NCJ Number
190909
Journal
International Review of Penal Law Volume: 71 Issue: 3-4 Dated: 2001 Pages: 299-324
Date Published
2001
Length
26 pages
Annotation
This article examines the different levels of France’s criminal justice system and the differences and similarities in the processes on those levels.
Abstract
The conventional way to examine the French criminal justice system is to define three levels. The top level consists of the processing of crimes punishable with imprisonment from 10 years to life. The intermediate level processes crimes with imprisonment up to 10 years, a fine, other penalties, or some combination. The bottom level processes offenses punishable only with a fine or other penalties. A more realistic and revealing analysis of the French system regards it as operating on two levels depending on whether the hearing takes place in the cour d’assises after an investigation by a juge d’instruction or in the tribunal correctional or tribunal de police after an investigation by the judicial police. The first level involves thorough and comprehensive investigations of some duration. The lower level involves more cursory investigations and brief hearings without witnesses and often without defendants. The analysis concludes that the French system had two relatively distinct levels, the investigation was the crucial phase of the whole system, and the judicial police had primary responsibility for investigations and compile dossiers. The hearing was a process of confirmation in public of the proofs of guilt contained in the dossier recording the investigation and the consequent determination of an appropriate penalty. Footnotes