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► Full reference : M.-A. Frison-Roche, Taking African legal geography into account to achieve an efficient vigilance system, working paper, August 2025/February 2026

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🎤This working paper follows on from the closing address at the symposium Devoir de vigilance, quelles perspectives africaines ? Regards croisés en droit international, droit comparé et droit OHADA (Vigilance Duty: what are the prospects in Africa? Perspectives from international law, comparative law and OHADA Law, organised by the Faculty of Law of Bordeaux, through its Institut de Recherches en Droit des Affaires et du Patrimoine - IRDAP (Institute for Research in Business and Property Law), held on 15 November 2024. 

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📝This working paper forms the basis of the article "Considérer la géographie juridique africaine pour y réussir l'obligation de vigilance", which concludes the volume edited by Eustache da Allada in 2026 by Éditions Lefebvre-Dalloz, in the “Thèmes & Commentaires” collection,📗Devoir de vigilance, quelles perspectives africaines ? Regards croisés en droit international, droit comparé et droit OHADA (Vigilance Duty: what are the African perspectives? Comparative perspectives in international law, comparative law and OHADA Law).

To this end, following an initial draft in August 2025, it was revised a second time to better incorporate the written contributions that make up the book, since the article on which it is based sets out a personal approach drawing on external research whilst also needing to synthesise these contributions.

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► Summary of the working paper :  The French “Vigilance” Act of 2017 incorporated the technical provisions and the spirit of the “Sapin 2” Act of 2016. They share a common goal. They have been and remain a common source of controversy and passion. At their heart lies the establishment of a “compliance obligation”, for which vigilance techniques form the “edge ” in serving a grand ambition: to protect systems from risks, both now and in the future, in order to protect the people involved in them.

The passion that continues to surround the Vigilance Act, which gave rise to the European CS3D , is misguided, because the law and passion are never allies. Some would passionately want to see vigilance triumph by condemning companies to perform miracles; others would passionately want to see the destruction of all the texts that established the very concept of this Compliance Law, built upon these Humanist Monumental Goals.

But let us acknowledge that in these debates on the Vigilance Obligation, which is being legally implemented across value chains, Africa is often cited as an example in a general discussion. It is not often considered as a distinct case with its own legal landscape. No reliance is placed on its strengths or on its own legal mechanisms, even though value chains – particularly industrial ones – so often lead to it, both now and in the future. Through analyses of the Vigilance Obligation, Africa is perceived as a place of retribution or of a new form of paternalism, and when its future is envisaged, prospects seem to be lacking, even though the very essence of compliance—and therefore of Vigilance—is the future. 

If we take a less confrontational view and focus instead on the ‘legal geography’ of African countries and their social and inter-state structures, we see that the concern for others, both present and future – which ultimately constitutes the Monumental Goal of Compliance Law and thus of the Vigilance Obligation – is more prevalent in Africa than it is in Europe, which is now built upon legal individualism. This concern for others is reflected in legal mechanisms akin to mediation and various legal structures that our own institutions would do well to heed: our legislators before adopting bills, and our judges who might listen to them as amici curiae before reaching a decision.

If we turn our attention to the African continent, which is exploited by certain segments of value chains, and to labour organisations, it becomes clear that here too, legislation and sanctions are not the whole story. Compliance techniques that make use of soft law and the contractual frameworks underpinning the chains themselves can remove the element of abstraction that is, by nature, inherent in general legislation. Moving forward through contracts under the supervision and with the support of the courts is an approach that could prove more fruitful than well-intentioned legislation, which has served as a catalyst, in line with the privileged position of contract law within OHADA.

This serves to enhance the judge’s authority. The Compliance Judicialisation is also linked to the growing connection between Compliance and Contracts. However, it appears that not only can European judges specialising in Compliance Law and Vigilance Obligation thus rule on matters concerning Africa, which they can only know from a distance – though it is the lot of every judge to be an outsider – but African and inter-state Courts, notably through OHADA, can address the Vigilance Obligation because value chains are constituted by contracts. By developing it not as a foreign concept to be assimilated, but as that which expresses the very heart of the Law in Africa: concern for others, solidarity, the search for compromises and solutions so that the social and environmental system – that is to say, the human system – may endure into the Future.

