French law approaches on fraud

Recent decisions of the French Court of Cassation upraised new inquiries on the topic known as Fraud. Fraud has always been an ambiguous notion, plenty of controversies. The purpose of this paper is to provide a general overview of French law approaches in the area of fraud. The discussion on these doctrinal and jurisprudential approaches involves confronting several thorny issues, especially the reticence, the dolus incidens, and fraudulent misrepresentation from a non-contracting party. This paper also approaches the fraud in relationship to mistake of value, and to inexcusable mistake. Finally, considering the application of law, the paper focus on the loss of chance, and the duty to renegotiate contract (refaction). Between doctrinal and jurisprudential debate, in French law this topic is characterized more by their approaches than for its consistency, outlining by contrast the obstacles to avoid on the research.