Crminal Justice In France

7 Pages 1872 Words

General Overview
Political System
France has a centralized government, although it is decentralized to the extent that there are 22 regions, 95 departments, and 36,000 municipalities, each of which can derive benefits from the central government, while maintaining a certain amount of autonomy.
Legal System
The French legal system abides by the principal of unity of the civil and criminal justice system, which means that the same court can hear both criminal and civil cases.
History of the Criminal Justice System
The legal system in France has developed through several stages since the country's establishment. The stage of the Private Reaction characterized the legal system from the time
France was founded up until the 16th century. The accusatory procedural system predominated judicial procedures at this time. The 16th century was marked by the stage of the Public Reaction, which established the inquisitorial system. This system was based on secret judicial procedures. Thus, repressiveness and arbitrariness in the judicial and legal procedure were
characteristic of the regime before 1789. After the Revolution of 1789, a judicial system was established that was inspired by English law that enacted the principle of legality of offenses
and punishments.
The stage of the Imperial Penal Law produced two written codes: the Code of Criminal Instruction of 1808 and the Penal Code of 1810. The Code of Criminal Instruction emerged from a blending of the inquisitory procedure and the accusatory procedure. The Penal Code resulted in the creation of a list of definable offenses. A number of reforms followed the creation of these codes, which generally tried to individualize the punishment to the particular offender. Reforms included the development of a suspended sentence for juveniles in their early stages of delinquency, such as first-time offenders, stiffening of punishment for recidivists, probation, parole, and alternatives ...