Seconda, collective intelligence to elevate your legal expertise
A month with Seconda
Welcome to the Seconda newsletter!
As every month, we're sharing our latest news and updates from our Seconda members, opening a discussion on a legal issue, and introducing you to a work, place, or person related to the world of law that has made an impression on us and that we recommend!
Happy reading, and all your feedback is welcome!
What's new at Seconda?
Seconda returns to Marseille to participate in the FNUJA congress
Seconda to the FNUJA committee of Marseille!
From April 3rd to 6th, Marseille hosted the decentralized committee of the FNUJA – National Federation of Young Lawyers' Unions – and Seconda!
For four days, there were engaging training sessions, intense debates, collaborative work on the legal profession, and wonderful moments of camaraderie.
Marseille transformed into a welcoming host for members of the various Young Lawyers' Unions, who came in large numbers to attend these high-quality events.
Invited at the initiative of Kevin Lefebvre-Goirand, president of the Marseille Young Lawyers' Union, Seconda was able to participate in the Friday afternoon training session entitled "My First Media Case," alongside Béatrice Zavarro and Yassine Bouzrou, as well as Denis Trossero, a journalist with La Provence.
Seconda is making headlines!
It all started over a sunny September breakfast.
We were catching up on our holidays, talking about going back to school, our hopes for the coming year, and then the conversation took off, as it often does, and an idea emerged… An idea that took flight, that seized us, that surprised us, that captivated us… and that we decided not to let go.
So we started asking ourselves questions. Were we allowed to do this? Was it right for us? How did we go about it?
After making sure the project was feasible, we did what we always do: we started looking for ingenious, clever, and talented experts.
And that's how we came across Thomas Mercier and L'Union (we'll tell you more about it later, as we really connect with the company's philosophy).
He immediately grasped our desire to create a campaign that reflected who we are: original, precise, and a touch irreverent.
From the very first proposals, we knew we were on the right track.
And, because you don't change a winning formula, we entrusted Christophe Chantebel with the execution!
The result: a poster that we find understated and elegant, with a bold and effective message that pursues a simple goal: to put Seconda on everyone's mind.
This campaign will be circulating widely. Keep your eyes peeled, let us know when you see it, we're really eager to hear what you think!
Coming in May: the Seconda Tour bus is heading to Montpellier!
Walid Chaiehloudj, associate professor and expert in competition law.
The Second of the Month
This month, we're featuring Walid Chaiehloudj!
A dedicated and respected figure in competition law, Walid is currently developing expertise at the intersection of economic law and artificial intelligence.
Walid isn't afraid of AI. On the contrary, he's decided to immerse himself in it and master it as much as possible, aiming to become the essential and preferred partner for technology creators seeking passionate lawyers to develop their tools.
To begin with, Walid doesn't like the term "AI." He finds it misleading, given that it isn't truly "intelligence," and prefers the more neutral expression "AI systems." Furthermore, by delving into these AI systems, Walid quickly demystified the idea of an algorithmic "black box." He explains that "companies know very well how algorithms work," that "the algorithm doesn't always escape its master," and that, ultimately, one of the major challenges for the law lies precisely in this opacity, which exists only from the consumer's perspective.
Walid also believes that major litigation involving Google or Meta is profoundly changing the way competition law is applied, especially with the advent of the Digital Markets Act.
On March 11, Walid organized and participated in a conference in Nice on Google and antitrust alongside Fayrouz Masmidani and David Virose, head of the legal department at the European Commission. He is currently organizing a symposium on the application of new legislation relating to AI with Jacques Mestre and the AFDD (French Association for Sustainable Development).
Walid hasn't forgotten his core expertise: he participated in a symposium on sustainability and economic law (to be published by LexisNexis), a workshop at the Competition Authority on regulated professions, and contributed to a study on competition law in New Caledonia, where he notably proposes the creation of a procedure to balance protectionism and consumer interests. Walid was also in French Polynesia on March 18th to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Polynesian competition law.
Always seeking new adventures, Walid will be teaching at Sorbonne Abu Dhabi in April and will participate in a symposium on influence with the Henri Capitant Association in May, before joining a working group on digital sovereignty at the ECB!
Question of the Month - Episode 5
Foreign law: what status before the Court of Cassation?
