Could French financial law disappear?

Summary The European sovereign debt crisis is an opportunity to observe the establishment of new relationships between national public authorities and financial markets. Both actor and referee in the confrontation of market forces, the State finds itself caught up in a competitive, liberal and internationalist logic that threatens its capacity to remain the main source of financial regulation. In a context of globalization and autonomization of the financial sphere, as well as the imperatives of efficiency and economic competitiveness that weigh on financial law, the very notion of "French financial law" is gradually losing its meaning. The impressive reinforcement of European action in this area, the systematic importation of Anglo-American legal solutions, and the increasing delegation of the enactment of standards to experts, threaten the maintenance of a truly French financial law, distinct from other national regulations. There is no doubt that regulation is destined to change scale in a lasting and irreversible manner, to accompany the international integration of financial markets and to take on their new regional, or even global, dimension. More generally, the contemporary methods of producing financial norms disqualify the state apparatus as a relevant source for issuing rules, which are increasingly refined, expert and evolving, without having lost their political dimension. This is the fundamental dilemma of modern financial regulation, which must reconcile economic relevance with democratic legitimacy.