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Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice 70
Alan Uzelac
Cornelis Hendrik (Remco) van Rhee
Editors
Transformation
of Civil Justice
Unity and Diversity
Ius Gentium: Comparative
Perspectives on Law and Justice
Volume 70
Series editors
Mortimer Sellers, University of Baltimore
James Maxeiner, University of Baltimore
Board of Editors
Myroslava Antonovych, Kyiv-Mohyla Academy
Nadia de Araújo, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro
Jasna Bakšic-Muftic, University of Sarajevo
David L. Carey Miller, University of Aberdeen
Loussia P. Musse Félix, University of Brasilia
Emanuel Gross, University of Haifa
James E. Hickey Jr., Hofstra University
Jan Klabbers, University of Helsinki
Cláudia Lima Marques, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul
Aniceto Masferrer, University of Valencia
Eric Millard, West Paris University
Gabriël A. Moens, Curtin University
Raul C. Pangalangan, University of the Philippines
Ricardo Leite Pinto, Lusíada University of Lisbon
Mizanur Rahman, University of Dhaka
Keita Sato, Chuo University
Poonam Saxena, University of Delhi
Gerry Simpson, London School of Economics
Eduard Somers, University of Ghent
Xinqiang Sun, Shandong University
Tadeusz Tomaszewski, Warsaw University
Jaap de Zwaan, Erasmus University Rotterdam
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/7888
Alan Uzelac Cornelis Hendrik (Remco) van Rhee
•
Editors
Transformation
of Civil Justice
Unity and Diversity
123
Editors
Alan Uzelac Cornelis Hendrik (Remco) van Rhee
Faculty of Law Faculty of Law
University of Zagreb Maastricht University
Zagreb, Croatia Maastricht, The Netherlands
This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Preface
The civil justice systems of modern states are facing unprecedented challenges
today, and they are—in most cases, unsuccessfully—struggling to find appropriate
responses to them. At the same time, public confidence in the civil courts and their
ability to protect and enforce civil rights and obligations is fading. The need to
address this state of affairs through a broad international academic discussion is
clear.
This book is the result of academic research on the transformations of con-
temporary civil justice systems. The contributions collected in this volume come
from different regions of the globe, from (North and South) Europe to Africa and
(North and South) America. They share, nonetheless, the same wish to explore
whether the changes in the national justice systems appropriately address the needs
of the present time. Both historical and contemporary contributions indicate that a
profound change is now a conditio sine qua non for the survival of the civil courts
as the principal protectors of the legal rights of those under the jurisdiction of
modern nation states.
The core of this book is the research produced in the research project 6988
(TcJust-UD-IP-11-2013) that was funded by the Croatian Science Foundation
(HRZZ). The international project team represented in this book by seven of its key
researchers was reinforced by experienced, leading scholars of comparative civil
procedure, but also by young and promising contributors interested in the topic.
Most of them shared the experience of joint work and discussion at the postgraduate
course and conference which took place at the Inter-University Centre Dubrovnik
as part of the Public and Private Justice (PPJ) series. The editors would like to thank
the Inter-University Centre, led by Secretary-General Ms. Nada Bruer, for their
continuing kind assistance in providing an inspiring forum for high-quality, pro-
fessional and academic debates.
The editors would also like to thank all of those who helped in the production
and editing of the present volume. They are particularly grateful to
Mr. Randolph W. Davidson (Pavia) for revising the contributions of the non-native
English speakers. Valuable editing assistance was provided by Marko Bratković,
v
vi Preface
who also contributed to this volume. Some pertinent language issues were resolved
by the courtesy of John Sorabji (London).
Last but not least, we would like to express our gratitude to the Springer team,
whose collaboration and understanding greatly helped us to bring this book project
to a successful finish.
Part I Introduction
The Metamorphoses of Civil Justice and Civil Procedure:
The Challenges of New Paradigms—Unity and Diversity . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Alan Uzelac and Cornelis Hendrik (Remco) van Rhee
vii
viii Contents
xi
xii Contributors
This contribution is the result of research supported by the Croatian Science Foundation (project
no. 6988).
