France’s highest legal authority has blocked the central part of a controversial internet piracy law that would deny offenders web access, in a humiliating blow for President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The law, known by the acronym Hadopi, set up a new state agency with the power to cut off internet access for up to a year for people who download music and film illegally.

The legislation, one of the toughest in the world to date, won final approval on May 13 after a heated battle in parliament.

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But the Constitutional Council ruled on Wednesday that only a judge should have the power to strike an individual from the internet, as “free access to public communication services on line” was a human right.

Christine Albanel, the Culture Minister, said the law would be “rapidly completed” by conferring the power to block internet access to a judge, rather than a state agency.

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