the legacy of the parliament of paris followed by the court. There is no doubt that theParlement played a decisive role to recognize the force of customs (along with subordinate courts, like the Châtelet for the custom of Paris) and even to create customary rules.9 The influence of the royal legislation seemed to have been limited: one has to take into account that the successive kings often repeated the same rules and there were no collections of the royal ordinances.The rulings of the courts where not based on a pre-established legality but took part in the foundation of a legal order under the authority of the king. It can be said that the Parlement organized a “royal” legal order. During the last centuries of the Middle Ages, there were some clues that showed differences of point of view between the Parlement and the king. The king’s letters containing a privilege (or what one today can call an “individual norm” in favour of a requesting person with the risks to go against the rights of other persons) could be discussed before theParlement. It was the opportunity of subtle discussions, based on Roman law about rescripta contra jus and about the power of the king to depart from his own general rules.10 Case by case, the public ministry and the judges decided to apply or not the principleprinceps legibus solutus.11 At the same time (at the end of the fourteenth century), the judges began to “remonstrate” and to give critical advice to the prince. While remaining the first means to impose the royal power, theParlement was the organ of a legal order which was not confused with the temporary will of the king. The foundation of the “modern state” in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries triggered different changes in the role of theParlement.Progressively, the modern state developed as an “administrative state”, directed by the king with the help of his close counsellors (the ministers and the members of the King’s Council) rather than a “state of justice”, giving 9 Hilaire, Jean 2011, p. 103. 10 Weidenfeld, Katia 2002, p. 67. 11 Petit-Renaud, Sophie 2003 p. 193. 122 Maintaining a legal order towards the legislative power of the king
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