A. Uzelac (&)
Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
e-mail: [email protected]
C. H. van Rhee
Faculty of Law, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
e-mail: [email protected]
1 Introduction
Cappelletti most likely wrote his text with pen and paper—or maybe a type-
writer. Back in 1975, personal computers were rare, and there were no mobile
phones and no internet. Messages were sent by regular post office mail, as even the
telefax did not acquire broad use until the 1980s and 1990s. With the fall of the Iron
Curtain, economic globalization expanded, and integration processes, both in
Europe and elsewhere, entered a new dimension despite all temporary difficulties.
In the past 50 years, the world population has more than doubled. A ‘profound
transformation’ can be noticed, but it is primarily a transformation of life outside
national courtrooms. How much did this transformation affect civil justice, which in
Cappelletti’s time was already in need of a profound change?
One thing is certain: the present situation is more troublesome and uncertain than
the picture painted by Cappelletti. The challenges have multiplied and intensified,
and public dissatisfaction with the operation of contemporary judiciaries has
accumulated. A révolution véritable, a rapid and adequate adjustment of civil
justice systems to the requirements of the new social realities in most countries
happened on a rather modest scale or did not happen at all. Where changes
occurred, they often came with considerable delay, lagging far behind the over-
whelming change in the social environment. It is well known that the national
systems of civil procedure have a strong link to particular or even parochial
characteristics specific to national legal systems and cultures (Deguchi and Storme
2008, 11) and consequently many reforms have been largely local and national in
spite of economic and political integration processes.
The reactions of judicial systems to change are not only slow and indecisive,
they are also going in rather different directions. For researchers of European
procedural law, the current perception of European legal systems is one of ‘unity
and diversity’ (Wijffels 2013, 14). In this introductory chapter, we will analyse the
driving forces that motivate the transformation of civil justice systems. We will also
try to synthesize several trends and reform processes in different jurisdictions,
seeking to find some unity in the diversity of transformations. Additionally, we will
show that the same unity and diversity is apparent in the contributions from dif-
ferent regions of the globe to the present volume.
The diversity of contemporary judicial systems is largely due to the nation state that
promoted regulation, codification and an institutional framework exclusively linked
to the sovereign power at the national level. The civil courts have for the longest
period been immune to change, as they have their roots in the practices of local
legal communities and largely deal with private interests which are not the first
priority of national political elites [for a slightly different view, see Van Rhee
(2012)]. However, with the European (and global) economic and political
6 A. Uzelac and C. H. van Rhee
integration processes, the push towards harmonization and unification has become
more pronounced. This started in specific areas of substantive law, but gradually
also spilled over into procedural law, in the beginning limited to establishing
mutual trust and cooperation among European judicial systems while preserving
their specific features (Schwartze 2000; Gottwald and Klicka 2002). The basis for
cooperation and mutual understanding in the field of civil procedure is, at least in
continental Europe, also to be found in the common origins of the law of procedure
in Romano-canonical models, which formed a ‘procedural ius commune’ for many
European territories before the codification period (Van Rhee 2011; Petrak 2008).
The early projects aimed at harmonization (‘approximation’) of procedural laws
in Europe date back to the 1980s and 1990s (Council of Europe 1984; Storme
1994), but the trend towards producing ‘genuine’ European instruments of proce-
dure that not only deal with mutual recognition of judicial decisions but also create
new unified European procedures in civil matters (payment orders, small claims)
only started in the 2000s (Freudenthal 2010; Kramer 2010). Attempts to achieve
harmonization even removing the borders between the common law-civil law
divide also happened on a global scale, e.g. by way of defining common principles
and rules of transnational civil procedure (Hazard et al. 2001; ALI/UNIDROIT
2006).
