Seconda, collective intelligence to elevate your legal expertise
A month with Seconda
Welcome to the Seconda newsletter!
As every month, we present our latest news as well as that of our Seconds, we open the debate on a legal issue and we also present a work, a place or a person, related to the world of law, that has marked us and that we recommend!
Enjoy your reading and all your feedback is welcome!
What's new at Seconda?
Seconda continues its tour of the Bar Associations in Montpellier!
Seconda in Montpellier
This Thursday 22nd and Friday 23rd May, Seconda organized its 5th stage of the Seconda tour in Montpellier!
The opportunity to meet again Marie-Paule Melka, lawyer at the Councils, for this new stage with us in the midst of colleagues who are always so curious to discover services to support them in their daily practice.
After an evening surrounded by bottles, we shared a particularly joyful breakfast* in the company of fellow colleagues, but also with Oriane Ginies, certified coach and doctor of law, and Laure d'Hauteville, skills assessment consultant and mediator!
*If you're not familiar with Cafés Joyeux, we highly recommend stopping by for a coffee (excellent and 100% socially responsible) or hosting your business or personal breakfasts there. Their stated mission is to contribute to the professional inclusion of people with intellectual and cognitive disabilities.
And as luck would have it, the Montpellier Bar Association was organizing the LEGALTECH INNOVATION & LAW 2025 fair during those two days at Montpellier City Hall.
An excellent opportunity to discover the very latest technological innovations, particularly those related to AI, dedicated to the world of law, in a magnificent setting.
Join Seconda on Instagram!
As we announced in our March newsletter, it's now official (and active): Seconda has an Instagram account!
In addition to the existing LinkedIn features that are now visualized for Instagram (Second of the month, Question of the month...) , we are offering you new formats!
Heard at the Bar, which are quotes, witticisms from famous people, or not, related to the world of law, Code Seconda which is a collection of our principles and our way of practicing the profession of lawyer or even Secondant story which recounts true stories of major discoveries or great successes for which a second look made all the difference.
This account also allows you to follow our news, such as the Seconda Tour or customer videos, but also to find all the details on how Seconda works!
To follow us, you can find us by searching for cabinet_Seconda or by clicking here .
Coming in June: Seconda celebrates its 2nd anniversary!
Pierre-Claver is our expert in Cameroonian law and OHADA law and intervenes more generally in procedural law.
Secondant of the Month
Ce mois-ci, nous vous présentons Pierre-Claver Kamgaing !
Depuis plusieurs années, Pierre-Claver partage ses activités d’enseignement entre l'Université Côte d’Azur, où il dispense des cours de droit de la famille et d'introduction au droit des obligations, et l'Institut Catholique de Bafoussam au Cameroun, où il forme les juristes de demain au droit des affaires et au droit de la concurrence dans le contexte de l'OHADA.
Pierre-Claver souhaite bâtir des ponts entre ces deux cultures tout en veillant à ce que la spécificité de chacune soit respectée.
C’est ce qu’il fait non seulement dans ses missions d’enseignement mais aussi à travers ses (très) nombreux travaux de recherche.
En préparation ?
Pierre-Claver participe actuellement à un ambitieux projet de code communautaire de la route pour les six pays de la CEMAC. Il y commente notamment les six premiers articles afin de créer un dialogue entre les approches européennes et africaines.
Une publication à paraître prochainement les cahiers de droit de l'Université Laval (Canada) sur la « Perte volontaire de la nationalité camerounaise », qui n’ont pas évolué depuis l’indépendance.
« On ne peut plus analyser le droit camerounais à l'aune du droit français. Ce dernier a évolué, ce qui conduit à des erreurs de jugement lorsqu'on applique des jurisprudences françaises qui ne sont plus adaptées au contexte local », explique-t-il.
Enfin, Pierre-Claver rédige actuellement un manuel sur la procédure civile camerounaise, qui se démarque par son approche critique. « Un manuel ne doit pas seulement présenter les règles. L'idée est de questionner les règles en place et de formuler des propositions de réforme », précise-t-il.
Cette démarche analytique est d'autant plus pertinente que le code de procédure civile camerounais date de 1954 – importé par arrêté d’un gouverneur français durant la colonisation – et n'a connu aucune modification depuis lors.
Pierre-Claver soulève même la question de la constitutionnalité de ce code, la constitution camerounaise prévoyant que la procédure doit être régie par la loi, et non par un simple arrêté.
Pierre-Claver aurait pu s’arrêter là…Mais non, il vient de prêter serment et est désormais également avocat au barreau de Nice ! Barreau au sein duquel il s’engage pleinement puisqu’il assure régulièrement des permanences pénales et est membre du bureau de l’UJA.
Et quand on lui demande comment il fait pour conjuguer tous ses engagements, Pierre-Claver nous confie, avec un grand sourire, « Pour tenir ce rythme, il faut dormir moins… et faire une sieste ».
Question of the month
What are the criteria for actions that are inseparable from the conduct of France's international relations ?
