French criminal procedure () focuses on how individuals accused of crimes are dealt with in the French criminal justice system: how people are investigated, prosecuted, tried, and punished for an infraction defined in the penal code. These procedural issues are codified in the French code of criminal procedure (). It is the procedural arm of French criminal law.
French criminal procedure has roots in customary law of the Ancien regime under Louis XIV, and was first codified with the (). This was replaced in 1959 with the Code of criminal procedure (; CPP).
The main groups involved in the administration of criminal justice in France are the courts, the Public Ministry (France), and the judicial police. Criminal courts are structured in three levels, with the Police court and the Correctional court in the first instance; appeals are held by the Cour d'appel and the Cour de Cassation.
Courts involved include the police court and the correctional court at the first level or instance, and the Cour d'Appel and Cour de Cassation at the second and third instance. Traditionally, the legal system for administering criminal justice in France has been and continues to be the inquisitorial system, but more and more, aspects of the adversarial system, such as plea bargaining, have been included as well.
The typical stages of criminal procedure include: reporting an offense, police investigation, prosecution, judicial investigation, trial, and sentencing. During the investigation phase, various powers are available to assist, such as: (remand in custody); arrest, search, and others, all laid out in specific sections of the code.
Terminology
Two meanings
In France, the term criminal procedure () has two meanings; a narrow one, referring to the process that happens during a criminal case as it proceeds through the phases of receiving and investigating a complaint, arresting suspects, and bringing them to trial, resulting in possible sentencing—and a broader meaning referring to the way the justice system is organized into the actors and institutions involved, chiefly the police, the prosecutors, the Public Ministry, the courts and judges, and their roles and interactions.
Criminal law and criminal procedure
Criminal law () deals with an individual's rights and obligations under the law, as codified in a penal code. Under French criminal law, the penal code (CP) defines what acts (or omissions) are punishable. Criminal procedure focuses on how individuals accused of crimes are dealt with in the criminal justice system: how people are investigated, prosecuted, tried, and punished. In France, these procedural issues are codified in the Code of criminal procedure ().
Codification
Sources
The sources of criminal procedure are different than the sources of civil law. The domain of criminal procedure is the loi (lit., "law", or "statutes"), in contradistinction to civil law, which are (regulations). Practically speaking, the main difference is that the Constitution specifies in article 34 that criminal procedure is part of the , and thus may not be handled by but reserved to acts of Parliament, thus demonstrating the privileged status of criminal procedure within the French legal system, compared to civil law.
History
French criminal procedure has roots in customary law under the Ancien regime under Louis XIV. The Criminal Ordinance of 1670 dealt with the jurisdiction of the national police force the Maréchaussée.
Major developments included laws passed around the time of the French Revolution in 1791 and 1801, the (), and two years later, the Penal code of 1810. The 1897 law on Criminal defense followed.
Modern criminal procedure was developed at the end of the Fourth Republic, and codified with the promulgation of the provisional title and volume I of the new code in December 1957, which came into force in 1958 and in 1959 with the Code of criminal procedure ().
Organization
The main groups involved in the administration of criminal justice in France are the courts, the Public Ministry, and the judicial police.
Criminal courts
Criminal courts in France are one of two kinds of "ordinary courts" (ordre judiciaire), which handle both criminal and civil litigation.
At the bottom of the hierarchy of ordinary courts are the courts of minor jurisdiction, which, on the criminal law side, may sit as police courts () to hear summary offenses (such as traffic violations, limited assault, breach of peace). (A particularity of the French judiciary is that the same court may also sit as a civil court () on other occasions to hear minor civil cases.)
Next are the courts of major jurisdiction. When the court hears less serious felonies and misdemeanorsit is called a Criminal court (sometimes, "Correctional court"; ), (The major jurisdiction courts may also sit to hear civil cases as a Civil Court. or as a Juvenile Court.)
Public ministry
Judicial police
Background
Legal system
Traditionally, the legal system for administering criminal justice in France has been and continues to be primarily the inquisitorial system. Chief characteristics include secrecy (not open to the public), that it is primarily written and not oral, that judges play an important role in the gathering of evidence and investigation of the case, and that parties to the case don't necessarily have a right to be heard. Adversarial systems, on the other hand, emphasize transparency, oral and written expression, placing the parties involved front and center in prosecuting or defending the case, with the judge limited to the role of a referee adjudicating points of law and ensuring fair play.