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🔓Read the developments below⤵️

► Référence complète : M. Fabre-Magna, « Pouvoir économique et responsabilité », in M. Fabre-Magnan et P. Lokiec (dir.), Les limites juridiques au pouvoir économique, Lefebvre-Dalloz, coll. « Thèmes et Commentaires – Etudes », 2026, pp.177-194.

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► Référence complète : H. Synvet, "Droit versus régulation", Bull. Joly Bourse, janv. fév. 2026, n°1, p.1.

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🦉Cet article est accessible en texte intégral pour les personnes inscrites aux enseignements de la Professeure Marie-Anne Frison-Roche

► Référence complète : Com. (sect.), 4 fév. 2026, n°22-22.609, 

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► Full reference : M.-A. Frison-Roche, "Le Droit de la Compliance, voie de la transition vers une égalité effective, efficace et efficiente entre les êtres humains (Compliance Law, for the transition towards the effectiveness, efficacy and efficiency of the equality between human beings)", in Chair "Mutualist and cooperative banking at the service of the economy", ESCP, Les banques coopératives et les transitions​ (Cooperative Banks and Transitions), 29 January 2026.

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🧮view the general programme for the conference Cooperative banks and transitions (in French)

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📶see the slides (in French)

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► Presentation of this conference: The conference is not specifically aimed at lawyers, and even less so at specialists in Compliance Law. That is why it is divided into three parts, in order to show how Compliance Law is relevant in practice for creating effective, efficace and efficient equality between human beings.

The first part of the lecture sets out the ambition of equality between human beings. As this is a political principle and not a natural one. As it is an ambition, it justifies being placed first and after that this ambition must be concretised, in a sort of second place. This second place is built bay a tro : that of effectiveness (real application of the norm), efficacy (that the goal for which the norm was established is achieved) and efficiency (that the system is transformed so that, having become robust, it endures through sustainabily).

The second part of the conference will present the new branch of law known as Compliance Law. This should be distinguished from simple conformity, which consists of mechanically obeying a body of regulations that are constantly growing and becoming more complex. Compliance Law's Goal is to protect systems from risks that could cause them to disappear (all systems). "Sustainability" is the key principle, which is not limited to the climatic system (also digital system, banking system, and so on) and imposes the future as its object and the long term as its relevant time frame (unlike the market and Competition Law). "Transition" is also a key concept, as it involves moving from one state to another, from an expressed ambition to its realisation, through collaboration with others. These Goals are "Monumental" and are the normative legal basis of Compliance Law. In Europe, the Compliance Monumental Goal is to preserve systems for that the human beings who are involved in them, willingly or unwillingly, are not crushed by them, but rather benefit from them (for instance in banking sector). This is a "Monumental Negative Goal", to which is added a "Monumental Positive Goal", which a new conception of the "Ex Ante Responsability" (not liabily).

Dialectically, the third part of the conference explains how Compliance Law internalises the political ambition of equality between human beings, which develops in the three concentric circles of effectiveness, efficacy and efficiency, among the operators best placed to contribute to it.

Mutual banks belong to these circles more than the others. Firstly, because they are structured around the principle of taking human beings into consideration. Secondly, because they are rooted in their local areas. Thirdly, because they are driven by the long term, duration and sustainable. The transition est easer. The dificulty is the necessity to proof the effective and efficient will to do this transition.

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⛏️Go further  :

🕴🏻M.-A. Frison-Roche, 📝Drawing the circles of Compliance Law, 2017

🕴🏻M.-A. Frison-Roche, 📝Monumental goals, the beating heart of compliance law, 2021

🕴🏻C. Peicuti and 🕴🏻J. Beyssade, 📝The feminisation of management positions in companies as a compliance objective. The example of the banking sector, in 🕴🏻M. -A. Frison-Roche, 📘The Monumental Goals of Compliance, 2022 

🕴🏻M.-A. Frison-Roche, 📝Births of a New Branch of Law: Compliance Law, 2024

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► Full reference: M.-A. Frison-Roche, "Asset freezing in the legal saga between American power and Venezuelan wealth", MAFR Law, Compliance, Regulation Newsletter, 23 January 2026

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🌐read this article published on LinkedIn the 23 January 2026 

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📧Read other articles from the MAFR Newsletter - Law, Compliance, Regulation for free with a subscription.

