It was an administrative decision that had caused controversy among hunters.
On December 1, 2020, the prefect of Haute-Corsein view of the situation related to the Covid-19had issued a decree repealing that of November 2 which prohibited hunting throughout the territory of the departmental district and modifying that of November 28 prescribing measures to fight against the epidemic: this new decree authorized the practice of hunting in a radius twenty kilometers from home and for a period of three hours, i.e. under the general measure setting the rules for travel for walks or outdoor physical activity.
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Only 25 newbre, its counterpart from South Corsica had, meanwhile, purely and simply repealed its decree prohibiting the practice of hunting.
The departmental commission had not been consulted
This divergence of assessment had led the Federation of Hunters of Haute-Corse – as well as a hunter – to file an appeal before the administrative court of Bastia to ask it to cancel, for excess of power, the decree of the prefect of Haute-Corse, judging that it is a disproportionate administrative police measure because, she points out, it was taken while the President of the Republic had, on November 24, 2020, set a timetable providing for gradual deconfinement, that the health situation was improving at that time and that the other prefects were authorizing regulatory hunting.
The first chamber of the administrative jurisdiction, chaired by Pierre Monnier, examined these requests yesterday. In his conclusions, the public rapporteur, Hanafi Halil, accepted the three arguments invoked on the form and on the substance by the applicants and therefore asked the TA to annul the decree of the prefect of Haute-Corse of 1is December 2020. He first observed that the departmental commission for hunting and wildlife had not been consulted prior to the enactment of the decree, which, according to him, taints it with irregularity.
The prefectural authority requests the rejection of the requests
He then considered that this decision had been taken in disregard of the Prime Minister’s decree of October 29, 2020, which provided that participation in missions of general interest should benefit from an exemption from the travel and assembly bans. However, for the magistrate, the hunting of species causing damage and nuisance, such as wild boars, must be considered as an activity of general interest.
Finally, the public rapporteur, underlining the case law of the procedure linked to the Ferris wheel on the Place Saint-Nicolas, considered that by setting these restrictions, the prefect “had not taken a necessary and proportionate measure with regard to the objective of safeguarding public health”. The prefectural authority, which was not present or represented, requests, in its written submissions, the rejection of the requests. Before the administrative court, the council of the Federation of Hunters of Haute-Corse, Me Bernard Giansily, lawyer at the Bastia bar, for his part, indicated in particular “that in addition to the violation of the procedure and the disproportionate nature of the prefectoral decree, the legal interest lies in the fact that the public rapporteur agrees that hunting is not exclusively a leisure activity, it is also the exercise of a mission of general interest”.
“The regulation of species likely to cause damage to biodiversity or agricultural interests in particular is an activity which, by virtue of its usefulness, fulfills a mission of general interest, continues the lawyer. The practice of hunting therefore justified a derogation from the restrictions imposed by the health crisis.
The Administrative Court of Bastia will make its decision on January 31.
