Law on the status of Jews

The Law of 3 October 1940 on the status of Jews was a law enacted by Vichy France. It provided a legal definition of the expression Jewish race, which was used during the Nazi occupation for the implementation of Vichy's ideological policy of "National Revolution" comprising corporatist and antisemitic racial policies. It also listed the occupations forbidden to Jews meeting the definition. The law was signed by Marshall Philippe Pétain and the main members of his government.

The Vichy regime was nominally independent, unlike the northern, Occupied zone, which was under direct occupation by Nazi Germany. The Pétain regime didn't wait to be ordered to draw up antisemitic measures by the Nazis, but took them on their own initiative. Antisemitic measures began to be drawn up almost immediately after Pétain signed the Armistice of 22 June 1940, ending hostilities and establishing the terms of France's surrender to the Germans, including the division of France into the occupied and free zones.

The law was signed one day before the Law regarding foreign nationals of the Jewish race which authorized and organized the internment of foreign Jews and marked the beginning of the policy of collaboration of the Vichy regime with Nazi Germany's plans for the extermination of the Jews of Europe. These two laws were published simultaneously in the Journal officiel de la République française on 18 October 1940.

This law of exception was enacted in defiance of the positions of the Council of State. The Council of State was still in place since the National Assembly was no longer in power after 11 July 1940 when it granted full powers to Philippe Pétain.

The law was replaced on 14 June 1941 by the Second law on the status of Jews.