Simone Rozès was a pioneering French jurist who left a lasting impact on the French judicial system and beyond. Her decade-spanning career was marked by her many prestigious positions and her commitment to justice. However, as a woman in the mid-20th century, she also faced various challenges, including overcoming gender barriers within the judiciary.

A Determined Path into Law

Born in 1920 in Paris as Simone Ludwig into a traditional Alsatian family, Rozès pursued a legal career with determination despite societal expectations and legal restrictions at the time that confined women to the private sphere. She had developed a fascination for law at an early age and considered jurists to be men and women of peace. Therefore, personal fulfilment was what drove her to study at the Institut des Sciences Politiques rather than the goal of a respective career.¹⁾ However, at the time of her studies, women were still denied access to the judiciary in France, even though the profession of attorney had been opened to women in 1900.

In 1942 during World War II she married Gabriel Rozès with whom she had two children. Commenting on life at the time, she later recalled:

“In 1945, I had a law degree, two doctorates, and a degree in public law, and yet I had to accompany my husband to the voting station.”²⁾

After laws had been changed in 1946 to grant women access to the judiciary, she immersed herself in her books and began preparing for the competitive exam concours de la magistrature (the mandatory entrance exam for aspiring judges in France) while also completing the two-year practical probationary period. She passed the exam in 1949 as one of the first women and embarked on an impressive judicial career.³⁾

Breaking Barriers in the Judiciary

Rozès subsequently entered the judiciary in 1950 as an assistant judge at the Bourges Court of Appeal⁴⁾ in central France. In 1953, she joined to the Ministry of Justice, where she assisted numerous Ministers of Justice for many years during a time of governmental instability. Returning to the judiciary in 1962, she served at the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Paris⁵⁾, first as a judge and later as vice president until 1973. Upon her return to the Ministry of Justice, she became the first woman to hold the position of the directeur de l’Education surveillée. She broke new ground again when she became the first female president of the Tribunal de Grande Instance Paris in 1975 and was appointed as the French avocat general at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg in 1981, once again as the first women. In 1984, she reached the pinnacle of her career, becoming the first female First President of the Cour de cassation (French Supreme Court), a position of immense prestige and responsibility. She remained in this position until she retired in 1988.⁶⁾

15 February 1984: Simone Rozès becomes the first female First President of the Cour de cassation, © Musée du Barreau de Paris

Fight for Equality and Career Challenges

Simone Rozès never grew tired of advocating for gender equality, especially for equal opportunities within the legal profession. Taking an egalitarian approach, Rozès rejected both privilege and disadvantage related to her gender, assuming her role as a woman (in the judiciary) as entirely natural. She emphasized that judicial reasoning was not dependent on gender, stating that “competence is shared”⁷⁾ and that she never let her gender influence her decisions.⁸⁾ After the proportion of women in the judiciary had risen considerably, she vehemently criticized the fact that this had led to the profession being held in lower esteem.⁹⁾

Nevertheless, she also spoke openly about the hurdles she faced during her career. As the first woman in many of her positions, she was regarded with enmity. ​She often had to prove her capabilities in roles traditionally held by men, fighting higher expectations, different misperceptions and labels. In her own words:

“In July 1949, I received my decree of appointment as a deputy judge in Nevers. […] As there were three of us named in the decree, two men and myself, the public prosecutor said, ‘with my luck, I’ll get the woman’. […] He said to me, ‘Madam, don’t expect me to treat you as a woman.’ I replied, ‘Mr. Prosecutor, I expect you to treat me as a colleague’ […].”¹⁰⁾

Another challenge she faced was balancing professional and personal life. She had to leave her family, including her two-year-old child, to accept her first appointment as an assistant judge as her superior insisted, she reside in town. As a result, she had to rent an apartment and travel ten hours by train each weekend to see her family.¹¹⁾

Beyond these personal sacrifices, her judicial decisions often subjected her to political labeling. Some accused her of being a “red judge”¹²⁾, while others, saw her as an instrument of conservative interests, reflecting the scrutiny and biases she faced.¹³⁾ She also recalls intense moments of fear, for example when she thought she was being followed at a time when she was also directly threatened by criminals who were allegedly targeting her.

2013: Interview with Simone Rozès, © AFHJ, Crimino Corpus

Her Vision for Justice

Simone Rozès played a crucial role in advancing the French legal system, advocating for the modernization of judicial practices, greater judicial independence, responsibility, and impartiality. She believed that the judiciary should remain free from political and media influence to uphold justice effectively and keep a balance between transparency and legal fairness.¹⁴⁾ She famously referred to impartiality as “the soul”, “the courage”, “the conscience”, “the intellectual rigour”, “the job” and “the honour” of the judge (for excerpt see below).

