Does an employment contract drafted in English comply with French law?
Pursuant to article L.121-1 of the Code du Travail (Codified Employment Statutes), any written contract of employment entered into in France must be drafted in the French language. Thus, in the event of a dispute as to the meaning of the provisions of a particular agreement, if the contract were not drafted in French, the employer would not usually be able to rely on its content if this were not to the advantage of the employee. It would be possible however to provide a bilingual contract of employment to the employee for example in French and English, but it should be borne in mind that the French version would always prevail in the event of a dispute as to the scope or meaning of the agreement.
