"
Duke Jean of Luxembourg loses his title of duke, and will now be posthumously called Monsieur Jean de Luxembourg, the traitor
".
Six centuries later, here is finally washed the honor of Joan of Arc?
In any case, this is what this municipal decree of the mayor of Beaurevoir (Aisne), Christian Wabont, dated July 10 is aimed at.
Recalling that the Maid was the prisoner of Duke Jean of Luxembourg in 1430 at the Château de Beaurevoir, the elected official decided in this "
Joan of Arc decree
" to declare "
a posteriori illegal, null and void
his confinement, and therefore to posthumously deprive the Duke of Luxembourg of his titles of nobility.
An act of derogation which however seems very far, at first sight, from the powers of the mayor with regard to the Code of local authorities... But after all, as long as no one files an appeal, a municipal decree remains legal.
The mayor of Beaurevoir also asks his counterpart in Le Havre, in article 3 of the decree, to return to him the ashes of Joan of Arc, which were scattered in the Seine after her death at the stake - they therefore had to settle on the shores of Le Havre, calculates the chosen one.
A nod to Édouard Philippe who recalls that this decree is not serious: by this text, the town hall of Beaurevoir intended to participate in the municipal competition for the unusual decree of the year, of which the jury was chaired, precisely, by the former Prime Minister and Mayor of Le Havre.
An initiative that the jury gathered around Édouard Philippe, and in which appear several lawyers as well as comedians (Nicole Ferroni, Caroline Vigneaux ...),
Read alsoThese laws and other unusual decrees still in force
This competition, inspired by several grotesque decisions (which are often a publicity stunt, more than regulatory action) was organized for the first time this year by the lawyers behind the “Legal Curiosity”
website
.
Raphaël Costa, co-director of the Revue du droit insolite, specialist in space law and professor of public law at the University of Paris-Saclay, and Théo Renaudie, jurist in the law of new technologies, had the idea of create a veritable cabinet of curiosities dedicated to law, highlighting passages of court decisions that are unexpected or comical to say the least.
"
It's a way to introduce the law in a fun way,
explains Raphaël Costa
, and it works very well with court decisions because the courts look at deviant acts, which escape the norm.
So they often have to deal with... bizarre situations!
".
They therefore came up with the idea of extending the principle to municipal decrees.
"
A way of remembering that this is the most banal administrative act, the one that mayors use every day to organize the daily life of the inhabitants, and that at the same time these are always texts that have a value in the eyes of the law
,” adds Raphaël Costa.
"
It all started,
he explained at the launch of the competition
, from the decree issued by the mayor of Châteauneuf-du-Pape who, in 1954, prohibited UFOs from flying over the city in order to make his wine known throughout the world.
".
Since this decision, in fact, not only have the bottles produced in the estates of this former holiday resort of the popes of Avignon been sold all over the planet, but flying saucers have never been seen flying over the vineyards either, proof that the authority of the mayor is respected even on the planet Mars...
A mayor who whispers stones in his ear
The mayors who intended to apply had until the end of the summer to adopt a decree and submit it to the jury.
Out of the twenty municipalities that took part in the game, and after deliberation, it was finally the city of Ivry-la-Bataille (Eure) which won, with an order prohibiting stones from falling on the roofs of houses. .
Weakened by a storm in 2019, a cliff threatens part of the houses in the town.
It only remains for the Ivryans to trust in the dissuasive aspect of this decree and in the robustness of the police powers of their mayor...
Read alsoA contest of wacky municipal decrees
In third place on the list, a decree from the town of Sauveterre-de-Guyenne (Gironde) also caught the attention of the jury.
The mayor decides nothing less than to force the Sauveterriens to remain present in the city the last weekend of July for the "
wine festival
".
Worse: offenders expose themselves to the confiscation of all non-Sauveterrean wines unearthed in their cellar!
We should also mention, among the rewarded decrees, the decree of Saint-Lambert-la-Potherie (Yvelines) which prohibits wild boars "from entering the municipality's football stadium if they are not equipped with regulation shoes with crampons ".
Suids are also asked to consider reserving a slot at the town hall in advance.
A decision that the mayor of the city had to take following an unsportsmanlike behavior on the part of mammals, with regard to the lawn of the stadium...
Or that of Joinville-le-Pont (Val-de-Marne) by which the mayor forced its inhabitants to wear sneakers on June 23, for Olympic and Paralympic day.
Violators were exposed, this time, to a strange fine: some compulsory gymnastic exercises.
A decision that the municipal police of the city enforced with zeal, under the eye of the
Parisian
cameras .
Raphaël Costa discovered on YouTube the images filmed by the journalists: we indeed see the police officers "
verbalize
" in the planned way the Joinvillais surprised with dress shoes... If she bends to it with good grace, one of the inhabitants seems reserved on the taste of the joke.
"
I don't really know what to think about it, I wasn't informed...
" she confides in front of the camera.
Are the shortest jokes the best?
"
I was at home when I discovered the report, seeing that it was serious, I told myself that I was going to end up in prison.
People still found themselves doing squats under the eye of the police, all because of a bullshit contest!
“says Raphaël Costa to
Figaro
.
It must be said that the legality of a municipal decree is also a question that fascinates the lawyer behind the competition.
He thus cites as an example a decision by the mayor (LR) of Maisons-Laffitte (Yvelines), Jacques Myard, taken in 2015 in reaction to the closure by Anne Hidalgo of the traffic of the tracks on the banks.
"
Her Lordship Anne Hidalgo,
states the decree
, is prohibited from staying on the entire territory of Maisons-Laffitte for an indefinite period, at least until she reconsiders her ideological projects of ghettoization of the city of Paris.
".
A decree which obviously represents an abuse of power by the mayor, who cannot restrict the constitutional freedom to come and go of his Parisian counterpart.
In theory, therefore, an appeal could easily obtain the annulment of the decree.
Except that precisely, the Administrative Court of Versailles rejected two appeals brought by individuals against this decree, on the grounds that they were not Anne Hidalgo, they had not "proved of any quality giving them an interest in
acting
" .
On paper, therefore, the mayor of Paris still does not have the right to go to the territory of Maisons-Laffitte …