In a decision dated March 10, 2025, the Court held that the decision taken by the French authorities to prohibit companies from a foreign country involved in an armed conflict from exhibiting military equipment at a defense exhibition held in France constituted such an act.
As a consequence, the administrative and judicial courts lack jurisdiction to hear this decision.
The line is not clear between acts that are separate from the conduct of France's international relations and acts that are not separate, classified among acts of government.
Case law examples of severable acts?
France's refusal of an extradition request from a foreign state, the decision by French authorities to prohibit the export of nuclear material to a specific country, or police measures taken to ensure the protection of a foreign diplomat.
Illustrations of inseparable acts?
The decision by the President of the Republic to resume nuclear tests, previously suspended as part of a French diplomatic initiative on nuclear disarmament, or a circular from the Minister of National Education asking higher education institutions to suspend all cooperation with a foreign country and to prohibit nationals of that country from enrolling in them.
The judge makes the assessment on a case-by-case basis. Most often, the classification is simply stated.
One thinks of the remark made by President Labetoulle, then government commissioner to the Council of State, regarding the concept of an act inseparable from electoral operations: " There is no act that, by its very nature, is separable or inseparable; there are simply those that you 'separate' and those that you do not ." President Labetoulle added: " And that's not necessarily a bad thing ." The method has the advantage of flexibility. But as is often the case, flexibility has as its corollary a certain legal uncertainty and can give the impression that the classification is sometimes determined arbitrarily, even though this classification directly affects the right to an effective judicial remedy.
Wouldn't it be better to set some criteria?
Previous decisions of the Council of State declined jurisdiction from the administrative courts on the grounds that the dispute necessarily involved an examination of relations between the French State and a foreign government. Could this consideration not become a general criterion, against which the judge would systematically have to explain whether a decision is separable from, or inseparable from, the conduct of France's international relations?
Avo-plumes! The debate is open.
Our Secondants in the news
Clémentine Legendre
Clémentine Legendre, an associate professor at the University of Lorraine specializing in private international law, international arbitration and sports law, is co-organizing a symposium on atypical arbitrations on June 10th!
Academics and practitioners are invited to come and present their views in order to encourage the public to reflect on the forms of arbitration that are developing on the margins of traditional arbitration, such as sports or religious arbitration.
You will find all the details of the event as well as the registration form at the following link: https://factuel.univ-lorraine.fr/node/29895.
Marie Fernet
Marie Fernet, a lawyer specializing in customs law, spoke on May 15 and 16 at an international conference in Alicante on "The Renewal of Sanctions in Economic Law".
From "name and shame" to the rise of extraterritorial sanctions, via customs law, new logics of compliance and social responsibility, Marie raised questions that are more relevant than ever.
During this particularly turbulent period, Marie also gave an interview to the Lettre des Juristes d'affaires on the integration of customs issues into contract negotiations (https://www.lja.fr/l-oeil-sur/integrer-la-notion-douaniere-dans-la-negociation-des-contrats-966930.php)
Jean-Baptiste Barbièri
This month, find the latest Creda Letter "Treasury operations, from the shadows to the light" proposed by Jean-Baptiste Barbièri, associate professor at the University of Toulouse, covering three recent rulings on treasury operations.
The first ruling raises the question of maintaining a partner's current account after the loss of partner status following a transfer of shares ( Com., February 5, 2025, No. 23-10.953 ).
The second establishes the principle that: " the obligation to pay the price of the shares being redeemed and the obligation to repay the current account [are] independent of each other " ( Com., 12 Feb. 2025, No. 23-17.483 ).
Finally, the third ruling focuses on cash management agreements and their effect on third parties ( Com., March 12, 2025, No. 23-23.961 ).
To discover Jean-Baptiste's analyses in the Lettre-Creda, click here .
And breaking news, the 3rd edition of Business Law in Practical Cases, which Jean-Baptiste co-authored with Clément Favre_Rochex, has just been published by Lefebvre Dalloz!
A film, an exhibition, a restaurant…
The fight of 5 women, in the United States and Europe, to have the legal responsibility of the main social networks recognized.
Chilling! That's the feeling that remains when you leave this documentary.
Presented at the Justice Documentary Festival last February by the Paris Bar Association, Digital Grip, 5 Women Against the Big 5 is an immersive investigation into the digital world that reveals how networks target the youngest users at the risk of knowingly damaging their lives, or even breaking them.
Pedocriminality, incitement to suicide, the documentary shows how certain networks, in particular Meta with Instagram, have consciously and deliberately built a trap, sometimes deadly, for teenage girls and boys around the world.
Through the legal battle of 5 women in the United States and Europe, the film questions the responsibility of platforms in our collective addiction and in the distress of the youngest.
An important film, to be put in everyone's hands, especially for parents or relatives of teenage girls and boys.
Available until June 14th on the France TV platform.
Thank you for reading.
That's all you need to know for this month, see you next month!
And to make sure you don't miss anything, remember to subscribe , for those who haven't already!
See you very soon!
Fred-Eric and Neda
