Cause célèbre

Contemporary cartoon depicting the divisions in French society caused by the Dreyfus affair

A cause célèbre (/ˌkɔːz səˈlɛb(rə)/ ⓘ KAWZ sə-LEB(-rə),[1] French: [koz selɛbʁ]; pl. causes célèbres, pronounced like the singular) is an issue or incident arousing widespread controversy, outside campaigning, and heated public debate.[2] The term is sometimes used positively for celebrated legal cases for their precedent value (each locus classicus or "case-in-point") and more often negatively for infamous ones, whether for scale, outrage, scandal, or conspiracy theories.[3] The term is a French phrase in common usage in English. Since it has been fully adopted into English and is included unitalicized in English dictionaries,[4][1][5] it is not normally italicized despite its French origin.

It has been noted that the public attention given to a particular case or event can obscure the facts rather than clarify them. As John Humffreys Parry states, "The true story of many a cause célèbre is never made manifest in the evidence given or in the advocates' orations, but might be recovered from these old papers when the dust of ages has rendered them immune from scandal".[6]

Etymology

The term cause célèbre derives from the title of the collection of reports of well-known French court decisions from the 17th and 18th centuries. The first series, consisting of 22 volumes, was compiled by François Gayot de Pitaval and the second series of 15 volumes (known as Nouvelles Cause Célèbres) by Nicolas-Toussaint Des Essarts.[7][8] It was published in 37 volumes in 1763.[9] Literally, cause célèbre means "celebrated case"[10] or "famous case" in French.[11] It came into much more common usage after the wrongful 1894 conviction of Jewish French army officer Alfred Dreyfus for espionage.[9] The conviction caused widespread controversy and scandal over antisemitism in France, deeply divided French society, and led to international attention to the situation. According to John F. Neville:[12]

The Dreyfus case had proved to the satisfaction of a cynical post-war world that people could be the victims of government conspiracy and prejudice. It is commonplace for citizens anywhere in the world to conspire against their governments, but when a government office, agency, department, or bureau is accused of "framing" someone, it invariably sticks in the public consciousness for generations.

Initially, cause célèbre specifically referred to a legal case which attracted public notoriety, but its meaning was subsequently extended to include any famous or notorious person, thing, or event. It is also wrongly used in the sense of any famous cause or ideal.[13]

