Tribute to Mireille Delmas-Marty (15 Feb. 2022)

The Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs pays tribute to the memory of Mireille Delmas-Marty, a visionary legal expert who made a significant contribution to the promotion of human rights and individual liberties as universal values under international law.

Professor Mireille Delmas-Marty had held a Chair in Comparative Legal Studies and the Internationalization of Law at the Collège de France since 2002. She was the recipient of honorary doctorates awarded by eight international universities and notably served as a board member for the French National Commission for UNESCO as well as Special Advisor to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (2011-2015). Through her tireless advocacy for better dialogue among French and international institutions, Mireille Delmas-Marty helped to make international criminal justice more effective.

As a dedicated European, her work also served as a major source of inspiration for others. In 1997, among other accomplishments, she became Coordinator of the Corpus Juris project, which led to discussions on the creation of bodies tasked with instituting better protections for the financial interests of the European Union. Mireille Delmas-Marty also took part in the Debate on the Future of Europe working group in 2001, which recommended strengthening cooperation tools and called for continued efforts to create an independent public prosecutor’s office for the Member States. That body predated the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, which became operational in June 2021, a little under a year ago.

Lastly, Mireille Delmas-Marty’s work on the multiple challenges posed by the internationalization of law and legal institutions in Europe and worldwide continue to inspire our institutions to this day.