“It is incumbent upon the French judge who recognizes the applicability of foreign law to ascertain its content, either ex officio or at the request of a party invoking it, with the assistance of the parties and personally if necessary, and to provide a solution to the dispute in accordance with the applicable foreign law”: this is the rule established by the Court of Cassation regarding the judge’s role in ascertaining and applying foreign law.
The Court of Cassation ensures compliance with this rule in two ways.
First, it ensures that lower court judges do not place the burden of establishing the content of the foreign law solely on the parties.
Second, it requires lower court judges to specify the rules of foreign law on which they rely to resolve the dispute.
However, its oversight does not extend further.
That is to say, the Court of Cassation refuses to review the interpretation of foreign law. This interpretation is left to the sovereign power of the lower courts, with the sole limitation being the exceptional sanction of misrepresentation.
Alongside the purely expedient reason of managing the number of appeals, the main theoretical basis put forward to justify this position is the role of the Court of Cassation: the Court of Cassation ensures the uniformity of interpretation of French law and is not the guardian of the uniformity of foreign law.
The argument is compelling. But it is not without merit.
Regarding the "incentive" to exhaust all legal remedies, can a party truly be faulted for exercising a legal right available to them?
First, some argue that the same injustice in the application of the law within French territory can result from differing interpretations of French and foreign law.
The scope of the obligation placed on lower court judges to provide a solution to the dispute "in accordance with applicable foreign law" is also questioned, if the Court of Cassation itself largely deprives itself of the power to verify compliance with this obligation.
Without going so far as to unduly grant the Court of Cassation, in the application of foreign law, a role as normative as the one it assumes in the application of French law, could we not conceive of a form of review that, going beyond mere misrepresentation, would consist of ensuring that the lower courts have attributed to the foreign law a meaning and scope consistent with those it receives in its own legal system?
Avo-plumes! The debate is open.
News for seconders
Yann Heyraud
Yann Heyraud, a lawyer and Doctor of Law specializing in economic law, analyzes two recent economic law decisions for Dalloz Actualité:
A franchisee is not at fault when preparing a competing project during the execution of their contract, Dalloz Actualité, April 2, 2025 (note on Cass. com., March 19, 2025, No. 23-22.925, SJM).
Significant imbalance: simply amending a default provision is insufficient, Dalloz Actualité, March 17, 2025 (note on Cass. com., February 26, 2025, No. 23-20.225, Douvier).
In parallel, Yann comments on two very recent cases involving the abrupt termination of established business relationships in an international context, published in the journal Lexbase Affaires. These cases deal with the qualification of the action and therefore the text which should be applied: Lexbase Affaires, No. 821, March 20, 2025, No. N1866B3I.
Jean-Baptiste Barbièri, Nadège Jullian and Sandrine Tisseyre
March was conference month for our Toulouse-based students!
They were first present on March 6th and 7th, 2025, at the University of Strasbourg to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the SARL (limited liability company). At this conference, Sandrine spoke on the topic of "Transformation and the SARL," Jean-Baptiste on the SARL and public policy, and Nadège on the modern EURL (single-member limited liability company).
Jean-Baptiste and Nadège then went to Tours for a conference on "Collective Decisions in Unlisted Companies - Current Legislative and Case Law Developments."
Finally, Sandrine organized a conference in Pau to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Master 2 in Notarial Law.
A film, an exhibition, a restaurant…
Alexei Navaly is at the heart of this breathtaking documentary.
This month, we're talking about "Navalny," winner of the 2023 Academy Award for Best Documentary.
The premise: The documentary opens as it closes, with Navalny, his piercing blue eyes fixed on the camera, being led by the journalist to confront what would happen to him a few months later…his death.
While largely hagiographic towards its eponymous subject, even as it acknowledges his flaws, the documentary is primarily spectacular for the investigation conducted by Navalny and Christo Grozev of the investigative journal "Bellingcat" to find those who ordered and carried out his poisoning with Novichok in August 2020.
The film's climax: a surreal phone interview in which Navalny manages to contact one of the alleged participants in his assassination attempt and get him to talk.
Enough to make even the best Hollywood screenwriters green with envy.
The documentary also gives ample screen time to Yulia Navalnaya, who is combative and determined to support her husband and continue to make her voice heard.
While the documentary may sometimes veer into sensationalism with such a fascinating yet unsettling figure, it ultimately delivers a crucial message, more relevant than ever: for evil to triumph, all it takes is for good people to do nothing.
The documentary is available for free until May 12, 2025, 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 if you haven't already!
See you soon,
Fred-Eric and Néda
