The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1893-02-19
COURTS OF LAW In FRANCE
Good and Bad Features of the Judicial
System of the French Republic,
With Comprehensive Glance at Some of the
Peculiarities of the judges and Juries-
Litigation Is Not Encouraged.


which TEEN with her military exploits. To
be strictly exact. We must credit the origin
of the code Napoleon to those stormy CON-
ventions which ruled France during the
revolutionary period. But it was under
the consulate and the first empire that
this work was completed and inevitably
the code which bears the name of this re-
markable man received from his genius its
final impress of thoroughness and Justice.
This code Napoleon is really series of
five codes. and with only slight modifica-
tions, these being wholly inadequate, as
many think. to meet the altered conditions
of French society, 1t has remained, spite of
all changes of government. as the supreme
guide in both civil and criminal procedure
down TO the present day.
The appointment of judges is in the
hands of the President OF the republic.
who. of course, is advised in this delicate
business by the Ministry of Justice. Prac-
tically the office of Judge is one which
terminates only when the limit of age has
been reached, the incumbent retiring then
upon O pension. A Justice of the peace.
however, may be removed at any time by
the head of the state. The President can
depose such o person by word. But this
power Is only exercised In cases Of extreme
necessity. and as regards the judges of
higher rank, the President can exercise the
power of removal in their cases only with
the consent of the Court of Cessation.
This court answers somewhat to our own
Supreme courts. In ordinary law cases it
has no initiative, Its province being merely
to review, for approval or rejection the
contested decisions of certain other trib-
unals.
Likemo of the public officials of France
her judges are poorly paid. In England 1t
is always good pay or no pay. Justices of
the peace in that nation serve their cOun-
try solely for the honor involved. In
France the ordinary pay of such persons 10
about $500 year. TO ski from the lowest
to the highest, the English Chief Justice
pockets Q stipend fully equal to that of the
the highest Judge in France. the First
Presidents of the Court of Cessation, has to
support has dignity. we are assured, on q
yearly salary of about $4,000. This is
certainly making justice cheap enough, and
it no doubt innures to the advantage
of litIgants in reduced costs. But
1t also has the effect of excluding from
judicial Office all who have not q private
income. for it is uncomfortable that high
dignitaries of state can keep up appear.
ances with no funds to draw from save the
meager salaries lnstanced above One
would think, too. that such lll-paid judges
would be in danger of corruption, but, as the
French themselves ore not com planning on
this score. it would hardly be proper for q
foreigner to do so, and. perhaps. after all,
the French people are ss hOnOrably served
for these small expenditures as some other
nations are, not excepting our own, even,
for much larger ones.
JUDGES ARE PLENTIFUL.
Where judges cost so little you may
naturally look for great profusion of
them. and so it lie IN France. Each AKRON.
dissement has It's Court of First Instance.
and the Courts of Appeal. distributed con.
veniently throughout the entire country,
number twenty-six. The latter, for fur
Their convenience. are subdIvided into as
many different chambers as the particular
locality may need and each of these cham.
so. The other courts have also considera-
BILE staff of Judges q full bench of the
Court of Cessation consisting of forty
nine This. too. exclusive of the outer
court or parquet. as it is called. This
consists of the prOouretJr-general and
several advocates who hold technically
the position of assistant judges. their work
being to prepare cases for trial. and after.
wards to pilot them through. The parquet
is feature of all French courts. 1t ans
wers, in measure. to our own prosecuting
attorneys office. with some of the func-
tions of clerk of the court attached to it,
but it has here decidedly judicial stand
ing. Not only do those belonging TO II
wear the judicial cap and gown, but they
are ranked in legal parlance as part OF
the regular magistracy.
1t is q boast of the French judicial system
that, excepting in the case of very trivial
offenders. it allows every man chance be-
fore at least two tribunals This Is we'll,
but as an offset to this we naturally recall
one of the bad features of this system.
This was striking!y exhibited In the earlier
stages of the unfortunate Panama scan
del. What we refer to Is the power pos.
sessed by certain French judges to de-
prive men of their liberty and subject
them to rigid. not to say abusive.
examinations while il is still uncertain
whether there is good case against them
Another boast of the French is that every
case, barring only those with which justices
of the peace have to deal. IS tried with
moro than one judge on the bench. In the
highest court. the Court of Cessation. there
must never be less than eleven judges
present. Five is the lowest number in a
or q court of first instance the minimum Of
!, such funct0naries is three.
The truth Is that judges seem to be il
greater favor in France than juries Ger
responsible for the French code of pro.
cedure, though they would hardly, We
should think, be held preferable by those
cited for trial. if one may judge from the
| statIstics at hand. In civil ceses juries are
| entirely unknown. and 1t is only in one o
| the courts. the Court of Assizes. that such
uncertain quantities are brought into play
| even in the trial of criminals. But the
! statistics-weil. they are decidedly sug.
| gestive. and they have marked bearing or
| the question. often raised in America as
to whether Jurymen are help or q hind
| rance in the administration of Justice. The
| figures we quote have reference to judicial
| procedure in France during q recent four
| years. and what they show is that while
| acquittals before AssiZe courts with tria
| by jury, were % per cent, and while OF
those found guilty in such courts "a PEI
cent. gained q verdict of "extenuating CIT
| cumstances," in the other courts, wher,
the judges are the jury. there were only
per cent. of acquittals and but 62 per cent
| who had their punishment tempered be
cause of mitigating circumstances.
SENTIMENTAL JURORS.
French iuries are extremely sentimental
| If our memory ia not ct fault il was a jurl
of this nationality who acquitted the muir
derer of his father and mother because hi
counsel appealed to them tn have pity
upon a poor orphan. At any rate. that tn,
| twelve ''goon men and true" often ACC vi
| over here when the verdict by right SHOULD
| be one of guilty. is only too apparent I,
| even theiDdulgent French mind. We have
not heard that French jurymen bav
| the itching palms attributed some
| times to juries in America. but they
surely have tender sensibhties and, il
| some cases. rather soft heads. Beauty IN
distress hardly ever appeals to them IL
| vain. and il is proverbial that in class o
cases which Is rather common here as 70
instance where, from jealousy OF som