“The idea of justice is linked to the independence of the judge. This is the only way to ensure that all citizens are equal under the law”.¹⁵⁾

Even after retiring, Rozès remained active in legal discussions and pushed for important reforms. She co-authored the book “Le juge et l’avocat” (1992) in which she explored the aforementioned topics. In 1994, she led a high-profile commission, addressing corruption and judicial transparency. Many of its recommendations aiming to prevent conflicts of interest and promote accountability were later adopted into French law.¹⁶⁾ Rozès’ contributions were acknowledged with various honours, including the Médaille d’honneur de l’éducation surveillée¹⁷⁾ et administration pénitentiaire¹⁸⁾ and the Legion d’honneur¹⁹⁾ in 2006.²⁰⁾

Beyond her national achievements, Simone Rozès was deeply committed to international legal collaboration and integration long before her tenure as an advocate general. In 1950, she joined the Association pour les échanges entre juristes français et allemands (Association for the exchange between French and German lawyers), convinced that reconciliation and exchange between France and Germany were essential for the future. This engagement has earned her the Bundesverdienstkreuz (Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany). She envisioned a future where judges could be exchanged internationally, provided that greater harmonisation of legal systems and cultures was achieved. Rozès also highlighted the judiciary’s expanding role in societal change, particularly in adapting national laws to international norms within European integration. She also engaged with the legal systems of the UK and the US, attending court sessions in England and Scotland and giving a lecture at the University of Edinburgh, where she was awarded an honorary doctorate. In her role in the United Nations Committee on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice from 1977 to 1991, including a period as chair, she contributed to global efforts to combat crime and improve international legal standards.²¹⁾

Portrait of Simone Rozès as the first President of the Court de cassation, created during her term of office and now displayed in the atrium of the Cour de cassation © Cour de cassation

A career against the odds

Simone Rozès’ impact extends beyond her own career. She was not only a strong advocate for judicial independence, equality, and fairness that helped shape both French and European legal landscapes, as the first woman to hold several esteemed judicial positions, she also broke barriers and paved the way for future generations of women in law.

She powerfully expressed her continuous advocacy for the fundamental importance of judicial independence and impartiality in her speech as First President of the Court de cassation at the ceremonial hearing at the beginning of the court year on 6 January 1988. In her plea for judicial ethics, she underscores that a judge must not be influenced by personal beliefs, public opinion, or political pressure. Instead, she considered it their duty to remain committed solely to the facts of the case and the principles of the law:

“To be a judge is to have a sense of objectivity, to know how to protect oneself from the influence of one’s environment, culture, prejudices and religious, ethical or philosophical conceptions, as well as one’s political opinions; impartiality is the soul of a judge.

Being a judge also means not giving in to the demands of public or corporate opinion and preferring a truth that is sometimes unpopular, embarrassing or inconvenient to the ease of demagoguery; impartiality is the courage of the judge.

Impartiality also means understanding that any militant or partisan position, any suggested or directed decision, any weakness or concession to pressure from any quarter, compromises the authority of the judicial function, misleads justice and betrays the citizen; impartiality is the conscience of the judge.

If it is not innate, this essential professional quality must be learned and nurtured until it becomes a reflex, an instinctive part of the intellectual process, an essential part of the technique; impartiality is the job of the judge.

To be a judge is to take the facts for what they are…, what they are exactly and objectively in the light of the reliable elements of a case, not to alter them in consideration of the desired decision, nor to speculate on external considerations; impartiality is the intellectual rigour of the judge.

Finally, to be a judge is to recognise that neutrality is a core ethical value, the transgression of which, for whatever reason, is contrary to professional obligations and ethics; impartiality is the honour of the judge.”²²⁾

In light of growing authoritarian tendencies worldwide, her words are more relevant than ever. In the United States, for instance, judicial independence is increasingly under attack, with efforts to politicize the courts and pressure judges into making decisions aligned with ideological interests. The rising influence of political agendas, public campaigns, and legal system polarisation threatens the core values of an impartial judiciary. Rozès’ speech serves as a stark reminder that judicial impartiality is not just a professional ethical ideal but a fundamental pillar of the rule of law.

Special thanks to the Musée du Barreau de Paris and to the Cour de cassation for providing the author with these very special images of Simone Rozès.

Further Readings and Sources

• Rozès, Simone; Lombard, Paul (1992): Le juge et l’avocat
• Joly-Coz, Gwenola (2019): “Simone Rozès : « Vous le devez aux femmes »”, https://www.jss.fr/Simone_Rozes__«_Vous_le_devez_aux_femmes_»-1675.awp?M67
• Interview with Simone Rozès in French “Interview de Simone Rozès par Denis Salas pour l’Association française d’histoire de la justice” (2013), Médiathèque de la Justice, http://www.mediatheque.justice.gouv.fr/direct/3353-94aa60f0b89338daf17897fcc114ecc1c5de8ae7-1587683384-direct
• Lafon, Jacqueline Lucienne: “Simone Rozès-Ludwig (1920- )”, in Salokar, Volcansek (Ed.), Women in Law: A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook (1996)