Judicial independence within the framework of the rule of law is a broad, complex and controversial subject, which is especially true of France, because of the country’s particular attitude to justice since the French Revolution, and even before this critical and fundamental period. The first part of this article deals, on a broad constitutional scale, with the configuration of judicial independence, its guarantees (material and organic) and its interaction with the rule of law in the constitutions of the member states of the EU. The main purpose is to draw an objective map of the situation from a pure formal and textual (and therefore a slightly partial and narrow) view point. The second part of this contribution considers the specificity of the independence of the French judiciary in relation to the French constitutional principle of the rule of law, which is called the “Etat de Droite” in the French legal tradition.