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:
in the matter of contention in litigation between persons
in the domaine gracieux (when the jurisdiction is asked to authorize something, a change of marital status for example)
On an exceptional basis the judiciary may also become involved in certain litigation between an individual and the State or some other public person. Such litigation would include matters of expropriation, for example, where the expropriated party does not agree with the indemnification amount. Traffic accidents in which one of the vehicles belongs to the government would also fall under the jurisdiction of this court, as well, in this instance, as that of the juge civil, who also has the power to act; another example would be a case when the propriety of a contrôle d'identité is contested and needs to be determined.
One jurisdiction where the facts of the matter are judged For example, in penal law: did the defendant in fact do what he is accused of?
The other jurisdiction is law. For example, also in penal law: if the defendant did do that, what legal rules apply?
The Court of Cassation hears appeals of the verdicts rendered by the courts of the above two jurisdictions. The Court of Cassaction itself only judges matters of law; it does not re-try the facts a third time.
The French legal system distinguishes between
civil jurisdictions charged with litigation between persons, and
penal jurisdictions, which judge accusations of criminality and may apply sanctions pénales, criminal penalties.
Evolution since the French Revolution
The organization of the French judiciary was first addressed by the loi des 16 et 24 août 1790, (law of August 16 and 24 1790), which established the justices de paix, (justices of the peace), as well as the tribunaux de districts, (district tribunals). The justices and the tribunaux served in turn as courts of first instance, (première instance) and appeal courts, in rotation. The same law also provided for tribunaux de commerce, commercial tribunals.
For criminal and penal matters, tribunaux criminels (criminal tribunals), which included a jury, were created.
The Constitution of the Year VIII reorganized the court system. It retained the justices of the peace but separated the courts of first instance from the appeal tribunals, which would become the appeal courts.
The first juridictions de prud'hommes were created in 1806. In penal matters, judgment by a jury is reserved for crimes, a serious crime punishable by ten years or more in prison.
In 1958, justices of the peace were eliminated and replaced by the tribunaux d'instance,tribunaux de police, and the tribunaux de grande instance (also tribunaux correctionnels). Les juridictions de proximité were introduced in 2002, but were scheduled to be eliminated starting January 1, 2013.
First-degree civil jurisdictions
Organization of the French judiciary for civil matters.
The first-degree civil jurisdiction is so specific that it may be divided into several subjects areas (commercial, social, rural, etc.). These courts then have the deciding word in those subjects.
Other first-degree civil jurisdictions have a more general purview, but are divided by the taux de ressort, most often as the applicant requests.
Where litigation is not specifically assigned by legislation to another jurisdiction, the tribunal de grande instance is responsible for litigation on matters involving more than 10 €000. But for litigation arising from real estate, the tribunal d'instance has authority over litigation evaluated where potential damages range between 4 €000 and €10,000, and the juridiction de proximité for litigation evaluated at 4 000 € or less.
In the overseas French possessions (collectivités d'outre-mer), naming sometimes differs from this pattern and a court of first instance (tribunal de première instance) exercises a general review power over first-degree civil jurisdiction.
Jurisdictions of Sécurité sociale and of aid sociale
Civil juvenile jurisdiction
The juge des enfants (juvenile judge), according to Article 151-3 of the Code de l'organisation judiciaire, may rule in any matter that concerns educational assistance measures under the conditions specified at Article 375.[1]
First Degree Penal Jurisdictions
Organization of the French judiciary for criminal matters.
There are two categories of criminal jurisdiction: jurisdictions d'instructionand the jurisdictions de jugement. This distinction is notably echoed by the Code de procédure pénale, (Code of Penal Procedure), which nevertheless does not define how to distinguish the one from the other. The distinction is even more nuanced to make, since in French procedural law the "judgment" jurisdictions also have powers of investigation (d'instruction).
A jurisdiction d'instruction has powers of criminal investigation and can proceed or cause to proceed different investigations: it can hear witnesses and civil parties (parties civiles), search, seal, appoint and expert, put a suspect in temporary detention or in detention under judiciary supervision, and rule on the different questions that arise in the course of criminal investigation, such as the return of seized assets.
A judge in a court de jugement has the same powers, but generally makes only limited use of them, since the juge d'instruction has already done so. The essential function of a cour de judgement is to determine the guilt of defendants under criminal law and to sentence those it finds guilty.
Penal jurisdictions judge infractions, and they also determine the civil consequences of committing the infraction.
First-degree jurisdictions d'instruction
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First-degree jurisdictions de jugement
The tribunal de police judges contraventions. The tribunal correctionnel judges délits. The cour d'assises and the criminal tribunal (in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon) judge crimes, according to where they were committed. The commercial maritime tribunal is a jurisdiction d'exception, but it has been composed in the same way as jurisdictions of common law such as the correctional tribunal since the decision of the constitutional council of July 2, 2010.
