principles for a given subject. Very often, they do not contain specific, operational requirements. They may be immediately applicable or may require an implementing decree.
Decrees are issued by the President of the Republic or the Prime Minister, generally to implement laws or ordinances, and often codify regulatory articles. Sometimes, an order (arrêté) is necessary to supplement regulatory provisions.
Thus, laws, decrees, and orders are texts applicable to businesses.
Circulars are administrative acts used to explain a regulatory text. They are not legally binding unless they are made mandatory by a prefectural order.
There are also other types of texts such as opinions, decisions, etc. Like circulars, in the majority of cases, these texts explain regulations and provide methodological or technical clarifications.
Codes
A code is a single document covering a specific area of law (e.g., environment, energy, labor, etc.), composed of a legislative part and a regulatory part.
They gather scattered requirements, whether legislative ("L" articles derived from laws or ordinances) or regulatory ("R" and "D" articles derived mainly from decrees), in order to coordinate them and make them more coherent and accessible through a logical structure.
Codes are then divided as follows:
- for some codes, such as the Labor Code and the Public Health Code: into parts, books, titles, and then chapters;
- for other codes, such as the Environmental Code and the Energy Code: into books, titles, and chapters.
Regarding health, safety, and environmental regulations, it should be noted that:
- provisions related to occupational health and safety are found in the fourth part of the Labor Code (for example, at the regulatory level: articles R. 4121-1 to R. 4121-4 deal with the single risk assessment document);
- Book V of the Environmental Code notably groups together provisions relating to ICPE (Installations Classified for Environmental Protection) in its Title I (which corresponds to articles numbered 51x) and waste in its Title IV (which corresponds to articles numbered 54x).
To conclude, you now know everything about decoding regulations. In a second part, we will present the functioning of these regulations through environmental examples. Finally, in the third part, discover its organization through health and safety at work.