One of the driving forces of harmonization of civil procedure was the global-
ization of the economy and the move towards increasing economic and social
welfare through international trade. In this context, a relatively high degree of
harmonization was achieved in the area of international commercial arbitration
through the work of UNCITRAL on model legislation and international rules, such
as the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration and the
UNCITRAL Conciliation Rules (Sanders 2004). Another trend that has received
global attention is the use of alternative dispute resolution, which is a field where
both the UN and the European Union undertook important activities that were
intensified in the 2000s. In the EU, this development received particular attention
after the enactment of the Directive on Mediation (AIA 2008), and in great part also
due to the growing applicability of alternative dispute resolution in the context of
consumer protection (Hodges et al. 2012).
There are several reasons for the approximation of laws and practices in the area
of civil justice that are particularly important for Southern and Eastern Europe. One
of the reasons relates to problems with respect to delay and inefficiency of judicial
proceedings (Van Rhee 2004; Galič 2013). Others are connected with the common
heritage of socialism (Uzelac 2010). Some, especially in the Mediterranean coun-
tries, are the result of a history of dysfunctional court practices (Uzelac 2008).
In Western Europe, the excessive costs of litigation are the common driving
force behind a number of reforms that have become the focus of attention especially
in the past decade (Hodges et al. 2010). In any case, since the beginning of the 21st
century there has been a perception in many national civil justice systems of crisis
accompanied by common attempts to introduce a new approach to civil procedure
(Zuckerman 1999; Trocker et al. 2005). The establishment of a balanced system of
legal aid and assistance in which access to justice is guaranteed also for the
The Metamorphoses of Civil Justice and Civil Procedure … 7
The metamorphoses discussed here are often not easy to spot and define. Why some
forms change in a certain way depends on multiple factors. The judicial transfor-
mations, as described in the preceding paragraphs, also occur due to different
factors and different local circumstances. Changes are sometimes subtle, sometimes
abrupt, and very often interconnected. Still, it is possible to distinguish seven main
transformation processes in civil procedure triggered by the contemporary chal-
lenges to the national justice systems. In the present introduction, these processes
will be ordered based on their intensity and impact, from ‘soft’ and more con-
ventional to more radical ones, including processes that may dramatically alter the
very substance of our understanding of ‘civil justice’. In real life, often these
processes occur simultaneously and combined. Nevertheless, they can be distin-
guished and are characteristic of many legal justice systems irrespective of their
geographic or cultural location. There is in our opinion no relation of hierarchy
between the various forms or processes of transformation. The seven processes are
truly polycentric, as the policies of judicial reform can involve one, several or all of
them at the same time.
8 A. Uzelac and C. H. van Rhee
The ‘softest’ and most conventional form of legal adaptation to new social cir-
cumstances is the borrowing of ideas from other legal systems. Comparative legal
historians have argued that ‘massive successful borrowing is common place in law’
(Watson 2000; also see Watson 1974).
While the notion of legal transplants can be controversial, it is certainly wide-
spread and originates in the past. It consists mainly of some form of emulation of
legal rules or principles, either by copying or by rephrasing and adjustment. One
may now ask whether there is anything decisively innovative in the legal transplants
pertaining to the functioning of civil justice in the 21st century. The method is old,
but a novel element is its universal application to national civil procedure and civil
justice systems (court structures and the legal profession). Some forms of proce-
dural transplants have indeed been undertaken in the past, with varying success,
such as the introduction of the German model of civil litigation in Japan in 1890, or
the literal translation of the Austrian ZPO in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929.
But such all-encompassing transplants were more the exception than the rule. With
the start of the 21st century, the procedural reforms based on transplants from other
legal systems became mainstream, in particular where it concerns borrowing from
transnational sources. In Europe, for example, the reconfirmed European Union
competence in the field of civil procedure introduced by the Treaty of Amsterdam
and expanded by the Treaty of Lisbon caused the Member States to regularly check
The Metamorphoses of Civil Justice and Civil Procedure … 9
their internal procedural design from the perspective of compatibility with EU law.
