[citation needed] Bourdon distinguished himself in criminal law in the 1980s, for example with the defence of prostitutes in the Jobic affair,[2] a police commissioner accused of procuring before finally being released.

He then specialized in human rights (SOS Racisme, Chinese opponents, genocide in Rwanda, Augusto Pinochet; protesters, partisans of social struggle or far left militants.

In 2006, he defended Sud-PTT trade unionist Cyril Ferez who, he said, "took a real beating from 15 or so CRS officers (riot police) for quite a while" during a demonstration against a controversial law concerning work and education.

In 2009, Boudon defended André Barthélemy, president of "Agir Ensemble pour les Droits de l'Homme" before the criminal court of Bobigny for "direct incitement of rebellion" and "deliberately impeding the movement of an aircraft", for having opposed the manner in which two Congolese nationals were escorted back to the border.

[10] On 25 October 2007, he filed a defamation complaint "avec constitution de partie civile" against Jeune Afrique[9] and its editor-in-chief, François Soudan, on behalf of Moussa Koussa, head of the Libyan foreign intelligence service.

[11] The arrêt of the chambre d'accusation [fr] of Paris, the investigative arm of the court of appeal, on 20 October 2000 authorized the complaint of the victims of UTA Flight 772 against Muammar Gaddafi.

If one reasons in this manner, Yasser Arafat could be pursued," observed Maître Bourdon, underlining that terrorism and narcotics trafficking were deliberately omitted when the International Criminal Court (ICC) was created.