In the inquisitorial system in France, the courts and judiciary come into the process at an earlier stage than in adversarial systems such as in England and Wales, or in the United States, and are involved with both investigation () and interrogation. Conversely, the police are less involved with carrying out an investigation than in countries with an adversarial system. A separate set of judges and courts are involved in trying the case, so that there are two separate systems of courts and judges: one for the investigative phase (the ), and a second set for trial ().
The two investigation phases in French criminal procedure are the preliminary police investigation, and the judicial one carried out by the investigating judge, follow the inquisitorial system, and focus on creating a written dossier including a list all the procedures carried out, witness and expert statements, and the accumulated evidence. Late in the Fifth Republic, some additional protections for the rights of parties involved have added some aspects of the adversarial system to the mix.
Sources
Sources of criminal procedure are primarily of the Constitution, and go back to the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. International sources include the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which have an influence due to article 55 of the Constitution which requires adherence to international treaties such as the ECHR.
Customary law
Some gaps in statutory law and case law rely on uncodified, customary law from the Ancien regime. Such cases had strict constraints, and had to be considered as binding by the people who applied them, be widely accepted in a particular profession, and had to be consistently used over a long period of time.
Principles
A criminal proceeding is guided by a set of principles, which have as a goal to ensure a fair trial. The most important of these principles include the presumption of innocence, the rights of the defense, and the timeliness of the proceedings. These principles embody the constitutional block and have been endorsed and extended by the European Court of Human Rights, and the June 2000 law amended the code of criminal procedure to increase guarantees of a fair trial, presumption of innocence, speedy proceedings, and the right to appeal.
Presumption of innocence
Major principles include the This was strengthened in 2000 with additional legal limitations placed upon the freedom of the press in order to protect that presumption, as added to article 35 of the law of 1881 by the of 15 June 2000, and elevated to a principle of constitutional force (principe à valeur constitutionnelle) by the Constitutional Council in 1989.Décision n° 89-258 DC du 8 juillet 1989, JORF du 11 juillet 1989 page 8734; NOR : CSCX8910309S
The presumption of innocence is not total, and in some cases, the suspect must prove their innocence, and if they fail, conviction is the default. For example, anyone who fails to demonstrate sufficient financial resources to support their standard of living and who resides with someone who engages in prostitution, is assumed to be a pimp according to article 255-6 of the penal code, unless they furnish proof to the contrary.
Benefit of the doubt
The benefit of the doubt is closely related to the presumption of innocence, as a procedural application of it. A difference is that benefit of the doubt is not enshrined in either the penal code or in the code of criminal procedure.
Right of defense
Criminal defendants have rights, such as the right to have an attorney while in police custody, the right to access their police file and to request additional investigations, to object, and to file appeals. Although there isn't a statute that codifies these rights, they are recognized by the law. Judicial texts refer to them as a "fundamental right of constitutional dimension", such as a 1995 text from the Cour de Cassation. Violations of the right to defense will nullify the proceedings.
Timeliness
Another principle of fairness of the proceedings is "reasonable speed" (). In 1945, judicial inquiries under the aegis of an investigating judge lasted three months; in 1970, nine months, and in 2008, eighteen months. Part of this is likely due to the fact that most investigations are simpler and no longer handled by investigating judges, and prosecutors now bring the most complex cases to the investigating judges. and they take longer to investigate.
Stages
There are six stages, reporting the offense, the preliminary police investigation, initiating prosecution of the accused, the judicial investigation, the trial, and enforcement of the judgment. In many cases, the investigating judge at their discretion may delegate the second investigation phase to the police as well.
Reporting an offense
A complaint (plainte) by a victim or a law enforcement official, or a denunciation (dénonciation) by a third party is the initial step in launching a criminal investigation. The report of an offense (infraction) is usually made to the police, but can also be made directly to the public prosecutor's office (), which acts on reports from either the police or from the victim.
Once a criminal proceeding () has been initiated in the criminal courts, the victim may also pursue a civil action (partie civile) for damages resulting from the criminal offense to obtain compensation for his or her loss. This is a specific type of procedure in which a criminal proceeding and a civil proceeding are combined, namely when a criminal prosecution also has a civil portion involving attached to it.
Police investigation
Criminal procedure starts with the investigation phase. The purpose is to gather initial evidence before the prosecution begins.