Cause célèbre explained

A French: '''cause célèbre''' (^[1] pronounced as /fr/; 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] [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 one observer 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

In French, one of the meanings of French: cause is a legal case, and French: célèbre means "famous". The phrase originated with the 37-volume French: Nouvelles Causes Célèbres, published in 1763, which was a collection of reports of well-known French court decisions from the 17th and 18th centuries.

While English speakers had used the phrase for many years, it came into much more common usage after the 1894 conviction of Alfred Dreyfus for espionage during the cementing of a period of deep cultural ties with a political tie between England and France, the Entente Cordiale. Both attracted worldwide interest and the period of closeness or rapprochement officially broadened the English language.

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 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^[7]
• The Tichborne case, United Kingdom, 1860s and 1870s
• The Vera Zasulich trial, Russia, 1878^[8]
• The R v Dudley and Stephens cannibalism case, United Kingdom, 1884
• The Dreyfus affair, France, 1890s and 1900s^[9]
• 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^[10]
• 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^[11]
• The Sacco and Vanzetti appeals, United States, 1920s
• The Ponzi Scheme, United States, 1923
• The Scopes Monkey Trial, United States, 1925
• The St. Valentine's Day Massacre, United States, 1929
• The Lindbergh kidnapping, United States, 1932
• The Port Chicago disaster, United States, 1944
• The bombing of Dresden, Germany, 1945
• The Bhawal case, India, 1946^{[12] [13] [14] [15]}
• 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 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^[16]
• The Jonestown Cult Suicide, Guyana, 1978
• The trials of Claus von Bülow, United States, 1982–1985
• The Đorđe Martinović incident, Yugoslavia, 1985^[17]
• The murder of the Goldmark family, United States, 1985
• The Rodney King beating, United States, 1991^[18]
• 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^[19]
• 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^[20]
• Sergei Magnitsky's death, Russia, 2009^[21]
• Mohamed Bouazizi's self-immolation, Tunisia, 2010^[22]
• The Julian Assange extradition, United Kingdom, 2011^[23]
• The Pussy Riot trial, Russia, 2012^[24]
• The Delhi gang rape, India, 2012^{[25] [26]}
• The Causeway Bay Books disappearances, China, 2015
• The assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, Turkey, 2018
• The Sea of Japan radar targeting incident, Japan and South Korea, 2018
• The murder of George Floyd, United States, 2020
• The murder of Sarah Everard, United Kingdom, 2021
• The trial of Kyle Rittenhouse after the Kenosha unrest shooting, United States, 2021^[27]
• The murder of Brianna Ghey, United Kingdom, 2023
• Depp v. Heard, United States, 2022
• The murder of Moïse Mugenyi Kabagambe, Brazil, 2022
• The death of Mahsa Amini, Iran, 2022
• The killing of Brian Thompson, United States, 2024

Fictional examples

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

See also

• Trial of the century
• Lists of landmark court decisions
• List of French expressions in English
• Media circus
• Missing white woman syndrome

