A Prestigious Ceremony
For the non francophone people, the Legion of Honor is the first high French decoration instituted after the French revolution. It rewards, in a large national intermixing, the merits acquired by citizens, regardless of any social or hereditary consideration, and in all branches of industry of the country. The rank of officer, the second, is a particularly important distinction.
The ceremony proceeded in margin of the permanent council of the UIHJ in Paris, within the splendid and prestigious setting of the lounge of the Invalids in Paris, kingdom of the Great Chancellery of the Legion of Honor, in the presence of more than three hundred guests, including representatives of the delegations of the UIHJ of 48 countries, gathered to share this great event with their president, as well as many friends, fellow-members and political personalities and academics, and of course the family.
Guy Duvelleroy, president of the National Chamber of the judicial officers of France (CNHJ), declared himself particularly honored to make the introductory speech of this ceremony. He greeted the exemplary course of president Isnard and praised his investment of every moment in favor of his profession, both as a president of the CNHJ and as a president of the UIHJ for nearly 15 years. He also greeted his actions in favor of teaching and training.
The Fair Man
Guy Canivet, member of the Constitutional council, evoked in detail the journey of this exceptional man and his thirty-six years of career. He praised the legal competences of Jacques Isnard, “Doctor Honoris Causa of several European universities”. He recalled that he was president of the CNHJ from 1992 to 1994. It is during his presidency that the reform of French civil enforcement procedures was carried out. Jacques Isnard becomes president of the UIHJ in 1994. Guy Canivet indicated that during his mandate, president Isnard knew how to give a considerable rise to the UIHJ, which currently counts 65 members and is recognized on the international scene. On the European level, Guy Canivet declares that Jacques Isnard “turned the UIHJ into a dynamic actor of the construction of Europe in the field of legal cooperation”. And to add: “You give the UIHJ a world dimension. You support everywhere in the world the creation of companies of judicial officers based on the French model. You defend the efficiency of justice in Africa, in North America as well as in South America and Asia. You are the defender of a certain idea of the Rule of law at the same time of the influence of the French legal culture”. There would be still many things to say on “the man who gave his profession an extraordinary international aura” continued the first president Canivet, to conclude a few minutes later that he acknowledged in him “the fair man ” whom he was going to have the pleasure of honoring.
To the Stories Animating the Life of Judicial Officers
A thunder of applause followed the solemn and emotional moment when president Isnard was given his decoration from the hands of this Judge of exception. Then, equal to himself, president Isnard directly started a forty-five minutes speech of anthology, choosing as prolegomena to dedicate this distinction to his profession, or, “to be more precise, to the stories animating the life of judicial officers”. The recipient entertained his hosts with a lesson in history on his profession, multiplying anecdotes, some going back to the Ancien Régime. Did you know for example that the storming of the Bastille in 1789 is owed to a judicial officer named Maillard? It is him who managed, after a perilous escalade, to cross the ditch surrounding the prison and who obtained the surrender of the garrison and its governor Mr. de Launay, tells the president. “Actually it is the whole history of judicial officers which I approached, a history which fits narrowly to that of our country and which started since voluntary enforcement proved to be an illusion” he adds, to conclude: “The way of history remains continuously open and young generations are there to perpetuate it, because “memory is transmitted and hope is given””.
Lastly, Jacques Isnard thanked the personalities, of which the Minister for Justice, to have proposed his promotion, and the first president Guy Canivet, for the honor he made in giving him this high distinction. He also thanked Guy Duvelleroy and greeted the long friendship which binds them. Then he thanked and greeted in turn all his friends, including Juan Carlos Estevez, president of the Procuradores of Spain, the National school of procedure of Paris and its international cell, the high-ranking magistrates and professors of universities, the representatives of the profession, the CNHJ and its general delegate, Thierry Bary, his business partners, as well as the whole of the members of his board.
Finally, he dedicated his ultimate words to his family and in particular to his wife Michèle: “Actually if this cross could be split, it is to my wife that I would to give its branches” he concluded before inviting the guests “to taste the pleasures offered by this prestigious surrounding, temple of the French history and cradle of the Legion of Honor”.
