The recent attempt to impose the wearing of the veil at the bar training school reveals the assumed Islamist proselytism of certain religious communities within the judicial institution. More and more incidents are thus emerging, unacceptable breaches that damage our profession and our republican justice. Today, they appear on the training benches of future lawyers. Tomorrow, it is the clerks and the magistrates of the seat and the parquet floor who will be targeted.

This is why, faced with this dangerous progression of the religious fact within our ranks, we, lawyers and auxiliaries of justice, speak up before it is too late. As the last ramparts of freedom, we cannot resolve to let acts of religious activism multiply, which are harmful to our profession and ultimately, for litigants. If we welcome the unequivocal words of the President of the Paris Bar recalling in 2015 that “wearing the robe is obviously exclusive of wearing any distinctive religious sign”each bar is a regulator and we fear that the situation will evolve according to incidents and particular decisions, as well as by the lack of courage or the abandonment of the authorities.

Obligation of neutrality

To accept the wearing of the veil within our institution would be to accept that religion takes precedence over the work of justice. We cannot allow such a symbol. Only the wearing of the dress must prevail, symbol of authority, neutrality and dignity of justice, values ​​common to the people of the palace. Only the wearing of the robe guarantees the unity of all the servants of justice. Only the wearing of the dress transcends us. Fiercely independent, we lawyers are strictly opposed to the wearing of a religious symbol which undoubtedly constitutes a manifestation of dependence.

“The independence of our profession is at stake. The independence of the judiciary is at stake. »

We, lawyers, demand to maintain justice that guarantees everyone the possibility of being judged in an enclosure preserved from religious incursions. We lawyers do not want a communitarian, obscurantist justice. We lawyers do not want veiled justice. We, lawyers, solemnly enjoin the Conseil national des barreaux, under its competence to draw up national rules of procedure, and in order not to leave the decision to prohibit the wearing of the veil by a lawyer, to integrate the ethical obligation of religious neutrality. The independence of our profession is at stake. The independence of the judiciary is at stake.

Signature :

AIDAN Norbert, Bar of Marseille

BALLING Louis, Paris Bar

BONO Sébastien, Paris Bar

BRETZ Ariane, Paris Bar

CAILLIEZ Louis, Bar of Paris

CAMPOCASSO Sylvie, Bar of Marseille

CELLIER Roxane, Paris Bar

CHABERT Patrick, Bar of Rouen (former President)

CONESA Camille, Paris Bar

COTTERET Brice, Paris Bar

CUINAT Pierre, Dijon Bar (honorary lawyer) DE MONTBRIAL Thibault, Paris Bar

DE VILLELE Ludovic, Paris Bar

DEMARCQ Guillaume, Bar of Amiens

DRAI Rémi-Pierre, Paris Bar

EL HAITE Najwa, Paris Bar

FATIMI Lara, Paris Bar

FLECHER Henri, Bar of Toulon

HENRIQUET Pascale, Bar of Bordeaux (honorary lawyer)

HUGONIE Jean-Marc, Paris Bar (honorary lawyer)

JOVANOVIC Anne, Paris Bar

LAVAL Michel, Paris Bar

MANUEL Paula, Paris Bar

MARGUET Bruno, Paris Bar

MARTINEZ Jean, Bar of Marseille

MASSON Caroline, Hauts-de-Seine Bar

MICHEL Brice, Paris Bar

OBADIA Sophie, Paris Bar

PONS Frédérique, Paris Bar

POUJOL Kevin, Paris Bar

PY Aurélien, Grenoble Bar

ROUVIER Gilles, Bar of Paris

SAMSON Emélie, Paris Bar

SAUVAGE Nicolas, Paris Bar

TEITGEN Francis, Paris Bar (former President)

TESTU Hugues, Paris Bar

TOPALOFF Sylvie, Paris Bar

VALENTIN Caroline, Paris Bar

VIOTTOLO Agnès, Paris Bar

WEILL-RAYNAL Aude, Paris Bar