- This article is about the inquisitorial system for organizing court proceedings. This is not to be confused with the system of religious courts established by the Roman Catholic Church for the prosecution of heresy. For this see: Inquisition. The term Inquisition can refer to any one of several institutions charged with trying and convicting heretics within the Roman Catholic Church and
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Law · Criminal justice |
An inquisitorial system is a legal system where the court or a part of the court is actively involved in determining the facts of the case, as opposed to an adversarial system where the role of the court is solely that of an impartial referee between parties. A plea bargain (also plea agreement, plea deal or copping a plea) is an agreement in a Criminal case whereby the Prosecutor offers A presentence investigation report ( PSI) is a Legal term referring to the investigation into the history of person convicted of a crime before sentencing to determine The term criminal law, sometimes called penal law, refers to any of various bodies of rules in different Jurisdictions whose common characteristic is the potential The Law of evidence governs the use of Testimony (eg oral or written statements such as an Affidavit) and exhibits (e Civil procedure is the body of law that sets out the process that Courts will follow when hearing cases of a civil nature (a " Civil action " as opposed to The adversarial system (or adversary system) of law is the system of law generally adopted in Common law countries that relies on the skill of each advocate Inquisitorial systems are used in most countries in Europe and Latin America.
The inquisitorial system applies to questions of criminal procedure as opposed to questions of substantive law; that is, it determines how criminal enquiries and trials are conducted, not the kind of crimes for which one can be prosecuted, nor the sentences that they carry. Criminal procedure refers to the legal process for adjudicating claims that someone has violated Criminal law. Substantive law is the statutory or written law that governs rights and obligations of those who are subject to it It is most readily used in many, but not all civil legal systems. Civil law or Romano-Germanic law or Continental law is the predominant system of law in the world. However, some jurists do not recognize this dichotomy and see procedure and substantive legal relationships as being interconnected and part of a theory of justice as applied differently in various legal cultures. JURIST is an online legal news service hosted by the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, written by founder Professor Bernard Hibbitts and a staff of more than A dichotomy is any splitting of a whole into exactly two non-overlapping parts
In some jurisdictions the trial judge may participate in the fact finding inquiry by questioning witnesses even in adversarial proceedings. The rules of admissibility of evidence may also allow the judge to act more like an enquirer than an arbiter of justice.
Although international tribunals intended to try crimes against humanity, such as the Nuremberg Trials and the International Criminal Court, have generally used a version of the adversarial system, they have also incorporated some key features of the inquisitorial system, such as the use of professional judges, and in the case of the International Criminal Court, the use of a screening pre-trial chamber. In Public international law, a crime against humanity is an act of Persecution or any large scale atrocities against a body of people and is the highest level of The Nuremberg Trials were a series of trials most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political military and economic leadership of Nazi Germany after The International Criminal Court ( ICC or ICCt) was established in 2002 as a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for Genocide, crimes against The adversarial system (or adversary system) of law is the system of law generally adopted in Common law countries that relies on the skill of each advocate The International Criminal Court ( ICC or ICCt) was established in 2002 as a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for Genocide, crimes against See the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court for examples.
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Modern use in France and other civil-law countries
Criminal justice
The main feature of the inquisitorial system in France (and other countries functioning along the same lines) in criminal justice is the function of the juge d'instruction, often translated as investigating magistrate or judge. Criminal justice is the system of practices and organizations used by national and local governments directed at maintaining Social control, deterring This article is about the inquisitorial system for organizing court proceedings
The juge d'instruction is a judge who conducts the investigations in the case of severe crimes or complex enquiries. A judge, or justice, is an Official who presides over a Court of law He or she is independent from the political power as well as the prosecution. Unlike the prosecution, which is supervised by the Minister of Justice, the juge d'instruction is independent of the executive branch. The French Minister of Justice ( Ministre de la Justice) is an important cabinet member in the Government of France.
