French jurist (born 1946)
Serge Guinchard (born May 9, 1946) is a French jurist who formerly taught at the Law School of Dakar and Jean Moulin University Lyon 3 and most recently at Panthéon-Assas University, where he is now Professor emeritus. He has also held political posts in the metropolitan government of Lyon.
Education.
Guinchard was born in the 4th arrondissement of Lyon and was educated in Caluire-et-Cuire and the northern suburbs of Lyon. After completing his secondary education in Lyon, he studied at the Faculty of Law of Lyon. He obtained his J.D. in 1974 and the "Agrégation" in law the year afterward.
Academic career.
From November 1969 to September 1974 Guinchard was an Assistant in the Faculty of Law at the University of Lyon 2, then at Jean Moulin University Lyon 3 after its creation. He then became a lecturer at Lyon 3 until December 1975. From January 1976 to September 1980, he was a professor in the Faculty of Law at Dakar University, heading the Private Law Section from October 1978. He then returned to the University Jean Moulin Lyon III, serving as director of the insurance section then of the Institute of Judicial Studies ; he was Dean of the Faculty from May 1982 to September 1988. In 1988 he moved to Panthéon-Assas University (Paris 2), where he was director of the Institute of Judicial Studies for ten years, from 1990 to 2000. In 2001–02, he headed the Center for Research into Justice and Alternative Modes of Conflict Resolution, then from October 2001 to July 2003, he was director of the Center for Permanent Training.
He also served outside the university in several capacities: in 1988–89 and 1993–94, as head of the specialist commission on the legal disciplines for the French University of the Pacific; from 1992 to 1999 as a member of the Commission on Education for the National Council of Bar Associations; from 1991 to 1993 as director of the Bar Association training school for the Paris Court of Appeal; from 1996 to 2000 as a member of the administrative board of the National School for the Judiciary; and from 2000 to 2003 as director of legal studies at the École Normale Supérieure. He also served on the jury for the national "agrégation" in private law and forensic science: in 1984, 1988–89, and 2000–01, and from January 1992 to December 1995 was president of the National Council of Universities of which he was a member from 1987 to 1995 and again in 2000.
From 2003 his career became focused on administration when he became rector of the Academy of Guadeloupe, then in 2005 took up the same position at Rennes, which he held for a year.
In June 2007 he became Professor Emeritus at Panthéon-Assas University, and in May 2010 a Festschrift was published in his honour.
Legal reports.
Guinchard has produced numerous reports at the request of international organizations and of the French and Senegalese Ministries of Justice (France and Senegal), many of which led to legislation:
Research and doctrinal positions.
Comparative law.
Recognizing the importance of studies in comparative law for training lawyers, Guinchard pursued such studies beginning with his second doctorate, for which his dissertation compared French and Swiss law. He studied the university system in Quebec in 1971 and in 1973–74 returned for a study of consumer protection under a NATO grant. As dean of the Faculty of Law at Lyon (1982–88), one of his concerns was the development of exchanges with other European and with American universities including Boston University, the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Georgetown University, the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and Saint Louis University, Missouri. He instituted seminars in foreign law conducted by visiting professors from countries including Germany, Belgium, Canada, and Israel. When in 1995 he founded the law review "Justice", published by Dalloz, he included a section on judicial systems in other countries, and also included such coverage in the journal "Droit et procédures", where he headed the scientific committee, then the peer.
Human rights.
From the beginning of his doctoral studies in 1969, Serge Guinchard became interested in fields other than trial law, such as consumer protection and civil law. Some of his writings are outspoken, even caustic and cover responsibility for miscarriages of justice, and his books include proposals for reform. Some of these have led to changes in the law, while others have not. He has harshly criticized the function of the Court of Cassation, the French supreme court, and contributed to the debate on judges' being Freemasons, regularly updated his contribution to the Dalloz Encyclopedia of Civil Procedure concerning the liabilities incurred due to miscarriages of public justice, and has studied judicial actions that may constitute a threat to human rights. and written on the removal of judges. In his writings he focuses on the assurance of rights as it emerges from the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights or, more recently, that of the Constitutional Council on priority issues of constitutionality, particularly in the areas of criminal procedure and jurisprudence.
Consumer protection.
In 1970, Serge Guinchard proposed a series of consumer protection reforms, including the ability to give consumers the benefit of legal actions traditionally reserved for economic agents in competition law to stop illegal practices, the right to pursue collective action in defense of their combined affected interests,
The latter proposal made him a recognized expert in the "French class action". He was also interested in issues of misleading advertising, the right of legal action for consumer associations.
 Abroad, Article 138a, § 2 of the Belgian judicial code (in the wording of the Act of December 3, 2006) follows this reflection.
Civil law and Muslim law.
Guinchard wrote half of the definitions of y legal terms in the 1970 first edition of Civil Law Glossary in 1970, which he co-directs and has devoted his doctoral thesis in law (defended in June 1974)"The allocation of property in French private law: testing a general theory."
His work on Heritage Trust have inspired the legislature to adopt the Trust into French law Article 2011, in which heritage institutions, separate from the personal assets of the Trustee or the individual entrepreneur, are assigned to a specific purpose in the deed of trust or in the founding of the proprietorship,
In Senegal, where he was seconded as a professor at the Faculty of Law of Dakar from January 1976 to September 1980, Guinchard contributed, to disseminate knowledge of Senegalese family law, including the Islamic law of estates), and, to reform the company law of this State. He published the first book addressing the legal status of Muslim in this country estates.
Justice and legal proceedings.
On this field, author Bertrand Lissarague called him a "lord of the proceedings" in the liber amicorum offered in May 2007.
Political activities.
Guinchard was Deputy Mayor of Lyon for two terms, from 1983 to 1995, and Vice-President of the Urban Community of Lyon from 1989 to 1995.
Honors.
Serge Guinchard has received the following honors for his studies and publications:
In addition he has received the following awards:
Publications.
Editor.
Serge Guinchard has edited or headed the editorial boards of the following publications:
Books.
Guinchard is co-author, lead author, author or editor of the following books, which have been published in several updated editions and in some cases translated into other languages.
Footnotes.
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Notes.
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References.
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