Notes and References

1. Web site: cause célèbre . 2024-01-11 . TheFreeDictionary.com . en.
2. Encyclopedia: cause célèbre . The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy . 3rd . E. D. Jr. . Hirsch . Joseph F. . Kett . James . Trefil . 2002 . Houghton Mifflin Company . Bartleby.com . Telecommunications Essay | Bartleby. https://web.archive.org/web/20080921150757/http://www.bartleby.com/59/4/causecelebre.html . September 21, 2008 .
3. Encyclopedia: cause célèbre . The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language . 4th . 2000 . Houghton Mifflin Company . Bartleby.com . Homework Help and Textbook Solutions | bartleby. https://web.archive.org/web/20080803114311/http://www.bartleby.com/61/31/C0173100.html . August 3, 2008 .
4. Web site: cause célèbre . 2024-03-13 . TheFreeDictionary.com . en.
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]
7. Book: Kertzer, David I. The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara. David Kertzer. 1998. 1997. New York. Vintage Books. 978-0-679-76817-3. 126–127.
8. Book: Joseph . Bristow . Wilde Discoveries: Traditions, Histories, Archives . University of Toronto Press . 978-1-4426-6570-5 . 2013-05-28 . 2015-07-15 . Google Books.
9. Book: Sanderson, Edgar. Historic Parallels to L'affaire Dreyfus. 1900. 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..
10. Book: Mizruchi, Susan L.. The rise of multicultural America. University of North Carolina Press. Susan L. Mizruchi. 2008. 293. 9780807832509.
11. Book: Weinberg, Robert . Blood Libel in Late Imperial Russia: The Ritual Murder Trial of Mendel Beilis . Indiana University Press . 2013 . Indiana-Michigan Series in Russian and East European Studies . 978-0-253-01114-5 . 2015-07-15 . Google Books.
12. http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKPC/1946/1946_32.pdf Srimati Bibhabati Devi v Kumar Ramenda Narayan Roy and others (Fort William (Bengal)) (1946) UKPC 32 (30 July 1946)
13. Encyclopedia: Bhawal Case. Islam. Sirajul. Banglapedia. Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
14. News: Chaudhuri. Supriya. The man who would be king. https://web.archive.org/web/20180419170742/http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/lr/2002/10/06/stories/2002100600190300.htm. dead. 19 April 2018. 23 January 2017. The Hindu. 6 October 2002.
15. Book: Fyzee, Murad. A Prince, Poison and Two Funerals: The Bhowal Sanyasi Case. English Edition Publishers. 2003. 81-87853-32-8.
16. Book: Rule, Ann . The Stranger Beside Me . The Stranger Beside Me . Ann Rule . 2000 . Norton . 0393050297 . Updated 20th anniversary . New York . 44110374.
17. Book: LeBor, Adam. Milosevic: A Biography. 2003-08-04. A&C Black. 978-0-7475-6181-1. en.
18. Web site: Carol Bengle . Gilbert . May 1, 2012 . Rodney King: Before and After the Traffic Stop that Inflamed L.A. . Yahoo News . https://web.archive.org/web/20140302015905/http://news.yahoo.com/rodney-king-traffic-stop-inflamed-l-162500101.html . March 2, 2014.
19. Book: Sowell, Thomas . Thomas Sowell . The Quest for Cosmic Justice . June 30, 2001 . 1999 . Simon & Schuster . New York . 898484807 . 978-0-7432-1507-7 . 19 . 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..
20. Web site: Barry. Colleen. September 30, 2013. New Amanda Knox trial under way in Florence. USA Today. 9 July 2014.
21. News: Dying in Agony: His Reward for Solving a $230 Million Fraud . . November 14, 2010.
22. News: Amara. Tarek. 2011-01-06. Tunisian lawyers strike, civil unrest continues. en. Reuters. 2021-06-16.
23. Web site: Jeff . Sparrow . Elizabeth . O'Shea . December 7, 2010 . Open letter: To Julia Gillard, re Julian Assange . ABC News . Australian Broadcasting Corporation . 2015-07-15 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140505063342/http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/41914.html . May 5, 2014 . dead.
24. Web site: How to become a cause célèbre: a guide for political prisoners . Brendan . O'Neill . spiked . Spiked Ltd . 2013-12-24 . 2015-07-15.
25. Web site: Harikrishnan . Charmy . India's Daughter: Why we should watch Leslee Udwin's documentary . Daily O . India Today Group . 2015-03-04 . 2016-11-04.
26. Web site: Gibb . Simon . The Delhi Gang Rape Incident. Libertarian Home . 2012-12-30 . 2016-11-04.
27. News: Barrett. Joe. 2020-09-01. Kyle Rittenhouse, Charged With Killing Two in Kenosha, Sees Strong Fundraising Support. en. The Wall Street Journal. 2022-07-10.