Portal:French Overseas Departments/Intro

The French Overseas Departments and Territories (départements et territoires d'outre-mer, colloquially referred to as the DOM-TOM ) consist of all the French-administered territories outside of the European continent. These territories have varying legal status and different levels of autonomy, although all (except those with no permanent inhabitants) have representation in the Parliament of France, and consequently the right to vote in elections to the European Parliament. The French Overseas Departments and Territories include island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans, French Guiana on the South American continent, and several periantarctic islands as well as a claim in Antarctica.

2,691,000 people lived in the French Overseas Departments and Territories in January 2013. With a combined land area of 119,394 km² (46,098 sq. miles), Mayotte and the overseas collectivities, St Martin, St Baths, the French Southern and Antarctic Lands, and Clipperton. It has an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of 9,821,231 km² (3,791,998 sq. miles), the French Overseas Departments and Territories (excluding Adélie Land in Antarctica where sovereignty is suspended since the signing of the Antarctic Treaty in 1959) account for 17.8% of the land territory and 96.7% of the EEZ of the French Republic.

From a legal and administrative standpoint, departments are very different from territories. The French constitution provides that, in general, French laws and regulations (France's civil code, penal code, administrative law, social laws, tax laws, etc.) apply to French departments the same as in mainland France, but can be adapted as needed to suit the departments' particular needs. In French territories, the reverse is true (laws can't be adapted). Under France's so-called "autonomy statutes", the departments are empowered to make their own laws, except in certain areas (such as defense, international relations, trade and currency, and judicial and administrative law), where the territories are bound by the laws promulgated by the French government and by those France appoints to oversee the territories.