This is a guest post by Nicolas Boring, French foreign law specialist at the Law Library of Congress. Nicolas has previously blogged FALQs: Freedom of Speech in France and co-collaborated on the post, Does the Haitian Criminal Code Outlaw Making Zombies.
I took a few days of vacation to visit relatives in France back in December, and I took this opportunity to snap a few pictures of some noteworthy Parisian judicial buildings. In this post, I will share pictures of the famous Palais de Justice (Palace of Justice), one of France’s most important judicial buildings as well as one of the most important historical sites in Paris.
The Palais de Justice is located on the Île de la Cité, in the very heart of Paris. Originally called the Palais de la Cité (Palace of the City), it appears to have originally been built in the 10th century on the site of a former Roman palace. It served as the main residence of many French kings until Charles V moved the royal court to the Louvres Palace in the 14th century. After that, part of it was turned into a prison, while another part served as the seat of the French Parliament under the monarchy, and then as the seat of revolutionary tribunals during the French Revolution