rapporteur, in French civil law, a judge who furnishes a written report on the case at hand to other judges of the court, in which he sets forth the arguments of the parties, specifies the questions of fact and of law raised in the dispute, and lists the evidence on the issue.
The position originated in the ecclesiastical courts in the Middle Ages and was adopted by the Parlement of Paris in the late 13th century. Originally rapporteurs were not members of the court, but by 1336 they were given full rights to participate in the decision-making process as judges.
The rapporteur’s functions emerged when investigators were sent by the Parlement to interview witnesses and collect documents. Because so much material was collected, it became necessary to analyze it before it could be presented to the other judges. The rapporteur acted alone in making this analysis, but the position rotated among the judges of the court. In later times the rapporteur gained a significant amount of power.
The proceedings under which these deliberations took place were secret, and it was only in the 16th century that the testimony collected by the investigators was released to the parties in the case. Legislation implemented after the French Revolution did away with these inequities. The rapporteur had to present his analysis in open court, and it was later published in law reports. When the Cour de Cassation (now the supreme court of France) was established during the Revolution, the rapporteur became a member of the court. He was placed in charge of examining the record of the case, determining issues and means of settlement, and making a recommendation for disposition to the remainder of the court. By the mid-19th century the rapporteur had begun to cite previous decisions in its presentations to the court.
In Germany the Referent in the Reichskammergericht, the supreme court of the Holy Roman Empire, had similar responsibilities. He analyzed evidence and legal issues and made his recommendations to the whole court. In important cases two Referents were appointed. The reports and discussions were kept secret, and the decisions made no mention of the grounds upon which they were based. However, by the 17th century the first in a series of law reports on the decisions had been published, giving the legal arguments and the Referents’ conclusions in addition to the votes and opinions of the individual judges.