Admission for students

• Probationary training, paid, lasting 31 months
• Applicants must be aged under 31 years
• They must have a qualification corresponding to 4 years' higher education

Conditions of access to the 1st entrance exam

Applicants must be aged under 31 years
Have a qualification corresponding to 4 years' higher education (or equivalent)

Have a qualification awarded after successful completion of a course of study lasting at last four years after the baccalaureate or a qualification officially recognised as equivalent:

1. By a diploma or other formal qualification awarded in France, another Member State of the European Union or another State party to the European Economic Area Agreement;
2. By any other diploma or qualification awarded by a competent authority proving that the applicant has successfully completed a course of study of at least equivalent level and duration to the diplomas or qualifications required;
3. By a certificate proving that the applicant is registered on a training course to which admission normally depends on possessing a diploma or qualification of at least equivalent level to the diplomas or qualifications required;
4. By a diploma or professional qualification registered with the French national register of professional certifications, classified as being at least at the same level as the diploma or qualification required.
   1. The diplomas, qualifications and certificates mentioned in points 1, 2 and 3 must have been awarded by a competent authority in accordance with the legislative, regulatory or administrative provisions applicable in the State concerned.
   2. The applicant must provide the documents mentioned in the previous paragraph in support of his/her application. These documents will be submitted, where necessary, with a French translation done by a sworn/certified translator.

Be a French  national

The ENM entrance examination is open only to French citizens.

Enjoy your full civic rights and be of good character

Particular attention is paid to this condition given the nature of the positions to be held by the applicants admitted after taking the entrance examination.

As well as checking the applicant’s criminal record, an in-depth investigation will be conducted concerning them, in particular by consulting automated personal data files (Articles L.114-1, L.234-1, L 234-2, R114-1, R114-2 and R 234-1 of the Internal Security Code and Article 230-6 of the Code of Criminal Procedure).
Where there is no doubt as to their existence, any acts committed by the applicant that are contrary to the good character requirement, even if they did not lead to prosecution, may give rise to a decision eliminating the application on these grounds.

Be in compliance with the law regarding national service
Only applicants aged under the age 25 years need justify their status as regards national service (Art. L. 114-6 of the National Service Code).

Meet the requirements on being physically fit to perform your duties, taking into account measures to compensate for disability;

   (Article 16-5° of Order no. 1270 of 22 December 1958, amended)
   Admission to the ENM is conditional on passing the medical examinations required by Articles 20 et seq. of Decree no. 86-442 of 14 March 1986. These medical examinations take place before students take up their place at the ENM under the control of an officially accredited physician.

Possibility of taking the examination up to 3 times

Applicants may sit the first entrance examination for the ENM a maximum of three times. A complete sitting is counted if the applicant signs present for at least one of the papers.

Papers and programmes

The 1st entrance examination consists of 5 eligibility papers, followed by 5 admission papers (including 1 that is optional).
 

The 1st entrance examination gives access to a 31-month course for trainee judges and prosecutors. It does not provide training in the law, but in the job of being a judge or prosecutor – and the professional techniques that it requires – through:

• 30% practical teaching at the ENM (teaching given by experts, exchanges with serving judges and prosecutors, their partners and professionals in other areas, simulations of hearings, role play, etc.) ;
• 70% introductory and professionalisation internships (mainly with courts, but also in law firms, with police criminal investigation departments, in prisons, in companies and public institutions, abroad, etc.)

Over a period of almost 13 months spent with a court, starting on the first day, trainee judges and prosecutors find themselves making decisions under the responsibility of an internship supervisor.
Internship locations are proposed by the School.

The training period is also a probationary period: the trainee judges and prosecutors are assessed both while at the school and during their practical internship in a court. They must be declared fit to practise as judges and prosecutors before they begin a 4-month specialisation for the type of post they have chosen (see below).
Trainee judges and prosecutors are paid throughout the course

After their 31 months of training, the trainees are ready to take up their first posts, which can be in a variety of different functions: judge, investigating judge, juvenile judge, sentence enforcement judge, protection dispute judge and deputy public prosecutor.
They will then be able to move on to other functions during the course of their career.

• Applicants may sit the 1st competitive entrance examination for the ENM three times.  Only actual presence for at least one of the papers is counted, not simply the completion of the application form.
• In 2019, 59% of those who passed the exam were taking it for the first time, 35% for the second time and 6% for the third time.
• The number of places available is decided every year by the Ministry for Justice.

 

PLACES OFFERED	2020	2019	2018
In the 3 entrance examination	250	250	250
In the 1st entrance examination	192	192	192