In French criminal law, a contravention is the least serious among three categories of offenses. It includes non-criminal offenses, such as parking tickets, trespassing, minor violence, or destruction of property. The penalty is a fine stipulated by regulation, sometimes augmented with a supplementary penalty such as a remedial driving workshop.
Criminal offenses (French: infraction ) are divided into three categories, according to increasing severity: contravention, délit [lower-alpha 1] and crime . [lower-alpha 2] The latter two categories are determined by the legislature, while contraventions are the responsibility of the executive branch. This tripartite division is matched by the courts responsible for enforcing criminal law: the Police court for contraventions; the Correctional court for délits; the cour d'assises for crimes.
Each type of offense has a court with jurisdiction ( compétence ) over it, [1] and each type has a different statute of limitations [ fr ] that applies to it; [2] ten years for a crime, three years for a délit, and one year for a contravention. [1] Limitation periods are longer for offenses against minors. [3] [4]
A τontravention is a non-criminal offense (such as a parking ticket) [5] and is handled by the Police court (tribunal de police). [5] They are mainly related to violations of traffic law, [ fr ] and low-grade violence. [6]
Examples: defamation, defacing or destruction of property; failure to respond to a summons; minor violence; trespassing on school property, [1] or selling alcohol to minors. [7]
Contraventions are handled in Police court, [5] and are tried by a single judge. [8]
Contraventions are divided into five classes according to their severity, [1] with class 1 being the least serious, and class 5 the most serious. The least serious offenses are also the most common ones, for example not wearing your seatbelt, failing to use your turn signal when required, speeding, and not having the proper papers with you while driving. Most contraventions are driving offenses, but there are others, such as not having proper permits for hunting, or wearing a veil in a public place. [9] [lower-alpha 3]
Contraventions are subject to fines based on written regulations, and are not determined by the judge. Fines for contraventions range from 38 euros for the least serious, up to 1,500 euros for class five, which is doubled for repeat offenders ( récidive ). [9]
Fines ( amende ) are the chief method of punishment for contraventions, but may be accompanied by supplementary penalties ( peine complémentaire ), such as suspension of one's driving license, immobilization of the vehicle, obligatory safe-driving or citizenship workshop, or forfeiture of one's hunting license. [9]
The majority of traffic offenses are handled administratively and automatically (suspension of driver's license or adjustment of "points", in particular), but judges are sometimes required to issue fines. [6] The fine incurred does not exceed €3,000. [1]
France's independent court system enjoys special statutory protection from the executive branch. Procedures for the appointment, promotion, and removal of judges vary depending on whether it is for the ordinary or the administrative stream. Judicial appointments in the judicial stream must be approved by a special panel, the High Council of the Judiciary. Once appointed, career judges serve for life and cannot be removed without specific disciplinary proceedings conducted before the council with due process.
In many civil law countries a contravention is a lesser offense, similar to an infraction or civil penalty in common law countries.
Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th century BC.
The Criminal Ordinance of 1670 was a Great Ordinance dealing with criminal procedure which was enacted in France under the reign of King Louis XIV. Made in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the Ordinance was registered by the Parlement of Paris on 26 August 1670 and came into effect on 1 January 1671. It was one of the first legal texts attempting to codify criminal law in France. It remained in force until the French Revolution, when it was abrogated by a decree adopted by the National Constituent Assembly on 9 October 1789.
In the French penal code, murder is defined by the intentional killing of another person. Murder is punishable by a maximum of 30 years of criminal imprisonment . Assassination and murder in some special cases in accordance with Article 221-4 ) are punished by a jail term up to life imprisonment. The same punishment is given to murder committed in connection to other criminal offenses according to Article 221-2.
In traffic laws, a hit and run or a hit-and-run is the criminal act of causing a traffic collision and not stopping afterwards. It is considered a supplemental crime in most jurisdictions.
Criminal responsibility in French criminal law is the obligation to answer for infractions committed and to suffer the punishment provided by the legislation that governs the infraction in question.
A police court in France is a criminal court which judges all classes of minor offenses (contraventions) committed by adults. More serious offenses are judged by a correctional court for délits, or by a cour d'assises for a serious crime.
In France, the correctional court is the court of first instance that has jurisdiction in criminal matters regarding offenses classified as délits committed by an adult. In 2013, French correctional courts rendered 576,859 judgments and pronounced 501,171 verdicts.
In France the jurisdictions of the ordre judiciaire, of the French court system are empowered to try either litigation between persons or criminal law cases. They may intervene:
TheCode pénal is the codification of French criminal law. It took effect March 1, 1994 and replaced the French Penal Code of 1810, which had until then been in effect. This in turn has become known as the "old penal code" in the rare decisions that still need to apply it.
French criminal law is "the set of legal rules that govern the State's response to offenses and offenders". It is one of the branches of the juridical system of the French Republic. The field of criminal law is defined as a sector of French law, and is a combination of public and private law, insofar as it punishes private behavior on behalf of society as a whole. Its function is to define, categorize, prevent, and punish criminal offenses committed by a person, whether a natural person or a legal person. In this sense it is of a punitive nature, as opposed to civil law in France, which settles disputes between individuals, or administrative law which deals with issues between individuals and government.
A criminal proceeding in French law is one carried out in the name of society against a person accused of a criminal offense by applying the French penal code. It is taken in the name of society, in that its goal is to stop disruption of public order, and not to abate personal damages done to a specific person, which is governed by French civil law.
The principle of legality in French criminal law holds that no one may be convicted of a criminal offense unless a previously published legal text sets out in clear and precise wording the constituent elements of the offense and the penalty which applies to it. (Latin:Nullum crimen, nulla pœna sine lege, in other words, "no crime, no penalty, without a law").
The judicial police in France are responsible for the investigation of criminal offenses and identification of perpetrators. This is in contrast to the administrative police, whose goal is to ensure the maintenance of public order and to prevent crime. Article 14 of the French Code of Criminal Procedure provides the legal basis for the authority of the Judicial police.
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.
This glossary of French criminal law is a list of explanations or translations of contemporary and historical concepts of criminal law in France.
The principle of legality in criminal law was developed in the eighteenth century by the Italian criminal lawyer Cesare Beccaria and holds that no one can be convicted of a crime without a previously published legal text which clearly describes the crime. This principle is accepted and codified in modern democratic states as a basic requirement of the rule of law. It has been described as "one of the most 'widely held value-judgement[s] in the entire history of human thought ' ".
Jurisdictional dualism in France is the separation of the French court system into two separate divisions, or "ordres", as they are called in French: the ordinary courts, and the administrative courts. The ordinary courts, also known as the judiciary order, handle criminal and civil cases, while the administrative courts handle disputes between individuals and the government. This dual system allows for a clear separation of powers and specialized handling of cases related to the actions of the government. The administrative courts are headed by the Council of State, and the ordinary courts by the Court of Cassation for judiciary law.
The French code of criminal procedure is the codification of French criminal procedure, "the set of legal rules in France that govern the State's response to offenses and offenders". It guides the behavior of police, prosecutors, and judges in dealing with a possible crime. The current code was established in 1958 and replaced the code of 1808 created under Napoleon.
| Constitutional block Bloc de constitutionnalité |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Bloc de conventionnalité [ fr ] Treaties and international agreements | ||
| Bloc de légalité [ fr ] parliamentary or governmental laws | ||
| Règlements [ fr ] Executive branch regulations | ||
| Administrative acts [ fr ] Circulars, directives, etc. |
| |