First-degree jurisdictions for penalty application
The juge de l'application des peines and the tribunal de l'application des peines decide the application of criminal penalties, especially with respect to prisoners.
Eight regional jurisdictions for rétention de sûreté decide matters of retention, after their periods of incarceration, of persons found guilty of certain serious offences and who are adjudged to still be dangerous.
Military jurisdictions
The elimination of the tribunal aux armées de Paris, the last peacetime military tribunal, was announced for 2011, when they were to be replaced by the common-law correctional tribunal.[2] It took effect 1 January 2012 as a result of the law of 13 December 2011.
Juvenile criminal jurisdictions
Infractions committed by a minor are judged, depending on their severity and also the age of the minor, by the juge des enfants, by the tribunal pour enfants or by the Cour d'assises des mineurs.
Appeal jurisdictions
Court of Appeal in Aix-en-Provence.
Court of Appeal
The Court of Appeal retries the facts of a disputed case previously tried in a court of first instance. This is known as the double degree of jurisdiction (double degré de juridiction).
At the Court of Appeal level litigation is considered by a single court—although in separate divisions—whether the matter is civil or criminal. Depending on the volume of appeals the number of divisions may vary. There is always, however, at least one civil division, social division, commercial division, and correctional appeals division.
Since the 2000 Loi sur la présomption d'innocence[fr], known as the loi Guigou, a special form of d'appeal (called "tournant") been available against the arrêts of the Assises court, and the Criminal and Army tribunals: appeals are heard in a different criminal jurisdiction with additional jurés in the case of an Assises court or Criminal tribunal, or assesseurs-jurés in Mayotte). (Although appeals filed against a criminal jurisdiction ruling in an overseas department, New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna or Saint Pierre and Miquelon, the appeal may be heard in the same jurisdiction that heard it in first instance, but different judges should sit on the panel that re-tries the case.
Rétention de sûreté
The judicial panel of the national jurisdiction for rétention de sûreté[fr] (preventive detention) is composed of three councillors from the Court of Cassation (France). It hears appeals of decisions to impose preventive detention on convicted prisoners who have completed their sentence but are still considered dangerous.
Cour nationale de l'incapacité et de la tarification de l'assurance des accidents du travail
This jurisdiction judges cases where appeals concern incapacitation and work-related injury, sometimes called technical appeals, rendered by the Social Security administration.
High jurisdiction - Court of Cassation
The Court of Cassation does not constitute a third degree of jurisdiction, because unlike the Courts of Appeal, it only addresses the legal form of the verdict. Thus the juges du fond designation for first and second degree judges, which sometimes appears in cassation court verdicts.
The Cour de cassation renders two types of verdict: confirmatif or infirmatif.
The former confirms a verdict by a court of appeal, (or of another court if the case has exhausted the first and last degrees of jurisdiction). The trial theoretically ends at this point, all avenues of recourse having been exhausted. Still, other jurisdictions may be invoked, such as the European Court of Human Rights, but this remains rare.
If the court's verdict is on the other hand infirmatif, the judgment[4] is "cassé", or broken, essentially quashed or canceled. There are then several possibilities:
The judgment is quashed and sent back to a jurisdiction of the same degree as the one that issued the overturned judgment, but in a different place.
The judgment is quashed and sent back to the same jurisdiction that issued it, but is then heard by a court composed of different judges.
The judgment is quashed, but not sent back to the lower courts.
If the matter is sent back to the lower courts, both the facts and the law are retried. The resulting new judgment may also be appealed. The next higher court would be cassation. Here the bench sometimes quashes a verdict without returning it to the lower court, or where a lower court may bow to the Cour de cassation by rendering a judgment that takes the cassation court's ruling into account.
Unlike the Courts of Appeal, there is only one Cour de cassation, which sits in Paris.
Crime in France - deals with frequency statistics for various offenses, not the legal concept of Crime in French law, which is analogous to "felony" in common law jurisdictions
The Court of Cassation is the supreme court for civil and criminal cases in France. It is one of the country's four apex courts, along with the Council of State, the Constitutional Council and the Jurisdictional Disputes Tribunal.
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 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.
French law has a dual jurisdictional system comprising private law, also known as judicial law, and public law.
In France, a cour d'assises, or Court of Assizes or Assize Court, is a criminal trial court with original and appellate limited jurisdiction to hear cases involving defendants accused of felonies, meaning crimes as defined in French law. It is the only French court that uses a jury trial.
