National privilege yes, outright national preference, no. This is how to summarise the answer to a question that has resurfaced since the adoption by Parliament of the immigration law, and in particular the tightening of the granting of APL to foreigners. In a State governed by the rule of law and a self-respecting democracy, the duties of the citizen correspond to their own and legitimate rights, linked to nationality and separated from those of resident aliens.
This is the case when it comes to the exercise of citizenship or national sovereignty: voting, standing for election, becoming a soldier, a police officer, a magistrate or even an assize juror, who dispenses justice "in the name of the French people". These sovereign functions are so-called 'legitimate' exclusivities in all national laws.
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"For a long time in France, until the Liberation, these reserved functions even extended to lawyers, bailiffs, notaries, ship captains, to a hundred jobs," recalls Serge Slama...
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