Cause célèbre

All you want to know about Cause célèbre

Look up cause célèbre in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

A cause célèbre (plural causes célèbres, French famous case) is an issue or incident arousing widespread controversy, outside campaigning and heated public debate. It is particularly used for prolific and long-running legal cases. It is a French phrase in common usage in English. The phrase originated with the 37-volume Nouvelles Causes Célèbres, published in 1763, which was a collection of reports of well-known French court decisions from the 17th and 18th centuries. While English speakers had used the phrase for many years, it came into much more common usage after the 1894 conviction of Alfred Dreyfus for espionage, which attracted worldwide interest.