in the order of merit, that is determined by competitive examinations. But there is also another way of recruitment, which is appointment by the President of the Republic, in a limited proportion of the membership, of persons having distinguished themselves in the practice of public administration. It is important to emphasize that promotion of members of the Council from one grade to another (which are, successively, "auditeur", "matre des requtes" and "conseiller d'Etat") is strictly automatic, to give them full guarantees of independence, and depends only upon seniority of service. Finally - and last but not least - the Council of  State has the curious particularity to be presided over by a "Vice-President", as the presidency of its general assembly is formally attributed to the Prime Minister. But the latter has no effective power in the functioning of the institution. And it has to be specified that the Vice-President of the Council of State is the highest ranking official in the French administration. As regards administrative tribunals, they were established, in their present-day form, in 1953 and are the ordinary first instance judge for all cases other than those having to be directly submitted to the Council of state. There are 41 administrative tribunals all over the country, with 30 in mainland France (the Paris administrative tribunal being by far the biggest and having a special organization) and 11 in the different French overseas territories (such as, for example, the Administrative Tribunal of New Caledonia, just to mention one located