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► Summary of this article  : It is often emphasised that the  law is merely a masquerade in the series of events we are witnessing.

This is not entirely true.

For three reasons.

1. Much will depend on the judge who will rule on the Madura couple's case. The energy sector has always similarly mixed regulation, public policies of states and businesses, both articulated by States and companies, both articulated by  international contracts, always organising international arbitration

3. If ExxonMobil now refuses to make the investments desired by Trump, it is also because this enterprise remembers that many years ago the freeze  of assets granted by the arbitrators was not very successful, and now the company manager believes that investment in  Venezuala's infrastructure is therefore "impossible".

And given the current state of the law in the US, there is little Trump can do about it..

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📝⤵Read the complete article below⤵

► Référence complète  : E. Pataut et S. Robin-Olivier, Les directives CSRD et CS3D et le droit social. Respecter les droits sociaux dans les chaînes de production mondiales,  Bruylant, coll. "Droit de l'Union européenne" (Colloques), 2026

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►lire la table des matières et l'avant-propos

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► Référence complète : Y. Kerbrat et S. Maljean-Dubois, "Legal consequences of breaching international climate obligations in the ICJ Advisory Opinion on climate change", Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law (RECIEL), opinion, janvier 2026.

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🦉Cet  article est accessible en texte intégral pour les personnes qui suivent les enseignements de la professeure Marie-Anne Frison-Roche.

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► Référence complète : M.-A. Frison-Roche, «"Géomètres-experts : une profession qui s’engage dans la compliance"», interview pour Solution Notaire Hebdo, Lefebvre Dalloz, 8 janvier 2026

Interrogée par Juliette Courquin, journaliste à Solution Notaire Hebdo

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► lire l'entretien : 💬 Lire l'interview au cours duquel les réponses ont été apportées aux questions reproduites ci-dessous⤵

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Q. Pourriez-vous définir le droit de la compliance ?

Q. La compliance se prête-t-il à l'Ordre des géomètres-experts et à la profession elle-même ?

Q. L'OGE et la profession se sont engagés dans la compliance en définissant leur raison d'être, quelles en sont les conséquences juridiques ? 

Q. Un dernier mot sur l'Ordre des géomètres-experts et la profession avec qui vous avez travaillé sur la compliance ?

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⛏️Aller plus loin sur la question :

🕴🏻M.-A. Frison-Roche, 🎤Concevoir une raison d'être et l'expliciter, 2025

🕴🏻M.-A. Frison-Roche, 📝Les buts monumentaux de la compliance, coeur battant du droit de la compliance, 2023

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🌐Follow Marie-Anne Frison-Roche on LinkedIn

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► Full reference : M.-A. Frison-Roche, Saisir les principes du Droit de la Compliance à travers l'actualité (Understanding the principles of compliance law through current current legal cases and events), Jean Moulin  - Lyon 3 University Law Faculty, 10 December 2025.

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► Methodological presentation of this 4-hour MasterClass : It is difficult to teach a branch of law that is still being developed, to find a way to open its doors, because if by explaining its principles ex abrupto, the risk exists of remaining at the door, even though the aim is to open it. This door is all the more blocked by the accumulation of multiple regulatory corpus, which are now perceived as being linked to Compliance Law: GDPR, Sapin 2, Vigilance, Nis2, Dora, FCPA, etc.; These are highly technical and complicated, and tend to be studied in silos, with little connection between them and little articulation with the traditional branches of Law. Therefore, the principles that form the backbone of Compliance Law as an autonomous branch of Law are all the less apparent, even though they would make these "compliance blocks" more intelligible and manageable. However, setting out these principles, which shed light not only on the current positive law but also on how it will evolve, seems "theoretical".

In order to open the door to this new branch of Law, which already occupies a significant place in practice and is set to expand, so that it can be handled by lawyers who understand its spirit and is not entirely dominated by those from other disciplines who will master its tools (risk mapping, assessment, internal investigation, etc.), most often through algorithms and platforms (compliance by design), it is relevant to start with a few cases, a few decisions, a few texts, and a few comments, to gauge what they reveal.

