Terrorism, criminal liability of legal entities, extraterritorial jurisdiction of French courts, and the role of victims: few cases involve as many issues as the Lafarge case. On May 19, 2026, CAVEAT and the Léon Duguit Research Center organized the first symposium dedicated to this case, bringing together academics and attorneys, including counsel for the defendants and representatives of civil parties. The event was under the academic direction of Emma Ruquet.
Aurélia Grignon spoke during the third roundtable discussion, which focused on the role of victims in criminal proceedings and was moderated by Sarah Marie, secretary general of CAVEAT. Alongside Caroline Lacroix, a professor at the University of Évry Paris-Saclay, and Rachel Lindon and Julie Février, counsel for the civil party organizations Yazda and Sherpa, Aurélia Grignon presented the defense’s position on the challenge to admissibility.
This presentation provided an opportunity to revisit the position of the Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation, which, in two rulings from 2021 and 2022, held that the financing of a terrorist enterprise is not likely to cause direct harm. It therefore ruled that certain associations and former Lafarge employees lacked standing.
The discussion then broadened to a more general reflection on how the issue of inadmissibility operates under our Code of Criminal Procedure. Since it cannot be resolved before the hearing, the issue of admissibility allows clearly inadmissible civil parties to weigh on the trial from start to finish. In a case as voluminous as that of Lafarge—which raises numerous unprecedented questions and was tried in barely five weeks—this limited trial time left little room for substantive debate. This is a difficulty that had already been noted in previous high-profile trials, one that French law has still not resolved.
The firm would like to thank the CAVEAT office and the symposium’s scientific director, Emma Ruquet, for organizing this event and for the rich discussions that took place.
For more information, visit the CAVEAT website: https://www.le-caveat.org/evenements