Consequently, recent studies speak of a ‘Europeanization’ of civil procedure,
announcing the introduction of common minimum standards (see Manko 2015;
Tulibacka et al. 2016). The new case law of the European Court of Human Rights in
the interpretation and application of the fair trial rights of Article 6 ECHR became
indispensable in the reforms of civil procedure in a whole series of areas such as
fairness, reasonable time, the means of recourse, effective remedies, the effective
implementation of judgments and proportionality in the enforcement of civil
judgments [inter alia see Van Dijk et al. (2018), Uzelac (2013, 2009)].
In a way, issues that used to be strictly national (for instance payment orders, or
enforcement systems) are now increasingly ‘trans-nationalized’. In economic and
political integration such as in the European Union (where the notion of
‘cross-border matters’ became ubiquitous), the idea of mutual trust forces the legal
reformers to resort to comparative law whenever a new reform of civil justice is
planned.
Also, beyond membership in international organizations, procedural transplan-
tation is becoming an indispensable technique. For example, the ambit of influence
of EU law includes non-EU countries like Norway, among others, which follow the
European acquis without wishing to become fully bound by EU membership (see
infra the contribution of Fredriksen and Strandberg). In addition, the prospective
members of closed clubs—such as the accession candidates to the EU—treat
procedural models of the countries that have passed the test of compatibility in the
accession process as best practices. The European Union as such may also have
motives to regulate the judicial cooperation of its Members States with non-EU
states (see the contribution of Weller to this volume).
Beyond transnational integration, the echo of successful reforms undertaken
mainly for national reasons—like the Woolf reform in England and Wales—mo-
tivates national legislators, both in Europe (as in the Netherlands) and on the other
side of the globe (as in Singapore, Hong Kong and China). There are mutual
influences. Just as England may be a source of inspiration for Germany, the latter
may be a source of inspiration for the former (cf. Gottwald 2010). The formation of
bodies for the evaluation of the national justice systems such as the CEPEJ
(European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice of the Council of Europe)
motivates states to compare their laws and regulations with the laws and regulations
of other states that are perceived to excel in efficiency and fairness. The easiest way
to emulate (more) successful or efficient states are ‘transplants’ from foreign law
even though these transplants sometimes ‘go wild’ (see the contribution of Galič to
this volume), create ‘legal irritants’ (Teubner 1998) and generally raise further
methodological issues (cf. Legrand 1997).
The principal agents of legislative borrowing that transform contemporary civil
justice systems are currently official bodies involved in international processes. If
scholars of civil procedure wish to retain their relevance, they need to study
comparative law. While this is only partially true today, it is quite likely that the
‘transplantational’ nature of reforms in the national civil justice systems will
transform not only civil justice, but also civil procedural scholarship, which will
10 A. Uzelac and C. H. van Rhee
The changes discussed above do not only affect the technological functioning of
civil justice. As has been stated, the organizational components of civil justice are
also affected. Starting with court structures, the introduction of new technologies,
enhanced means of communication and travel and a change in the profile and
number of cases are putting a redefinition of the role and function of courts on the
agenda, as well as the overall composition of court structures. This trend has
sometimes been referred to as ‘developing a public administration perspective’ on
judicial systems (Fabri and Langbroek 2000).
There are at least three dimensions to this reorganization process. The first
dimension is related to the size and number of court structures. In many countries,
the structure of the court network dates back to the 18th and 19th centuries. In the
light of new realities (such as better roads, faster trains, airplanes and instant
communication), it is legitimate to ask whether there is a need for a court in every
community, and whether, in general, the structure of the court network is adequate
for meeting the current justice demands.
The second dimension concerns specialization. While the transformation of court
procedures often rationalizes the influx of cases, it should be noted that in the future
the remaining court cases are likely to be more complex. One may ask whether this
should lead to the creation of new, specialized courts, or to some other forms of
specialization, depending on many factors. As several examples show (see the
contribution of Baboolal-Frank to this volume) the process of modernization of
court structures may result in a move in the opposite direction, i.e. to the creation of
The Metamorphoses of Civil Justice and Civil Procedure … 13
a unified court system away from the decentralized and compartmentalized struc-
tures as they exist today in many jurisdictions. Such an amalgamated court system
may bring advantages in terms of consistency, effectiveness and standardization of
court functions while preserving specialist skills and knowledge.