Because the principles are already there. They are gradually emerging. The challenge is that they often emerge quickly, in a manner that is sufficiently consistent with other branches of Law, and that the legal aspect takes precedence. That is what is at stake today.

Each hour is devoted to a different case, based on a document of a different legal genre.

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🌐read a post on LinkedIn (in French)

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⛏️Find out more  :

🕴🏻M.-A. Frison-Roche, 📝Compliance Law, 2016

🕴🏻M.-A. Frison-Roche, 📝Monumental Goals, the beating heart of Compliance Law, 2023

🕴🏻M.-A. Frison-Roche, 📝In Compliance Law, the legal consequences for Entreprises of their commitments and undertakings, 2025

🕴🏻M.-A. Frison-Roche, 📝Compliance Law and Systemic Litigation, 2025

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► Référence complète  : K.Lenaerts, "Democracy in the EU: A Value Beyond the Ballot Box", King’s College London - Centre Of European Law – 51st Annual Lecture – 28 novembre 2025.

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►lire la transcription de cette conférence

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🌐Follow Marie-Anne Frison-Roche on LinkedIn

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► Full reference : M.-A. Frison-Roche, ""Géomètres-experts : une profession qui assume concrètement sa responsabilité territoriale Géomètres-experts : une profession qui assume concrètement sa responsabilité territoriale (Chartered Surveyors: a Profession that takes its territorial responsibility seriously)", interview for JurisHebdo, 27 November 2025

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► Read the interview  (in French) in which the questions (translated below in English) were answered⤵

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Q.You helped define the raison d'être of the profession of chartered surveyors and its Professional Order. In your opinion, what is its true consequences?

Q. Can the raison d'être become a tool for Compliance or Governance?

Q. What conflicts arise around the source of compliance norms and their implementation? 

Q. Is this initiative part of a broader move towards social responsibility?

Q. How can the raison d'être influence the mission of the chartered surveyor, particularly in relation to land and environmental matters? 

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⛏️Further reading on the subject:

🕴🏻M.-A. Frison-Roche, 🎤Designing a raison d'être and explaining it, 2025

🕴🏻M.-A. Frison-Roche, 📝The Monumental Goals of Compliance, the beating heart of Compliance Law, 2023

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► Référence complète : V. Monteillet, "Le contrat, outil de mise en oeuvre des obligations de vigilance entre partenaires de la chaine de valeur", in M. Boutonnet, B. Parance et J. Rochfeld (dir.), Engagements et contrats à l'aune des mutations environnementales, Lefebvre-Dalloz, coll. "Thèmes et commentaires, 2025, pp.15-24.

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🦉Cet article est accessible en texte intégral pour les personnes inscrites aux enseignements de la Professeure Marie-Anne Frison-Roche

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► Référence complète : Y. Kerbrat, "L’avis consultatif de la Cour internationale de justice du 23 juillet 2025 sur les obligations des États en matière de changement climatique", Clunet, 2025, n°4, 

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🦉Cet article est accessible en texte intégral pour les personnes inscrites aux enseignements de la Professeure Marie-Anne Frison-Roche.

► Présentation du dossier (par les directeurs de celui-ci) :Le concept d’Internet alternatif fait référence, au sens le plus large, à des innovations sociotechniques portées par des acteurs qui contestent les modèles industriels et commerciaux dominants qui structurent  l’écosystème contemporain des médias et infrastructures numériques. Ce dossier examine différentes facettes et manifestations concrètes de ce désir d’alternatives numériques. Les textes qu’il réunit analysent une variété d’initiatives et interrogent leur rôle, leurs valeurs parfois contradictoires et leur positionnement par rapport aux dispositifs et plateformes de l’Internet dominant.

En ouverture du dossier, l’article de présentation tente de définir ce qui est « alternatif » dans l’Internet alternatif, puis passe en revue les enjeux et défis qui en découlent.

