I. Can we ‘seize’ a court?
In French, we ‘seize’ the court, if we translate ‘saisir’ much too literally into English. However, for an English speaker such a translation can sound a bit strange—even jarring—as the illustration shows. And more importantly, it is not the correct term in English. There are in fact many ways of translating ‘saisir’ as you will see.
Seize in English can mean ‘to take something quickly and hold it,’ ‘to take using sudden force,’ or—in the case of the police— ‘to take possession of something with legal authority.’ See the Cambridge English Dictionary for examples.
In language learning, we use the term collocation for words that are generally associated together: ‘saisir le tribunal’ and ‘saisir la cour d’appel’ are two examples in French.
Most of the time we use ‘saisir’ in a legal context we cannot translate it as ‘seize.’ A notable exception is ‘saisir des biens mobiliers et immobiliers.’ In this case we refer to a ‘seizure of movable/immovable goods.’
II. Common Examples
Let’s take a look at some examples in French and their English equivalents.
- Saisir le tribunal
English:
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- To go to court
- To take a case to court
- To sue someone
- To initiate legal proceedings […]
- Saisir la cour d’appel
English:
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- To appeal to the Court of Appeal
- To apply to the Court of Appeal […]
- Saisir la justice
English:
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- To take legal action
- To go to court
- To initiate legal proceedings […]
- Saisir le Conseil d’État
English:
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- To refer the case to the Conseil d’Etat
- To bring the matter before the Conseil d’Etat […]
- Saisir la Cour de cassation
English:
-
- To appeal to the Court of Cassation […]
- Saisir le juge des référés
English:
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- To petition the interim relief judge (see below regarding this term)
- To submit a request to the the interim relief judge […]
- Saisir le médiateur de la République
English:
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- To refer a matter to the Ombudsman
- To submit a complaint to the Ombudsman […]
- Saisir la commission des recours amiable (CRA)
English:
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- To take the matter to the amicable settlement board
- To refer the matter to the amicable settlement board
- Saisir le juge de l’exécution
English:
-
- To turn to the enforcement judge […] (see below regarding this term)
- Saisir le procureur de la République
English:
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- To refer the matter to the public prosecutor
- To refer the case to the public prosecutor
- To inform the public prosecutor
- To approach the public prosecutor […]
- Saisir le juge d’instruction
English:
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- To bring the matter to the attention of the investigating judge (see below regarding this term)
- To engage the investigating judge […]
- Saisir la juridiction compétente
English:
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- To refer the matter to the competent court
- To apply to the competent court
- To bring an action in/before the competent court […]
As you can see from these examples and their non-exhaustive translations, translating these phrases into English is not always easy. You already know how the French system operates, but translating into English requires having fluency not only in standard English but in the procedural rules of the US and/or English judicial systems as well.
III. Terms Specific to the French Judicial System
Some notes are in order regarding a couple of the translations seen above. As you will have noticed, we left the term Conseil d’Etat untranslated. It is certainly fine to refer to it as either the Conseil d’Etat or the Council of State, as does the Conseil d’Etat itself.
The Cour de Cassation can be translated as the Court of Cassation or, informally, as the French supreme court, though in formal contexts it is best to maintain the term Court of Cassation due to its specificity and the fact that it is not the equivalent of the US Supreme Court, for example.
Three other terms deserve mention: the juge des référés, the juge d’instruction and the juge de l’exécution. These have no exact equivalence in the US or English systems. We have translated them here as the interim relief judge, the investigating judge and the enforcement judge. There are other possible translations, but we will deal with this terminology in another article.
Nothing can replace extensive reading, speaking with your English-speaking peers or regular lessons and practice; however, on this site we will do our best to expose you as much as possible to a wide variety of language and help you to develop a mastery of key terms like the ones in this article.
