The French Criminal system and its paticularities

Thèmes abordés

Criminql system, instruction, victim, French;, procedure

Résumé du document

It is a presentation of the french criminal system, its actors, its principles, how it works and its particularities on the european law. The most relevant point is about the instruction judge, who exists just in France.

Extraits

[...] Criminal Law in Europe : Presentation about the French penal system and its particularities . The main aspects of the French penal System. There are three sorts of different infractions : the contraventions sorts which can be punished with a fine till 1500 euros, the offence which is punished by fine or jail till 2 years, and the crime , jail between 2 years and prison for life. Death penalty was abolished in 1981 with the Badinter law. To have an infraction we need actus reus and men rea: material facts and moral intention to do so : conception mixte. [...]

[...] Moreover, since the Constant law in 1877, the inculpate must have a defender, which permit the contradiction. → But the historical evolution of the French penal system had given a more important part to some accusatory aspects. For example, the judgement is public and oral, which are the main characterises of the accusatory system. Furthermore, the prerogatives of the victim are getting more important, because he or she can be “civil party” in the process, unless we consider that if a crime is committed, the real victim is the whole society. [...]

[...] For example, the administrative police can ask you to show your ID at every moment, while if the judiciary police do so, it is because you might be implied in the commission of an infraction. I am not talking about the “garde à vue”. The main principles. The main principle is the presumption of innocence: the charge of the proof is on the public minister : article 9-1 of the Civil Code , Napoleon Code. A famous Latin adage says “in dubio pro reo”, which means that the doubt profits to the accused. [...]

[...] The Constitution said expressly that penal procedure depends of the field of the law, so by the legislature given by the Parliament and Senate. There are also a lot of international sources of our penal system : for example the European Convention of Human Rights and the decisions from the European Court of the Human Rights have a lot to do with the French criminal law, for example the notion of a reasonable delay to be judged. The State can be condemned by the Court, for example in 1990; France was condemned because of a case of telephonic spy. A mixte system . [...]

[...] The instruction judge. In France, he or she is the magistrate in charge to coordinate the investigation after the commission of an infraction. After that, he gives an ordinance to cancel the procedure or to conduce the accused in front of the penal jurisdictions. He had large powers: since 2000, he can ask for putting the accused in temporal detention for example. But he cannot seize himself, only by the victim or the public minister. He is independent and must led a contradictory investigation, which mean to try to find proofs pro and cons for the accused, not only cons for example. [...]