Les deux contributions suivantes s’intéressent aux architectures fédérées, la première abordant le développement des protocoles et plateformes du Fédivers, tels ActivityPub et Mastodon, tandis que la seconde se penche sur leur adoption (dans le cas de Matrix/Element) par les pouvoirs publics à des fins de souveraineté numérique. Viennent ensuite une étude consacrée aux communs numériques de Wikimédia et à leurs relations avec les plateformes de l’Internet dominant (notamment Google), puis une enquête sur les marchés noirs numériques qui s’appuient sur le Darknet.

L’article suivant propose un panorama du champ émergent des études sur les « médias sociaux alternatifs » avec comme objectif de parvenir à définir cet objet d’étude. Enfin, le dossier se clôt par un compte-rendu d’expérience de l’adoption d’une plateforme alternative de diffusion vidéo (PeerTube) dans les milieux de l’éducation supérieure.

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► Full reference : M.-A. Frison-Roche,  ""Ordonner la Compliance : pourquoi le faire et comment le faire ? (Organising Compliance: why do it and how to do it?)", interview Focus on... conducted for Dalloz Actu Étudiants, 13 November 2025

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► read the interview : 💬 Read the interview (in French)

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🌐read the interview presentation on LinkedIn (in French)

🌐read the interview presentation through the MAFR Newsletter Law, Compliance, Regulation, (in English)

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► presentation  of the interview by Dalloz Actu-Étudiants  : Compliance can be defined as a new branch of law that mobilises major economic players and their stakeholders to ensure that the large systems in which we live do not collapse, but remain solid and sustainable. Sanctions, contracts, ethical principles, court decisions and corporate cultures all converge to achieve this. The ambition is great, some contest it, many want to escape it. It is still difficult to define compliance, which seems to be going in all directions. Who? What? Why? How?

These are all questions addressed by Marie-Anne Frison-Roche, professor of law and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC), together with the contributors to the collective works in the Régulations & Compliance series under her scientific direction. Compliance (JoRC), together with the contributors to the collective works in the "Regulations & Compliance" collection under her scientific direction, sheds light on with her imaginative power combined with her legal precision.

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Q.Why do the fundamental objectives of compliance unify all legal compliance techniques?

Summary of MAFR's response: because all these regulatory frameworks, which large companies are required to enforce effectively and which appear disparate, creating as many specific requirements as there are regulatory compliance blocks, find their unity when we consider the following reality: whatever the body of regulations in question (Sapin 2, Vigilance, Nis2, Dora, IAA, etc.), the aim is always to identify and prevent systemic risks so that these systems do not collapse.

Q. How can we define the obligation of compliance?

Summary of MAFR response: the company concerned is therefore obliged to put in place "compliance structures", such as mapping, plans, alert structures and programmes (obligation of result), but of course, and this is the key point, to achieve this goal, namely to ensure that the system in question (banking, financial, climate, digital, algorithmic, etc.) does not collapse. This is an obligation of means. This is the exact, simple definition that unifies all the regulations of the Compliance Obligation for which subject companies are responsible.

Q. What conflicts arise around the source of compliance standards and their implementation? 

Summary of MAFR's response: It must remain a matter of law. However, many argue that because it is only a matter of "compliance" and "ticking all the boxes", algorithms (which do not think or know anything) will do this, eliminating the need for lawyers and the law. This must be avoided. Furthermore, given the immense ambition of safeguarding systems, political and public authorities, businesses and stakeholders must join forces. They must not fight to bring each other down.

Q. What are the complexities of compliance law? 

Summary of MAFR's response: I would not say "complexity", because although the regulations are complicated, compliance law is fairly simple and unified around its monumental goals of safeguarding systems, ensuring their future sustainability and protecting the people involved in them. However, it is a new branch of law that is still poorly understood and therefore sometimes poorly mastered. It therefore needs to be organised.

Q. What is your proposal for ordering it? 

Summary of MAFR's response: Teaching more about compliance law will facilitate its organisation. The courts, to which all regulations converge through litigation, will participate in this organisation, which is necessary to ensure that regulations do not remain in silos and do not contradict each other when they have the same purpose, which constitutes their legal normativity. This new branch of law must also be articulated with all other branches of law. This is notably what the recently published book, L'obligation de compliance (The Obligation of Compliance), does.

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