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The Criminal Liability of Politicians in France

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2017

John Bell
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Extract

In an unusual step the Conseil constitutionnel published a communiqué on 10 October 2000 concerning the criminal liability of the head of state. In it, the Conseil stated that “the criminal law position of the Head of State does not confer a ‘criminal immunity’, but a privilege of jurisdiction during his tenure of office”. This statement contains the nub of the difficulty in understanding how French law treats the criminal law liability of the head of state and of ministers. Does the Constitution afford them immunity for their actions performed during their tenure of office, or does it merely make provision for a different court to try the offences?

Type
Research Article
Information
Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies , Volume 3 , 2000 , pp. 65 - 78
Copyright
Copyright © Centre for European Legal Studies, Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge 2000

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References

1 Communiqué of 10 October 2000, available on the website of the Conseil: http://www.Conseil-constitutionnel.fr/communiq/2000/co101000.htm.

2 For an excellent and readable survey of this question see Diez-Picazo, L.M. La criminalidad de los gobernantes (Critica, 1996) especially chapters 7–9.Google Scholar

3 See Cobban, A. A History of Modern France (Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1965) vol. 3, 19-21Google Scholar.

4 Above n 3 at 200-1 and also Vedel, G. Droit constitutionnel (Paris, Sirey, 1949) 542 Google Scholar. The last case tried by this Haute Cour was in 1960, after a Vichy minister, Bonnard, returned from self-imposed exile in Spain: see Brehier, T. Le Monde, 9 October 1987, 10.Google Scholar

5 CC decision n 98–408 DC of 22 January 1999, Treaty on the International Criminal Court, Rec. 29; (1999) Actualité juridique Droit Administratif, 230 note Schoetl. The Constitution was amended on 8 July 1999 to introduce an Art. 53(2) which permits France to recognise the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.

6 See Degoffe, M. “Responsabilité pénale et responsabilité politique du ministre” (1996) Revue française de droit constitutionnel n 26 no 385 at 386 and 402.Google Scholar

7 Vedel, above n 4, 431, 546-7. This distinction relies on the earlier work of Esmein, A. Eléments de droit constitutionnel 8th edn. (Paris, Sirey, 1928) vol. II, 226 Google Scholar.

8 See Le Monde, 6 December 2000.

9 Le Monde 22 March 1999, confirmed by personal interview with the prosecutor in question.

10 Ass. plén., 10 October 2001, decision n°. 481 (see http://courdecassation.fr).

11 Another juge d’instruction had, however, made it clear publicly that there was a case for Chirac to answser; see Le Monde, 26 April 2001.

12 Interview on TF1, 14 December 2000, reported in Le Monde, 15 December 2000.

13 An attempt has been made to remove the immunity from prosecution in relation to crimes committed before the President came into office and which are unconnected with his functions. A bill to this effect was given a first reading in the Assemblée Nationale on 19 June 2001: Le Monde, 19 June 2001.

14 Vedel, above n 4 at 430.

15 Vedel, above n 4 at 432, comparing this with the position under the loi of 16 July 1875, Art. 12.

16 See Burdeau, G., Hamon, F. and Troper, M. Droit constitutionnel 26th edn. (L.G.D.G., 1999) 736 Google Scholar, reversing the view expressed in its previous edition.

17 Debbasch, C. Constitution. Ve République 2nd edn. (Paris, Dalloz, 2000) 284.Google Scholar

18 See Kajman, M. Le Monde 22 January 1987, 10 Google Scholar, noting that the full complement was not in place at any time between 1959 and 1978.

19 The members of the parquet (who are formally subject to ministerial instructions) do not take part in this election.

20 See Conac, G. and Luchaire, F. La Constitution de la Ve République 2nd edn. (Montchrestien, 1987) 1185.Google Scholar

21 See the cases of Malvy (1918) and Caillaux (1920) below n 22.

22 Conac and Luchaire, 1179-80.

23 These involved allegations of profiteering over wine sales after the Liberation and how a secret military report came into the hands of the Vietminh during the Indochina war.

24 The failure of Minister of the Interior in the assassination of Jean de Broglie.

25 See Bell, J. French Constitutional Law (Oxford, OUP 1992) 221 Google Scholar; (1990) Revue française de droit constitutionnel no 4, 735.