Examples

The murder of Edward the Martyr, England, 978
The Becket controversy, England, 1163–1170
The Tour de Nesle affair, France, 1314
King Edward IV of England's marriage to Elizabeth Woodville, England, 1460s and 1470s
The Princes in the Tower, England, 1483
The imposture of Martin Guerre, France, 1560
The murder of Lord Darnley, Scotland, 1567
The execution of Mary Stuart, England, 1587
The Gunpowder Plot, England, 1605
The execution of Robert-François Damiens, France, 1757
The Douglas Cause, Great Britain, 1760s
Ireland Shakespeare forgeries, Great Britain, 1790s
The Burr Conspiracy and ensuing show trial, United States, 1805–1807
The Marie Lafarge case, France, 1840
The Parkman–Webster murder case, United States, 1849–1850
The Mortara case, Papal States, 1850s and 1860s[14]
The Tichborne case, United Kingdom, 1860s and 1870s
The Vera Zasulich trial, Russia, 1878[15]
The R v Dudley and Stephens cannibalism case, United Kingdom, 1884
The Haymarket affair, United States, 1886
The Dreyfus affair, France, 1890s and 1900s[16]
The murder trial of Lizzie Borden, United States, 1893
The libel trial of Oscar Wilde, United Kingdom, 1895
The murder trial of Maria Barbella, United States, 1895[17]
The murder trial of Adolph Luetgert, 1897
The Brown Dog affair, United Kingdom, 1900s
The Los Angeles Times bombing, 1910
The Beilis case, Russian Empire, 1913[18]
The Preparedness Day bombing, United States, 1916
The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, British India, 1919
The Sacco and Vanzetti appeals, United States, 1920s
The Ponzi Scheme, United States, 1923
The assassination of Giacomo Matteotti, Italy, 1924
The Scopes Monkey Trial, United States, 1925
The St. Valentine's Day Massacre, United States, 1929
The Scottsboro Boys case, United States, 1931
The Lindbergh kidnapping, United States, 1932
The Mrs Freer case, Australia, 1936
The Port Chicago disaster, United States, 1944
The bombing of Dresden, Germany, 1945
The Bhawal case, India, 1946[19][20][21][22]
The Derek Bentley case, United Kingdom, 1953
The Petrov Affair, Australia, 1954
The shooting of William Woodward Jr. by his wife Ann Woodward, United States, 1955
The killing of Johnny Stompanato, United States, 1958
The assassination of John F. Kennedy, United States, 1963
The Tate-LaBianca murders, United States, 1969
The Soledad Brothers case, United States, 1970
The Thorpe affair, United Kingdom, 1970s
The Watergate scandal, United States, 1972–1974
The disappearance of Lord Lucan, United Kingdom, 1974
Ted Bundy's impending trial in Aspen, 1977[23]
The Jonestown Cult Suicide, Guyana, 1978
The trials of Claus von Bülow, United States, 1982–1985
The Đorđe Martinović incident, Yugoslavia, 1985[24]
The murder of the Goldmark family, United States, 1985
The Rodney King beating, United States, 1991[25]
The murder of Shanda Sharer, United States, 1992
The Peter Ellis trial, New Zealand, 1993
The murder of Stephen Lawrence, London, 1993–2015
O. J. Simpson murder case, United States, 1994–1995[26]
The Terri Schiavo case, United States, 1998–2005
David Camm, United States, 2000
The Bain family murders, New Zealand, 2004
The Amanda Knox trials, Italy, 2009–2015[27]
Sergei Magnitsky's death, Russia, 2009[28]
Mohamed Bouazizi's self-immolation, Tunisia, 2010[29]
The Julian Assange extradition, United Kingdom, 2011[30]
The Pussy Riot trial, Russia, 2012[31]
The Delhi gang rape, India, 2012[32][33]
The Causeway Bay Books disappearances, China, 2015
The assassination of Marielle Franco, Brazil, 2018
The assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, Turkey, 2018
The Sea of Japan radar targeting incident, Japan and South Korea, 2018
The Kidnapping of Alexandra Măceșanu and Luiza Melencu, Romania, 2019
The murder of George Floyd, United States, 2020
The murder of Sarah Everard, United Kingdom, 2021
The arrest of Jacob Zuma, South Africa, 2021
The trial of Kyle Rittenhouse after the Kenosha unrest shooting, United States, 2021[34]
Depp v. Heard, United States, 2022
The murder of Moïse Mugenyi Kabagambe, Brazil, 2022
The death of Mahsa Amini, Iran, 2022
The murder of Brianna Ghey, United Kingdom, 2023
The killing of Brian Thompson, United States, 2024
The killing of Austin Metcalf, United States, 2025
The assassination of Charlie Kirk, United States, 2025

Fictional examples

The death of General Lamarque in Les Misérables (1832)
The prison riot in Natural Born Killers (1994)

