Nantes: Dean of law school sentenced for defamation over work on mustache

Plagiarism The teacher-researcher accused an old friend of having plagiarized his work about the mustache of lawyers

The forecourt of the faculty of law and political science in Nantes. — J. Urbach/20Minutes

They were friends and colleagues. Since one sent an incendiary email denouncing an alleged plagiarism, they no longer speak to each other. In December, the two men met at the Nantes Criminal Court to settle a dispute over their research work on mustaches. The story told by Ouest-Franceis very serious and reminds us that under Napoleon III, the wearing of mustaches and beards was prohibited for lawyers. A subject over 150 years old that was taken up by the dean of the Nantes law school, before discovering that a former classmate was also studying him.

The dean had accused his colleague for plagiarism and addressed an e-mail judged; defamatory to; two members of the university; Nantes to complain about it. Problem: These two people were members of a jury that had to decide on appointments and allocations of positions within the law school. Position for which the person accused of plagiarism had obviously applied. And didn’t have. For these facts, the dean of the faculty was condemned to the symbolic penalty of a fine of 20 euros and a symbolic one euro in damages.