ULLMANN Gabriel

The imperial decree of October 15th 1810 established the first national regulation on classified facilities. It laid the ground for French law on the industrial environment by creating the first nomenclature. An analysis of over 140 nomenclature texts published since then has provided insight into a certain number of societal developments. Indeed, the nomenclature system has been a powerful social marker for more than two centuries. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the law has depended greatly on the nomenclature system. While its original objective was to foster freedom of enterprise, it gradually evolved towards a law protecting third parties, in particular regarding property rights. The Act of December 19th 1917 on classified facilities further strengthened this purpose, generally placing the focus first on third parties and then on the environment. The act also favored workers’ health and safety, which had been ignored until then. On the other hand, the act abolished the principle of preliminary authorization by introducing a declaration scheme for the benefit of operators. The Act of July 19th 1976 on classified facilities for environmental protection took over and modernized all of these provisions but without really introducing any innovation. The nomenclature system rapidly underwent a series of transformations that generally resulted in the decommissioning of numerous facilities. The declaration scheme continued to expand. However, the creation of the registration scheme in 2009, which is somewhere between the declaration and authorization schemes, has led to a dramatic reduction in the reach of the latter. The transposition of recent European directives has spurred this process by introducing a new nomenclature. Never before has such a regression on environmental law been reached, especially since it is combined with a marked separation between classified facilities and the receiving environment.


Mots-clés :  Installations classées, ICPE, nomenclature, marqueur sociétal, effectivité de la loi, enregistrement, hygiène, sécurité, nuisances, propriété, régression du droit de l’environnement, milieu récepteur, rayon d‘affichage, enquête publique, agriculture, industrie, lobby.

Key words : classified facilities, nomenclature, social marker, effectiveness of law, registration, health, safety, nuisances, property, regression in environmental law, receiving environment, public inquiry, agriculture, industry, lobby.