Despite the high media and fictional coverage of juges d'instructions, they are actually used in a small minority of cases. In 2005, there were 1. 1 million criminal rulings in France, while only 33,000 new cases were investigated by judges. [1] The vast majority of the cases are thus investigated directly by law enforcement agencies (police, gendarmerie), under the supervision of state prosecutors (procureurs). The National Police ( police nationale) formerly the Sûreté Nationale, is one of two National police forces and the main civil law enforcement See Gendarmerie for similar forces in other countries In France, the National Gendarmerie (Gendarmerie Nationale is the national
The judge hears witnesses and suspects and orders searches for other investigations. A search warrant is a Court order issued by a Judge or Magistrate that authorizes law enforcement to conduct a Search The goal of the juge d'instruction is not the prosecution of a certain person, but the finding of truth, and as such his duty is to look both for incriminating and exculpating evidence (à charge et à décharge). The Law of evidence governs the use of Testimony (eg oral or written statements such as an Affidavit) and exhibits (e Both the prosecution and the defense may request actions from the judge and may appeal the judge's decisions before the court of appeal. The prosecutor is the chief legal representative of the prosecution in countries with either the Common law Adversarial system, or the civil law In most Litigation under the Common law Adversarial system the Defendant, perhaps with the assistance of counsel, may allege or present Court of Appeal, Court of Appeals, and Appellate Division redirect here for a list of specific courts using those titles see Court of Appeal The scope of the inquiry is limited by the mandate given by the prosecutor's office: the juge d'instruction cannot start to investigate crimes on his own accord.
While in the past, the juge d'instruction could order remand (that is, imprisonment pending trial) for defendants in cases that he supervised — this power being subject to appeal — this is no longer the case. Other judges have to approve any remand decision.
If the juge d'instruction decides there is a valid case against a certain suspect, he defers the suspect to a tribunal or court, where the proceedings oppose the prosecution and the defense. The juge d'instruction does not sit in the court that tries the case and is in fact prohibited from sitting on future cases involving the same defendant. The case is tried before the court in a manner similar to that of adversarial courts: the prosecution (and, possibly, the plaintiff "civil parties") generally ask for the conviction of the criminals, the defense counsels fight their claims, and the judge or jury draw their conclusions from the evidence shown. A judge, or justice, is an Official who presides over a Court of law A jury a sworn body of persons convened to render a rational, impartial Verdict (a finding of fact on a question officially submitted to them
Juges d'instructions are used only for the most severe crimes (murder, rape, etc. Murder is the unlawful killing of another human person with Malice aforethought, as defined in Common Law countries Rape, also referred to as Sexual assault, is an Assault by a person involving Sexual intercourse with or Sexual penetration of another person ), and for moderately serious crimes (embezzlement, misuse of public funds, corruption, etc. Embezzlement is the act of dishonestly appropriating or secreting assets usually financial in nature by one or more individuals to whom such assets have been entrusted Political corruption is the use of governmental powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain ) when the case has a certain complexity.
Due to judicial inquiry and the possibility for defendants to have judicial proceedings canceled on procedural grounds during the initial phase, cases where the evidence is weak tend not to reach the trial stage. Conversely, France, until recently, did not have a notion of guilty plea and plea bargaining, and now has it only for crimes carrying sentences less than one year in jail. For the Pygmy backswimmer Genus, see Plea (insect. A plea bargain (also plea agreement, plea deal or copping a plea) is an agreement in a Criminal case whereby the Prosecutor offers Most cases are thus tried in court, including cases where the prosecution is almost sure to win a conviction, whereas, in countries such as the United States, these would be settled by plea bargain. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the
Administrative justice
In administrative courts such as the Conseil d'État, litigation proceedings are markedly more inquisitorial. Administrative law is the body of Law that governs the activities of administrative agencies of Government. This article is about the present-day French institution For institutions with the same name during the Ancien Régime in France see Conseil du Roi. Most of the procedure is conducted in writing; the plaintiff writes to the court, which asks explanations from the administration or public service concerned; when answered, the court may then ask further detail from the plaintiff, etc. When the case is sufficiently complete, the lawsuit opens in court; however, the parties are not even required to attend the court appearance. This method reflects the fact that administrative lawsuits are for the most part about matters of formal procedure and technicalities.