26 See Le Monde, 9 July 1998, 8 and CE Sect. 6 January 1995, AJDA 1995, 161 confirming the decision of the Cour des Comptes of 30 September 1992 by which he was found to have been “de facto accounting officer” and thus liable to account for the monies lost (and to make up the losses). This judgment found that he had failed to supervise the conduct of those under his charge.

27 Vedel, G. Le Monde, 25 November 1992, 1 Google Scholar.

28 See generally Fraisseix, P. “Les parlementaires et la justice: la procédure de suspension de la détention, des mesures privatives ou restrictives de liberté, et de la poursuite” (1999) Revue française de droit constitutionnel, no 39, 497 Google Scholar. Flagrant offences are offences which have just been committed or discovered: see Bell, J., Boyron, S. and Whittaker, S. Principles of French Law (Oxford, OUP, 1998) 126.Google Scholar

29 Decision no. 98-^08 DC of 22 January 1999, above n 1.

30 See (1999) Revue française de droit constitutionnel no 39, 584 and also Degoffe above n 6.

31 He did not have to face any penalty because the Court considered that he had been deprived of the benefit of the presumption of innocence in the publicity surrounding the case. See generally Ardagh, J. France in the New Century (London, Viking, 1999) 55-6Google Scholar.

32 See Debbasch, above n 17, 287 citing Cass. crim. 28 May 1986, Bull. crim. no 180.

33 Cass. ass. plén. 23 December 1999, D. 2000 IR 26. The acquittal is reported in Le Monde of 18 May 2000 and the Cour de cassation’s rejection of the attempt to quash this decision is reported on the Cour de cassation website (http://www.courdecassation.fr) in a decision of 15 November 2000.

34 See Trib.corr. Lyon, 20 April 1995, Michel Noir, unreported.

35 On his political comeback, see Noblecourt, M. Le Monde, 9 February 2000, 13 Google Scholar.

36 See Ardagh above n 31, 54-5.

37 See Andreani, J.L. Le Monde, 6 October 1994, 8 Google Scholar.

38 See Mathieu, B., “La Cour de justice de la République ” (1993) Revue française de droit constitutionnel no 15 601 Google Scholar.

39 For a list of members in the contaminated blood trial of 1999, see Le Monde, 10 March 1999, 8. In that case, the president of the Cour was the president of the Chambre criminelle of the Cour de cassation.

40 Burdeau, Hamon and Troper, above n 16, 737 and 739.

41 See Beaud, O. Le sang contaminé. Essai critique sur la criminalisation de la responsabilité des gouvernants (Paris, Economica, 1999 Google Scholar).

42 The details of the events in question are well summarised in Le Monde, 3 January 1995, 8.

43 See Gartner, F. “L’extension de la répression pénale aux personnes publiques” (1994) Revue française de droit administratif 126 Google Scholar. This extension of criminal liability to public bod ies was initially resisted by the Conseil d’Etat: above n 40 at 129. The idea that prosecutions for breach of the public interest could be brought against bodies acting on their conception of what the public interest requires seemed incoherent.

44 Crim 20 December 1985, D. 1986, 500 note Chapar.

45 Groupe d’étude sur la responsabilité pénale des décideurs publics (Report to Minister of Justice, 16 December 1999) (hereafter “Massot Report”).

46 In practice, in the intervening period, the civil concept of fault had been reduced to an objective standard involving little moral fault: see Bell, Boyron and Whittaker, above n 28 at 360-1 and Cass. ass. plén. 9 May 1984, D. 1984, 525 note Chabas holding a child liable in fault for carelessly crossing the road.

47 See Degoffe above n 6, 393.

48 Massot Report above n 45, 8-11.

49 Massot Report above n 45, 41; speech of Minister of Justice, Mme E. Guigou, to Senate, 27 January 2000, Ministry of Justice website, 9.

50 See the report on the final debates in Le Monde, 30 June 2000, 7.

51 Above n 2, 161-3.

52 Above n 2, 162.

53 See Weatherill, S. and Beaumont, P. EU Law 3rd edn. (London, Penguin, 1999), 54–55 and 1059-1060Google Scholar; Craig, P. “The Fall and Renewal of the Commission: Accountability, Contract and Administrative Organisation” 6 (2000) European Law Journal 98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar