Chapter I: General provisions.

The facts on which the resolution of the dispute depends may, at the request of the parties or ex officio, be the subject of any legally permissible investigative measure.

Investigative measures may be ordered in any event, if the judge does not have sufficient evidence to rule.

If there is a legitimate reason to preserve or establish before any trial proof of facts on which the outcome of a dispute may depend, legally admissible investigative measures may be ordered at the request of any interested party, on application or in summary proceedings.

An investigative measure may only be ordered in respect of a fact if the party alleging it does not have sufficient evidence to prove it. Under no circumstances may an investigative measure be ordered to make up for the party’s failure to provide evidence.

The judge must limit the choice of measure to what is sufficient for the resolution of the dispute, endeavouring to select what is simplest and least onerous.

The judge may combine several investigative measures. He may, at any time and even during the course of the investigation, decide to combine any other necessary measure with those already ordered.

The judge may at any time increase or restrict the scope of the measures prescribed.

A decision ordering or modifying an investigative measure is not subject to opposition; it may be appealed or appealed to the Supreme Court independently of the judgment on the merits only in the cases specified by law. The same applies to a decision refusing to order or modify a measure.

When it cannot be appealed independently of the judgment on the merits, the decision may take the form of a simple mention in the file or in the hearing register.

A decision which, in the course of proceedings, merely orders or modifies an investigative measure shall not be notified. The same applies to a decision that refuses to order or modify the measure. The court clerk shall send a copy of the decision by simple letter to the parties who are in default or absent when the decision is handed down.