The Court of Cassation of Belgium is the supreme court of the Belgian judiciary. The court is composed of thirty judges with life tenure who are nominated by the High Council of Justice of Belgium and appointed by the Belgian federal government. The court handles cases in the two main languages of Belgium, Dutch and French, and provides certain facilities for cases in German. The court is assisted in its work by a public prosecutor's office and a bar association, which both function separately from other structures. The duty of the public prosecutor's office is to provide advisory opinions to the court on how the law ought to be interpreted and applied. The attorneys of the court's bar association assist litigants in proceedings before the court; in certain cases, their assistance is mandatory.
In France, the Tribunal d'instance is a judicial lower court of record of first instance for general civil suits and includes a criminal division, the Police Court, which hears cases of misdemeanors or summary offences (contraventions). Since it has original jurisdiction, the Court's rulings may be appealed to a French appellate court or Supreme Court. The court was formerly known as a Justice of the Peace Court until the judicial restructuring of 1958.
The Court of Quebec is a court of first instance in the Province of Quebec, Canada.
The tribunals of first instance are the main trial courts in the judicial system of Belgium. The tribunals of first instance are courts of general jurisdiction; in the sense that they have original jurisdiction over all types of cases not explicitly attributed to other courts. They handle a wide range of civil cases, criminal cases, and cases under the scope of juvenile law and family law. They also hear appeals against the judgements of the police tribunals and justices of the peace. The judgements of the tribunals of first instance can be appealed to the courts of appeal in turn. There is a tribunal of first instance for each of the twelve judicial arrondissements ("districts") of Belgium, except for the arrondissement of Brussels. The arrondissement of Brussels has two tribunals of first instance, a Dutch-speaking one and a French-speaking one, due to the sensitive linguistical situation in the area. The territories of the current judicial arrondissements largely coincide with those of the provinces of Belgium. Most of the tribunals of first instance have multiple geographical divisions, with each having their own seat. As of 2020, the 13 tribunals of first instance have 27 seats in total. Further below, an overview is provided of all seats of the tribunals of first instance per arrondissement.
The courts of appeal are the main appellate courts in the judicial system of Belgium, which hear appeals against judgements of the tribunals of first instance, the enterprise tribunals and the presidents of those tribunals in their judicial area. There are five courts of appeal for each of the five judicial areas, which are the largest geographical subdivisions of Belgium for judicial purposes. The division of the Belgian territory into the five judicial areas is laid down in article 156 of the Belgian Constitution. A judicial area covers multiple judicial arrondissements ("districts"), except for the judicial area of Mons. Each arrondissement has a tribunal of first instance. Further below, an overview is provided of the five courts of appeal and the judicial arrondissements their judicial area covers. It is important to note that the courts of appeal do not hear appeals against judgements of the labour tribunals; these are heard by the courts of labour.
The court of labour is the appellate court in the judicial system of Belgium which hears appeals against judgements of the labour tribunals and the presidents of those tribunals in their respective judicial area. There are five courts of labour for each of the five judicial areas, which are the largest geographical subdivisions of Belgium for judicial purposes. Some of the courts of labour hear cases in multiple seats. Further below, an overview is provided of the five courts of labour and their seats. Whilst their territorial organisation is the same, the courts of labour are separate from the courts of appeal, which are the main appellate courts in Belgium.
The justice of the peace is the small claims court in the judicial system of Belgium, and stands at the bottom of the Belgian judicial hierarchy. There is a justice of the peace for each judicial canton, which is the smallest geographical subdivision of Belgium for judicial purposes. Most judicial cantons cover multiple municipalities, except in the case of larger towns and cities, which are often divided into multiple judicial cantons. A judicial canton has an average population of 50,000 to 60,000 people, but some have a population as low as 30,000 people or as high as 100,000 people. The justices of the peace only have jurisdiction over their own canton. As of 2017, there are 187 cantons with as many justices of the peace in Belgium, who hear cases in 229 seats.
The judiciary of Belgium is similar to the French judiciary. Belgium evolved from a unitary to a federal state, but its judicial system has not been adapted to a federal system.
The judiciary of Luxembourg comprises a number of courts.
In France, the tribunal de commerce are the oldest courts in the French judicial organization. They were created at the end of the Middle Ages.
In France, a cour d’appel of the ordre judiciaire (judiciary) is a juridiction de droit commun du second degré, a. It examines judgements, for example from the correctional tribunal or a tribunal de grande instance. When one of the parties is not satisfied with the verdict, it can appeal. While communications from jurisdictions of first instance are termed "judgements", or judgments, a court of appeal renders an arrêt (verdict), which may either uphold or annul the initial judgment. A verdict of the court of appeal may be further appealed en cassation. If the appeal is admissible at the cour de cassation, that court does not re-judge the facts of the matter a third time, but may investigate and verify whether the rules of law were properly applied by the lower courts.
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.
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.
Jurisdictional dualism in France is the separation of the French court system into two separate branches: 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.
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