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Parlement de Paris

Type Object Region France Time c. 1250–1790

The Parlement de Paris was the most important high court and registration body of the Kingdom of France, originating from a branch of the royal counc…

Timeline

  1. c. 1250–1300Paris · ParisLouis IX made the royal council permanent and separated its judicial functions; the Parlement de Paris took shape as the kingdom's highest court of appeal, with jurisdiction over most of the region north of the Seine.
  2. c. 1300–1450Paris · ParisThe court gained the power to register royal edicts and could refuse registration to express dissent; during the Hundred Years' War it repeatedly contended with the crown over taxation and regency issues, consolidating the status of the judicial nobility.
  3. c. 1600–1788Palais de Justice, Paris · ParisFrom Louis XIV to Louis XVI, the Parlement de Paris became a stronghold of the nobiliary judicial elite, hearing major cases and participating in financial registration, while Enlightenment thinkers criticized it for obstructing reform.
  4. 1789–1790Paris · ParisThe court's resistance to reform in 1789 triggered a political crisis; in 1790 the National Constituent Assembly passed a decree abolishing the Parlement de Paris and the provincial parlements, bringing the judicial system into the revolutionary constitutional framework.

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