The third dimension is a conceptual one and deals with rethinking the role and
function of particular courts, especially those at the apex of the court pyramid. The
new approach to justice systems as a public service offered to its users under
favourable terms and for an affordable price motivates a reassessment of the role of
the courts in the judicial hierarchy. Can a system of state courts afford multiple
assessments of the same issue at three or more levels of adjudication? Should
supreme courts be used for a private function, in order to correct errors in the factual
and legal determination in a wide range of cases? The reforms of the supreme courts
both in the East and in the West demonstrate a trend which focuses the role of these
courts on specific, system-oriented issues. While this trend is not without difficul-
ties, it is not likely that it will be stopped. As demonstrated by various contributions
to this volume (see Bratković and Van Der Haegen), the past experience of slow
procedures, backlogs and the poor quality of supreme adjudication transforms the
very essence of the models upon which supreme courts are founded, shifting their
attention from the mass processing of individual cases to a narrower range of
systemically important issues, resulting in well-reasoned decisions of fundamental
importance for the rule of law.
importance and social value of the matters at stake. This is not an entirely new
approach; its most authoritative and prominent example is Lord Woolf’s ‘new
theory of justice’ in England and Wales (Sorabji 2014, 161–199).
Part of the proportionate allocation of resources related to the enhancement of
access to justice for the ultimate court users is the establishment of a system in
which the users will have a real and practical possibility to use the system in a way
that is appropriate to protecting their rights. In the context of austerity policies and
social priorities, the establishment of a legal aid system which does not merely
provide an attractive normative framework, but which is functional in practice can
be a significant challenge (as is demonstrated in the contribution of Brozović to this
volume).
Another way to promote access to justice is the creation of special proceedings
which can provide quick and affordable relief to a large circle of court users.
Among these special proceedings are summary proceedings for the certification of
uncontested debts such as payment orders, and special proceedings for the pro-
tection of consumers. As explained in the contribution of Stephanie Law to this
volume, one way to reduce costs and provide access to justice is to provide the
courts with more extensive ex officio powers to establish the facts relevant for the
protection of consumers. Indeed, for managerial judges with broad powers it is
essential to maintain impartiality. In this volume, a team led by Professor Fernhout
developed a method of assessing the predicted effectiveness of measures for safe-
guarding such impartiality.
A transformation of the approach to the goals of civil justice leads also to a different
attitude towards conventional civil litigation. Contentious civil litigation once upon
a time viewed as the pinnacle of the legal process—as a constitutionally guaranteed
default method of legal protection with which each dispute starts and ends—is
progressively regarded (at least by some scholars) as a costly and lengthy method of
dispute resolution which should be avoided wherever possible. If law is regarded as
a service industry and civil justice as another public service offered to the society,
then litigation should be used only where ultimately necessary.
If civil litigation is the ultimate remedy (ultimum remedium), what then is the
first and preferable remedy? As there is no need for state intervention where private
persons can resolve their problems autonomously and consensually, the first pref-
erence of contemporary civil justice is a negotiated solution, reached either as a
result of direct contact between the disputants or with the assistance of a third,
neutral party in some form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR).
As argued by Professor Marcus in his contribution to this volume, the ADR
movement in the USA was a ‘reaction to costly and lengthy proceedings the United
The Metamorphoses of Civil Justice and Civil Procedure … 15
States was coping with’. From the USA, this movement was exported to other
countries and has become one of the most common trends in practically all civil
justice systems worldwide. Invariably, national jurisdictions are today promoting
ADR, as exemplified by the contribution on Spain (see Gascón Inchausti), some-
times adopting rather innovative methods for special cases, such as family group
conferences (described by de Roo and Jagtenberg in this volume).