References

^ a b "cause célèbre". TheFreeDictionary.com. Retrieved 11 January 2024.
^ Hirsch, E. D. Jr.; Kett, Joseph F.; Trefil, James, eds. (2002). "cause célèbre". Telecommunications Essay | Bartleby. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy (3rd ed.). Houghton Mifflin Company. Archived from the original on 21 September 2008 – via Bartleby.com.
^ "cause célèbre". Homework Help and Textbook Solutions | bartleby. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed.). Houghton Mifflin Company. 2000. Archived from the original on 3 August 2008 – via Bartleby.com.
^ "cause célèbre". TheFreeDictionary.com. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
^ Random House Kernerman Webster’s College Dictionary. S.v. "cause célèbre." Retrieved November 30, 2018 from https://www.thefreedictionary.com/cause+c%c3%a9l%c3%a8bre
^ John Humffreys Parry, "Whistler v. Ruskin: An Attorney's Story of a Famous Trial", in The Living Age (January–March 1921), Vol. 308, p. 346.
^ Walker, David M. (1980). The Oxford Companion to Law. Oxford; New York: Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press. p. 193. ISBN 978-0-19-866110-8 – via Internet Archive.
^ Abbott, Benjamin Vaughan (1879). Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American Or English Jurisprudence. Vol. I. Little, Brown and Company. p. 194.
^ a b Resplandy, Franck (2006). L'étonnant voyage des mots français dans les langues étrangères. Paris: Bartillat. p. 46. ISBN 978-2-84100-371-6 – via Internet Archive.
^ "cause célèbre". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. OCLC 1032680871. Retrieved 8 February 2026.
^ Ehrlich, Eugene (15 May 1997). Les Bons Mots. Macmillan. p. 45. ISBN 978-0-8050-4711-0.
^ Neville, John (30 April 2004). Twentieth-Century Cause Cèlébre: Sacco, Vanzetti, and the Press, 1920-1927. Bloomsbury Academic. pp. xii–xiii. ISBN 978-0-275-97783-2.
^ Garner, Bryan A. (2022). "cause célèbre". Garner's Modern English Usage (5 ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780197599020.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-759902-0.
^ Kertzer, David I (1998) [1997]. The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara. New York: Vintage Books. pp. 126–127. ISBN 978-0-679-76817-3.
^ Miller, Elizabeth Carolyn (2013). "Reconsidering Wilde's Vera; or, The Nihilists". In Bristow, Joseph (ed.). Wilde Discoveries: Traditions, Histories, Archives. University of Toronto Press. pp. 65–84. ISBN 978-1-4426-6570-5. JSTOR 10.3138/j.ctt4cgj7t.
^ Sanderson, Edgar (1900). Historic Parallels to L'affaire Dreyfus. p. 265. The unique cause célèbre of the nineteenth century, L'Affaire Dreyfus, is conspicuous for every kind of wickedness that can be brought to bear against an innocent man.
^ Mizruchi, Susan L. (2008). The rise of multicultural America. University of North Carolina Press. p. 293. ISBN 9780807832509.
^ Weinberg, Robert (2013). Blood Libel in Late Imperial Russia: The Ritual Murder Trial of Mendel Beilis. Indiana-Michigan Series in Russian and East European Studies. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-01114-5. Retrieved 15 July 2015 – via Google Books.
^ Srimati Bibhabati Devi v Kumar Ramenda Narayan Roy and others (Fort William (Bengal)) (1946) UKPC 32 (30 July 1946)
^ Islam, Sirajul. "Bhawal Case". Banglapedia. Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
^ Chaudhuri, Supriya (6 October 2002). "The man who would be king". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 19 April 2018. Retrieved 23 January 2017.
^ Fyzee, Murad (2003). A Prince, Poison and Two Funerals: The Bhowal Sanyasi Case. English Edition Publishers. ISBN 81-87853-32-8.
^ Rule, Ann (2000). The Stranger Beside Me (Updated 20th anniversary ed.). New York: Norton. ISBN 0393050297. OCLC 44110374.
^ LeBor, Adam (4 August 2003). Milosevic: A Biography. A&C Black. ISBN 978-0-7475-6181-1.
^ Gilbert, Carol Bengle (1 May 2012). "Rodney King: Before and After the Traffic Stop that Inflamed L.A." Yahoo News. Archived from the original on 2 March 2014.
^ Sowell, Thomas (30 June 2001) [1999]. The Quest for Cosmic Justice. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 19. ISBN 978-0-7432-1507-7. OCLC 898484807. A more recent cause célèbre of the American criminal justice system was the murder trial of former football star O.J. Simpson, which provoked widespread consternation, not only because of its "not guilty" verdict in the face of massive evidence to the contrary, but also because of the sheer length of time that the trial took.
^ Barry, Colleen (30 September 2013). "New Amanda Knox trial under way in Florence". USA Today. Retrieved 9 July 2014.
^ "Dying in Agony: His Reward for Solving a $230 Million Fraud". The Sunday Times. 14 November 2010.
^ Amara, Tarek (6 January 2011). "Tunisian lawyers strike, civil unrest continues". Reuters. Retrieved 16 June 2021.
^ Sparrow, Jeff; O'Shea, Elizabeth (7 December 2010). "Open letter: To Julia Gillard, re Julian Assange". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 5 May 2014. Retrieved 15 July 2015.
^ O'Neill, Brendan (24 December 2013). "How to become a cause célèbre: a guide for political prisoners". spiked. Spiked Ltd. Retrieved 15 July 2015.
^ Harikrishnan, Charmy (4 March 2015). "India's Daughter: Why we should watch Leslee Udwin's documentary". Daily O. India Today Group. Retrieved 4 November 2016.
^ Gibb, Simon (30 December 2012). "The Delhi Gang Rape Incident". Libertarian Home. Retrieved 4 November 2016.
^ Barrett, Joe (1 September 2020). "Kyle Rittenhouse, Charged With Killing Two in Kenosha, Sees Strong Fundraising Support". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 10 July 2022.

External links

The dictionary definition of cause célèbre at Wiktionary
Category:Causes célèbres at Wikinews

[Collins-1] "cause célèbre". TheFreeDictionary.com. Retrieved 11 January 2024.

[2] Hirsch, E. D. Jr.; Kett, Joseph F.; Trefil, James, eds. (2002). "cause célèbre". Telecommunications Essay | Bartleby. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy (3rd ed.). Houghton Mifflin Company. Archived from the original on 21 September 2008 – via Bartleby.com.

[3] "cause célèbre". Homework Help and Textbook Solutions | bartleby. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed.). Houghton Mifflin Company. 2000. Archived from the original on 3 August 2008 – via Bartleby.com.

[AmHerit-4] "cause célèbre". TheFreeDictionary.com. Retrieved 13 March 2024.

[RandHouse-5] Random House Kernerman Webster’s College Dictionary. S.v. "cause célèbre." Retrieved November 30, 2018 from https://www.thefreedictionary.com/cause+c%c3%a9l%c3%a8bre

[6] John Humffreys Parry, "Whistler v. Ruskin: An Attorney's Story of a Famous Trial", in The Living Age (January–March 1921), Vol. 308, p. 346.

[7] Walker, David M. (1980). The Oxford Companion to Law. Oxford; New York: Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press. p. 193. ISBN 978-0-19-866110-8 – via Internet Archive.

[8] Abbott, Benjamin Vaughan (1879). Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American Or English Jurisprudence. Vol. I. Little, Brown and Company. p. 194.

[:0-9] Resplandy, Franck (2006). L'étonnant voyage des mots français dans les langues étrangères. Paris: Bartillat. p. 46. ISBN 978-2-84100-371-6 – via Internet Archive.

[10] "cause célèbre". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. OCLC 1032680871. Retrieved 8 February 2026.

[11] Ehrlich, Eugene (15 May 1997). Les Bons Mots. Macmillan. p. 45. ISBN 978-0-8050-4711-0.

[12] Neville, John (30 April 2004). Twentieth-Century Cause Cèlébre: Sacco, Vanzetti, and the Press, 1920-1927. Bloomsbury Academic. pp. xii–xiii. ISBN 978-0-275-97783-2.

[13] Garner, Bryan A. (2022). "cause célèbre". Garner's Modern English Usage (5 ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780197599020.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-759902-0.

[14] Kertzer, David I (1998) [1997]. The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara. New York: Vintage Books. pp. 126–127. ISBN 978-0-679-76817-3.

[15] Miller, Elizabeth Carolyn (2013). "Reconsidering Wilde's Vera; or, The Nihilists". In Bristow, Joseph (ed.). Wilde Discoveries: Traditions, Histories, Archives. University of Toronto Press. pp. 65–84. ISBN 978-1-4426-6570-5. JSTOR 10.3138/j.ctt4cgj7t.

[16] Sanderson, Edgar (1900). Historic Parallels to L'affaire Dreyfus. p. 265. The unique cause célèbre of the nineteenth century, L'Affaire Dreyfus, is conspicuous for every kind of wickedness that can be brought to bear against an innocent man.

[17] Mizruchi, Susan L. (2008). The rise of multicultural America. University of North Carolina Press. p. 293. ISBN 9780807832509.

[18] Weinberg, Robert (2013). Blood Libel in Late Imperial Russia: The Ritual Murder Trial of Mendel Beilis. Indiana-Michigan Series in Russian and East European Studies. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-01114-5. Retrieved 15 July 2015 – via Google Books.

[19] Srimati Bibhabati Devi v Kumar Ramenda Narayan Roy and others (Fort William (Bengal)) (1946) UKPC 32 (30 July 1946)

[20] Islam, Sirajul. "Bhawal Case". Banglapedia. Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.

[21] Chaudhuri, Supriya (6 October 2002). "The man who would be king". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 19 April 2018. Retrieved 23 January 2017.

[22] Fyzee, Murad (2003). A Prince, Poison and Two Funerals: The Bhowal Sanyasi Case. English Edition Publishers. ISBN 81-87853-32-8.

[23] Rule, Ann (2000). The Stranger Beside Me (Updated 20th anniversary ed.). New York: Norton. ISBN 0393050297. OCLC 44110374.

[24] LeBor, Adam (4 August 2003). Milosevic: A Biography. A&C Black. ISBN 978-0-7475-6181-1.

[25] Gilbert, Carol Bengle (1 May 2012). "Rodney King: Before and After the Traffic Stop that Inflamed L.A." Yahoo News. Archived from the original on 2 March 2014.

[26] Sowell, Thomas (30 June 2001) [1999]. The Quest for Cosmic Justice. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 19. ISBN 978-0-7432-1507-7. OCLC 898484807. A more recent cause célèbre of the American criminal justice system was the murder trial of former football star O.J. Simpson, which provoked widespread consternation, not only because of its "not guilty" verdict in the face of massive evidence to the contrary, but also because of the sheer length of time that the trial took.

[Amanda_Knox-27] Barry, Colleen (30 September 2013). "New Amanda Knox trial under way in Florence". USA Today. Retrieved 9 July 2014.

[Sunday-28] "Dying in Agony: His Reward for Solving a $230 Million Fraud". The Sunday Times. 14 November 2010.

[29] Amara, Tarek (6 January 2011). "Tunisian lawyers strike, civil unrest continues". Reuters. Retrieved 16 June 2021.

[30] Sparrow, Jeff; O'Shea, Elizabeth (7 December 2010). "Open letter: To Julia Gillard, re Julian Assange". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 5 May 2014. Retrieved 15 July 2015.

[31] O'Neill, Brendan (24 December 2013). "How to become a cause célèbre: a guide for political prisoners". spiked. Spiked Ltd. Retrieved 15 July 2015.

[dailyo-32] Harikrishnan, Charmy (4 March 2015). "India's Daughter: Why we should watch Leslee Udwin's documentary". Daily O. India Today Group. Retrieved 4 November 2016.

[libertarianhome-33] Gibb, Simon (30 December 2012). "The Delhi Gang Rape Incident". Libertarian Home. Retrieved 4 November 2016.

[34] Barrett, Joe (1 September 2020). "Kyle Rittenhouse, Charged With Killing Two in Kenosha, Sees Strong Fundraising Support". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 10 July 2022.

Etymology

Examples

Fictional examples

See also

References

External links