France

The Collective for the Defense of Law and Liberty challenged the validity of a May 1992 decree which forbade smoking on domestic flights that were shorter than two hours in duration (an enclosed workplace). The Collective alleged that the decree contradicted a previous law that prohibited smoking in certain enclosed public places except in areas reserved for smokers. The court held that there is no inherent right to smoke and that passengers on flights under two hours would not be prejudiced by being unable to smoke as much as passengers on longer flights. The court moreover held that the difficulty of properly ventilating airplanes and the importance of protecting the health of non-smoking passengers outweighed any argument to allow smoking on short domestic flights. The court accordingly rejected the Collective's arguments and dismissed the case.