The French, of course, are commendably rigorous about such matters. Gazette columnist and blogger Jonathan Goldsmith calls attention to regulations amending (drum-roll) Ordinance no 2015-949 of 31 July 2015 on equal access for men and women to professional bodies. The regulations state that on the French National Bar Council the proportion of members of the same gender must range between 40% and 60%. The regulations also introduce ‘a mixed majority two-round binomial voting system’ for elections to bar councils, to guarantee greater parity between the sexes.

Ah, but how would binomial voting work in bodies with an odd number of members? A decree of 22 December 2016 takes care of this, specifying that all bar councils must be composed of an even number of members, divisible by three.

Napoleon would surely have approved.

 

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