🧮 Compliance et Droit commun des contrats (Compliance and General Contract Law), in 🏗️Compliance and Contract

► Full reference: Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Institut de recherche juridique de la Sorbonne (IRJS) (Sorbonne Legal Research Institute), Compliance et Droit commun des contrats (Compliance and General Contract Law), 7 October 2026.

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🏗️ This symposium is part of the series of symposiums organised by the Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and its partner universities, focusing in 2026 on the general theme of Compliance and Contract.

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The symposium is under the scientific responsibility of 🕴️Nicolas Bargue, Senior Lecturer (maître de conférences) at the Sorbonne Law School (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), co-director of the Contract, Civil Liability and Insurance Department of the IRJS, 🕴️Marie-Anne Frison-Roche, Professor of Law (agrégée des Facultés de Droit), Director of the Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and of the European School of Regulation and Compliance (EeRC), and 🕴️Julia Heinich, Professor at the Sorbonne Law School (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne).

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Registration with the IRJS: Registration for the symposium « Compliance et droit commun des contrats » of 7 October 2026 | Labo – IRJS

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🧮The symposium, organised by the Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and the Institut de recherche juridique de la Sorbonne (IRJS), will take place on Wednesday 7 October 2026, from 9:15 am to 1 pm, at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Room 6 of the Centre Panthéon, 12 place du Panthéon, 75005 Paris.

It will be held in French.

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Presentation of the topic: While Contract Law, in its common rules expressed by the “general theory of contracts”, is often considered to be the most developed branch of Law in practice and the most studied at university, at first glance it seems to be given little consideration when it comes to Compliance.

The relationship between the contract and the documents, standards and ethical acts so numerous in Compliance techniques, to which is added the soft law produced by courts, regulators, supervisors and companies themselves, is an open question. Thus the “commitments” that punctuate the techniques and behaviours making up the “compliance culture” have a central place in Compliance Law; but their place, if not their equivalence with the Contract, is not established.

To gain a firmer footing in the analysis of the practices of companies that insert compliance clauses into multiple contracts, to observe that Compliance can be the very subject of a specific contract — the “compliance contract” —, or even to assist in the conception that judges develop of their office when they hear contractual litigation involving Compliance, we must return to general Contract Law.

If we stop viewing Compliance Law solely through the prism of repression, the Contract does not have the same place: the compliance obligation can be conceived as also having the contract as a legitimate source, a contract which, under general law, has its source in the autonomy of the will and all its consequences — contractual freedom, binding force, effect on third parties.

This is the subject of this symposium which, following the classic diptych of formation and performance, takes up the contractual thread from the founding principles of autonomy and freedoms, binding force and its relativity, the meeting of wills, groups of contracts and regulatory contracts often drawn up to implement compliance policies. Specific performance and contractual liability under general law are themselves coloured in a singular way when a compliance concern has been inserted into the contract.

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The proceedings of this symposium will form the basis of a specific chapter in the following publications:

📕Compliance et Contrat, forthcoming in the series 📚Régulations & Compliance, co-published by the Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and Lefebvre-Dalloz.

📘Compliance and Contract, forthcoming in the 📚Compliance & Regulation Series, co-published by the Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and Lefebvre-Bruylant.

🔻 See the programme below