The Law of 4 October 1940 regarding foreign nationals of the Jewish race was a law enacted by the Vichy regime, 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. The law was published in the Journal officiel de la République française on 18 October 1940.
The law was signed by Marshall Philippe Pétain and the principal members of his government, one day after the Law on the status of Jews provided a legal definition of the expression Jewish race and contained a list of occupations forbidden to Jews.
Vichy France was nominally independent from Germany, unlike the northern Occupied Zone, which was under direct occupation by Germany. However, Pétain's regime did not wait for German orders to draw up antisemitic measures. Instead, it but took them on their own initiative. Antisemitic measures began to be drawn up almost immediately after Pétain had signed the Armistice of 22 June 1940, which ended hostilities and established the terms of the Germans occupation, including the division of France into the occupied and free zones.