After studying economics and law and lecturing in Toulouse, Jean-Paul Gauzès moved to Paris in 1972, working in the Ministry of National Education before moving into legal practice. From 1980 until 1994, he worked as a lawyer in the Council of State and in the Court of Appeals.
In 1998, Gauzès started his political career as a center-right politician in the French regional elections.
Between July 2004 and June 2014, he was member of the European Parliament. During that period, he was member and the member of the Bureau of the Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats, member and member of the Bureau of the Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats). Gauzès was Vice-Chair of the Committee of Inquiry into the crisis of the Equitable Life Assurance Society, member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, member of the Delegation to the EU-Romania Joint Parliamentary Committee, member of the Delegation for relations with Iran, member of the Committee of Inquiry into the crisis of the Equitable Life Assurance Society, member of the Delegation for relations with the countries of south-east Europe, member of the Delegation to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly, member of the Delegation for relations with the Korean Peninsula, member of the Special Committee on the Financial, Economic and Social Crisis.