Law of France

France uses a civil legal system, which means that the right arises primarily from written charters, the judges should not create laws but only interpret it (although the importance of judicial interpretation in some areas, equivalent to the actual law). The basic principles of the laws of law were laid out in the Code Napoleon. In conformity with the principles of the Declaration of human and civil rights laws should only prohibit actions detrimental to society. Guy Kanive, the first President of the Court of Cassation, wrote about the management of prisons: "Freedom - the rule and its limitation - the protest, any restriction of liberty should be the law and is necessary to adhere to the principles of necessity and proportionality." This means that the law should impose a ban, only if they are needed, and if the inconveniences caused by the restriction exceeds the inconvenience of the ban - they are intended to be addressed. In practice, of course, this ideal is often lost when creating laws. 

The French law is divided into two main areas: private law and public law. Private law includes, inter alia, civil and criminal law. Public law includes, inter alia, administrative and constitutional law. However, in practical terms, French law comprises three principal areas of law: civil law, criminal and administrative law. 

France does not recognize the religious rights and does not recognize the religious beliefs or morality as the motivation for the ban. As a consequence, France has long been neither blasphemy laws nor about homosexuality (the latter a law repealed in 1791). However, a "crime against public morals" (Fr. contraires aux bonnes moeurs) or disruption of public order, were used to suppress public expressions of homosexuality or street prostitution. 

The law can only address the future, but not about the past (ex post facto laws are prohibited), and to be applied, the laws must be officially published in the Official Gazette de la Republique francaise.