Law
See also the French wikipedia entry (in French) on local law in Alsace for a summary of the position, or the English wikipedia entry (in English) for a brief summary on the same subject.
Alsace and the adjacent Moselle department apply their own legal code for certain areas of the law. The statutes in question date from the period 1871 - 1919 when the area was part of the German Empire. With the return of Alsace-Lorraine to France in 1919, many in central government assumed that the recovered territories would be subject to French law.
Local resistance to a total acceptance of the French legal code arose in Alsace because in various respects reforms under Bismarck had left Germany with a relatively advanced legal system, especially with regard to civil and social rights. After much discussion and uncertainty, Paris accepted in 1924 that Alsace should retain its German originating laws in respect of certain matters, especially with regard to hunting, economic life, local government relationships, health insurance and social rights. Since many of the relevant texts have never been formally translated, occasions continue to arise where reference has to be made to German-language texts.
Numerous other anomalies arise which challenge the centralising instincts of the state. These include the absence, in Alsace and Moselle, of any formal separation between church and state, and the fact that where trains run on double tracks, the rule is that they should travel on the right-hand track. In the rest of France the trains, unlike the cars, travel on the left.
Read more about this topic: Haut-Rhin
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