Admittedly, the results of the ADR movement are ambiguous. Only a handful of
jurisdictions have opted for mandatory ADR on a large scale, and this is contro-
versial (Lupoi 2014). The announced transformation has so far happened mainly at
a normative and doctrinal level, but the real effects on the reduction of contentious
cases and the expenses of dispute resolution are so far rather limited (De Palo et al.
2014). Two contributions to this volume criticize the ADR movement from the
perspective of the public goals of civil justice (see Marcus and Woo). Nevertheless,
it is certain that the ADR movement continues to contribute to the transformation of
civil justice, at least where it concerns a change in the culture of litigation and the
psychology of the litigants (and their lawyers).
modernization has always changed our lives, whether we like it or not. If other
means of social regulation are better and more efficient than public courts, one
should not feel too much sorrow when some matters are taken away from con-
ventional civil dispute resolution. Many matters, in particular those related to the
processing of non-contentious cases, were only by chance, i.e. through accidents of
history, entrusted to courts. There are no good reasons for them to remain in court if
other agents—or sophisticated machines—can decide them in a better and cheaper
manner.
On the other hand, the extension of private and non-court mechanisms and the
diminishing role of the state courts cause certain risks in contentious cases.
While ADR may promote access to justice, it can also jeopardize access. In this
context, Professor Marcus discusses in his contribution to this volume the risks of
mandatory ADR, and the even greater risks of mandatory private arbitration. In the
USA, where the privatization of justice has progressed further than elsewhere,
consumers are bound by clauses that force them to waive their right to public
litigation, and to arbitrate before consumer courts described as ‘kangaroo courts’.
Consequently, one should be wary of the risks that accompany the erosion of
access to public courts, and preserve and foster mechanisms that secure the equal
protection of rights, especially between litigants of unequal power, wealth and
experience. When dispute resolution schemes do not protect the rights of the
weaker party in civil cases, these schemes cannot be a good replacement for a
public and fair trial before an independent and impartial court of law. And, where
civil justice cannot be qualified as ‘civil’ and does not provide justice, legal
development is frustrated and at some point court users may resort to self-help.
4 Concluding Remarks
As has been demonstrated in this introduction, the global and European civil justice
landscapes show considerable unity but also extreme diversity. It is obvious that the
present changes in society and technology may have profound effects regarding the
way disputes are resolved either in court (public justice) or out of court (private
justice). In order to be able to compete with out-of-court solutions, the civil justice
systems provided by the state courts are in need of reform. So far changes have not
materialized on an all-compassing scale. Where changes have occurred it seems that
the various implications of societal and technological developments have not been
fully thought through (for example the implications of the availability of new
technology). It is the conviction of the authors of the present introduction that the
state courts serve important goals, not the least of which is in the area of the
development and interpretation of the law. However, this goal will come under
threat if the state court systems prove to be unable to meet the challenges posed by
changes in society and technology. Private justice will fill the gap and obviously
private justice will not be able to realize the public goals which state courts may
serve. The future will show whether the necessary balance between public and
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Language: French
Credits: Laurent Vogel (This book was produced from images made
available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.)
Henri Bachelin
SOUS LES
MARRONNIERS
EN FLEURS
PARIS
Société Littéraire de France, 10, rue de
l’Odéon
Tous droits réservés.
I
Jean-fillote
à la grolote…
Que voulait dire « à la grolote » ? Mais « Jean-fillote » signifiait
clairement leur mépris pour ce garçon toujours fourré dans les
jupons des femmes. Il s’occupait même à de menus travaux
d’aiguille et confectionnait des fleurs artificielles.
Il ne courait pas davantage avec les autres dans les bois, ni sur
les routes, ni sur les bords de l’étang du Goulot : pour se noyer il
suffit d’un faux pas sur la chaussée. Il se tenait dans leur jardin où il
se distrayait en creusant la terre molle avec une pelle en bois. Dans
le sable il plantait des fleurs dont il arrosait les tiges cassées ; au
coucher du soleil elles étaient flétries.
