French Ministers of Justice

Jules Abadie (12 August 1876 – 10 August 1953) was a French politician and surgeon in Oran, French Algeria, acting as a member of the Comité Français de Libération Nationale (CFLN).

Émile Hugues (b. Vence, 7 April 1901 – d. Paris, 10 February 1966) was a French politician and government minister.
With a doctorate in law and by profession a notaire, Hugues was elected in 1946 as a Radical-Socialist député for the Alpes-Maritimes département to the second constituent National Assembly, and subsequently to the Assemblée nationale, in which he sat until 1958. In 1959, he was elected to the Senate as a member of the Gauche démocratique (Democratic Left). He died in office.
Hugues left the government following the rejection of the planned European Defence Community in 1954, which he had warmly supported. He followed Henri Queuille and André Morice into the Radical dissidence in 1956, which led to the creation of the Centre républicain. He voted for Charles de Gaulle in June 1958, but was beaten in the November 1958 elections.
He was mayor of Vence and councillor for the Alpes-Maritimes.
The castle in Vences is today the Fondation Émile Hugues, a modern and contemporary art museum.

Michel Crépeau (30 October 1930, Fontenay-le-Comte, Vendée – 30 March 1999, Paris) was a French centre-left politician.
Born in 1930, barrister, he joined the Radical Party. When it split in 1972, he founded the Movement of Left Radicals (MRG) which chosen the alliance with the Socialist Party and the French Communist Party. Elected Mayor of La Rochelle in 1971, and Member of French National Assembly representing of Charente Maritime département in 1973, he kept these terms until his death in 1999.
MRG candidate in the 1981 presidential election, he obtained 2.2% of votes in the first round, then he called to vote for François Mitterrand in the second round. He became his Environment Minister from 1981 to 1983, then his Trade and Craft Industry Minister from 1983 to 1986. When Robert Badinter was nominated President of the Constitutional Council, in February 1986, he succeeded him as Justice Minister but the Left lost the legislative election one month later and, consequently, he was forced to resign.
Michel Crépeau died in Paris on 30 March 1999, after a heart attack which had arisen few days earlier during a parliamentary session of the National Assembly.

Michel Mercier (born 7 March 1947) is a French politician and who served as Minister of Justice from 2010 until 2012.
After studying law and graduating from Jean Moulin University Law school and the Lyon IEP, he taught finance and local government law at the Faculty of Law of Lyon III.
Elected Senator from the Rhône on 24 September 1995, he was the right's official candidate in the municipal elections in 2001 in Lyon, incumbent Mayor Raymond Barre having refused to run for re-election. Arriving behind the right-wing dissident list supported by Charles Millon in his sector, the 5th arrondissement of Lyon, he decided to withdraw in favor of Jean-Michel Dubernard, who established an alliance with Charles Millon. The Socialist Gérard Collomb was elected Mayor of Lyon.
He was re-elected Senator on 26 September 2004. General councillor for the canton of Thizy, he is also President of the General Council of Rhône since February 1990. Treasurer of the UDF, he remained loyal to the opposition of François Bayrou vis-à-vis the government of Dominique de Villepin.
President of the Centrist Union Senate group since 2002, he remained faithful to François Bayrou by joining the MoDem. On 30 January 2008, Michel Mercier, by favouring an alliance with the UMP in Lyon, whose list was led by Dominique Perben for the 2008 municipal elections signaled his disagreement with the strategy of François Bayrou by resigning the presidency of the MoDem in Rhône. He remained MoDem treasurer and member of the executive board of the MoDem until his appointment to the government.
On 23 June 2009, he joined the government of François Fillon as Minister of Rural Areas and Spatial Planning. He announced his hiatus from the MoDem and was replaced as treasurer by Jean-Jacques Jégou.
From 14 November 2010 he is Minister of justice in the 3rd government of François Fillon.
After the defeat of Nicolas Sarkozy at the 2012 Presidential election, he was replaced by Christiane Taubira. During his tenure as Minister, he was criticized for his lack of communication.

Michel Vauzelle (born 15 August 1944) is a French politician who served as Keeper of the Seals of France, Minister of Justice under Prime Minister Pierre Bérégovoy from 1992 to 1993. A member of the Socialist Party (PS), he also served as Mayor of Arles from 1995 to 1998 and President of the Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur from 1998 until 2015.
A native of Montélimar, Vauzelle was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Bouches-du-Rhône from 1986 to 1992 and again from 1997 to 2002 and 2007 to 2017. He was first elected at-large (1986–1988), before representing the department's 16th constituency. In 2007, he defeated Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) incumbent Roland Chassain who had previously defeated him in 2002. Vauzelle, who had a narrower victory against a National Front (FN) candidate in 2012, did not contest the 2017 legislative election, in which the seat was won by Monica Michel of La République En Marche! (LREM), a first-time candidate.

Pierre-Henri Teitgen (29 May 1908 – 6 April 1997) was a French lawyer, professor and politician. Teitgen was born in Rennes, Brittany. Taken POW in 1940, he played a major role in the French Resistance. Teitgen's father, Henri Teitgen (1882–1965), was a senior politician of the Popular Republican Movement.
A member of French Parliament from 1945 to 1958 for Ille-et-Vilaine, Pierre-Henri was president of the Popular Republican Movement (Christian Democratic Party) from 1952 to 1956. He was Minister of Information in 1944 (one of the founders of the daily Le Monde), Minister of Justice in 1945–1946 (in charge of the purges from government of the Vichy regime's followers and of Nazi collaborators), Minister of Defence in 1947–48 in Robert Schuman's government at the time of the insurrectional strikes. In May 1948, he attended the Congress of The Hague and worked closely with Robert Schuman in Schuman Declaration and the start of the European Community when he was Minister of Information and Civil service in 1949–1950. He was later Minister of Overseas in 1950. He was member of the Constitutional Committee in 1958. He was twice deputy prime minister in 1947–1948 and 1953–1954. He was member of the Consultative Constitutional Committee in 1958 but became a critic of de Gaulle's policies.He supported the Socialist Defferre in his attempt as candidate for presidency in 1965. In September 1976, he was appointed member of the European Court of Human Rights. He had helped to create the court some 27 years earlier, in 1949, outlining its powers and the rights it should protect in a report for the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe. Teitgen died in Paris in 1997.