IV
Ces détails, je les avais recueillis l’un après l’autre ; chaque fois
c’était comme si j’eusse découvert dans un miroir grossissant des
traits que j’ignorais de mon visage. Mais c’était aussi pour me dire
tout de suite :
« Moi, tout de même, je ne vais pas jusque-là ! »
Je m’en serais voulu de passer des après-midi dans la boutique
des Chovin. Pas-comme-les-autres tant qu’on voudra, mais « Jean-
fillote », non. Berlâne n’avait pas un vrai seul camarade, j’en avais
quelques-uns, et je ne m’ennuyai point durant les vacances qui
suivirent ce dimanche où il n’avait eu que le prix de bonne conduite.
Certes, il m’était agréable de rester à la maison, soit que la
fraîcheur des matinées s’y réfugiât, chassée du dehors par le soleil
qui montait vite, soit que l’après-midi même y fût moins brûlante que
sous les tilleuls des Promenades ou sur les routes poussiéreuses.
Couché sur les carreaux froids, assis sur un fauteuil dont je tâtais
machinalement le velours râpeux, je lisais des récits de belles
aventures et les tranquilles histoires de la Bibliothèque Rose. Ou
bien j’écoutais et regardais autour de moi. Savez-vous que les
meubles et les cloisons vivent ? Las d’être toujours à la même place,
fatiguées de porter le poids du plafond, ils font craquer leurs
jointures, elles s’étirent. Les carreaux rouges ne se ressemblent pas
entre eux. Chacun a son visage particulier. Il y en a d’intacts, de
cornés, de fendillés, de fendus. Celui-ci est traversé du nord au sud
par une ligne droite, celui-là de l’est à l’ouest par une ligne brisée.
L’un a des hachures ; l’autre, usé en son centre, fait penser à un
petit réservoir. Les fleurs du papier collé au mur ne sont-elles pas
changeantes comme les nuages ? Selon que je les regarde de mon
lit, ou debout près de la fenêtre, ou assis dans mon fauteuil, la
même représente un oiseau le bec ouvert, un homme la bouche
fermée et le nez en trompette, une poire entaillée. Aux approches du
soir, la maison s’agrandit. A mesure qu’elle entre, l’ombre semble
repousser cloisons et murs. Les fleurs disparaissent. Je n’ose pas
me lever pour marcher les mains en avant, comme un aveugle. Je
sais que j’irais trop loin dans la nuit.
Mais, si bien que j’y fusse, je ne pouvais passer toutes mes
vacances à l’intérieur de la maison. J’affrontai les ardeurs de l’été.
Je me souviens de ces journées brûlantes où regarder le ciel était
une souffrance, tellement il semblait que l’azur lui-même fût embrasé
par le soleil. Pas un souffle d’air. Les feuilles étaient desséchées et
l’herbe roussie. Tantôt, à deux ou trois, nous nous amusions à
creuser des trous dans le terreau de notre cour, à faire des bulles de
savon que nous regardions disparaître ; tantôt nous descendions
aux moulins pour voir tomber l’eau sur les roues massives ou pour
pénétrer dans la chambre des meules puissantes qui nous auraient
écrasés comme des grains de blé.
Tantôt je m’en allais rôder seul autour de l’église. Il y avait sur les
pelouses des touffes d’absinthe à odeur forte. Je contemplais toute
la petite ville à mes pieds avec ses arbres dans les jardins, avec ses
maisons que tuiles ou ardoises coiffaient de rouge sombre ou de
bleu, avec ses petites rues, ses chemins et ses routes qui la relient
au reste du monde. Plus loin et tout à l’entour c’étaient les bois
monotones dont la sombre verdure demeurait immobile. J’écoutais
des tailleurs de pierres frapper de leurs maillets de bois sur les
ciseaux de fer. Puis j’entrais dans l’église par une des portes
latérales. Le soufflet du tambour se rabattait avec un bruit étouffé.
J’ôtais ma casquette et je marchais sur la pointe des pieds, de peur
de troubler le silence, mais j’ouvrais tout grands les yeux pour mieux
voir la lumière plus délicate et plus belle de filtrer à travers les vitraux