History
Until the Medieval inquisition in the 12th century, the legal systems used in medieval Europe generally relied on the adversarial system to determine whether someone should be tried and whether that person is guilty or innocent. The Medieval Inquisition is a series of Inquisitions ( Roman Catholic Church bodies charged with suppressing Heresy) from around 1184, including the Under this system, unless a person was caught in the act of committing a crime, they could not be tried for a crime until they had been formally accused, either by the voluntary accusations of a sufficient number of witnesses or by an inquest (an early form of grand jury) convened specifically for that purpose. An inquest is a judicial investigation usually by a group of court-appointed people ( Jury) in Common law Jurisdictions The most common kind of inquest In the Common law, a grand jury is a type of Jury which determines whether there is enough evidence for a trial. A weakness of this system was that because it relied on the voluntary accusations of witnesses, and because the penalties for making a false accusation were severe, would-be witnesses could be hesitant to actually make their accusations to the court, for fear of implicating themselves. Because of the difficulties in deciding cases, procedures such as ordeal or combat were accepted, though it is generally agreed nowadays that these procedures are not acceptable ways of finding truth or settling a dispute. Trial by combat (also wager of battle, trial by battle or judicial duel) was a method of Germanic law to settle accusations in the absence of
Beginning in 1198, Pope Innocent III issued a series of decretals that reformed the ecclesiastical court system. Pope Innocent III ( February 22, 1161 &ndash June 16, 1216) born Lotario de' Conti di Segni, was Pope from January Under the new processus per inquisitionem (inquisitional procedure) an ecclesiastical magistrate no longer required a formal accusation to summon and try a defendant. Instead, an ecclesiastical court could summon and interrogate witnesses of its own initiative, and if the (possibly secret) testimony of those witnesses accused a person of a crime, that person could then be summoned and tried. An ecclesiastical court (also called "Court Christian" or "Court Spiritual" is any of certain Courts having Jurisdiction mainly in spiritual or In 1215, the Fourth Council of the Lateran affirmed the use of the inquisitional system. The Fourth Council of the Lateran was summoned by Pope Innocent III with his Papal bull of April 19, 1213. The council also forbade clergy from conducting trials by ordeal or combat. As a result, in parts of continental Europe, the ecclesiastical courts operating under the inquisitional procedure became the dominant method by which disputes were adjudicated. In France, the parlements — lay courts — employed inquisitorial proceedings. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. This article is for the Ancien Régime institution For the post-Revolutionary and present-day institution see French Parliament.
In England, however, King Henry II had established separate secular courts during the 1160s. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland While the ecclesiastical courts of England, like those on the continent, adopted the inquisitional system, the secular common law courts continued to operate under the adversarial system. Common law refers to law and the corresponding legal system developed through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive The adversarial principle that a person could not be tried until formally accused continued to apply for most criminal cases. In 1215 this principle became enshrined as article 38 of the Magna Carta: "No bailiff for the future shall, upon his own unsupported complaint, put anyone to his law, without credible witnesses brought for this purposes. Magna Carta ( Latin for Great Charter, literally " Great Paper " also called Magna Carta Libertatum ( Great Charter of Freedoms "
In the development of modern legal institutions which occurred in the 19th century, for the most part, most jurisdictions did not only codify their private law and criminal law, but the rules of civil procedure were reviewed and codified as well. Private law (Civil law is that part of a Legal system that involves relationships between individuals The term criminal law, sometimes called penal law, refers to any of various bodies of rules in different Jurisdictions whose common characteristic is the potential Civil procedure is the body of law that sets out the process that Courts will follow when hearing cases of a civil nature (a " Civil action " as opposed to In Law, codification is the process of collecting and restating the law of a Jurisdiction in certain areas usually by subject forming a Legal code. It was through this movement that the role of an inquisitorial system became enshrined in most European civilian legal systems. However, there exist significant differences of operating methods and procedures between 18th century ancien régime courts and 19th century courts; in particular, limits on the powers of investigators were typically added, as well as increased rights of the defense. Ancien Régime ( pronounced: /ɑ̃sjɛ̃ ʁeʒim/ refers primarily to the aristocratic social and political system established in
It would be too much of a generalization to state that the civil law is purely inquisitorial and the common law adversarial. Indeed the ancient Roman custom of arbitration, the earliest form of adversarial proceeding, has now been adapted in many common law jurisdictions to a more inquisitorial form. In Law, custom can be described as the established patterns of behavior that can be objectively verified within a particular social setting Arbitration, a form of Alternative dispute resolution (ADR is a legal technique for the resolution of Disputes outside the Courts wherein the In some mixed civil law systems, such as those in Scotland, Quebec and Louisiana, while the substantive law is civilian in nature and evolution, the procedural codes that have developed over the last several hundred years are based upon the English adversarial system. Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. Quebec (kwɨˈbɛk The State of Louisiana ( or, État de Louisiane, pronounced) is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America
Inquisitorial tribunals in common law countries
Administrative proceedings in many common law jurisdictions may be similar to their civil law counterparts and be conducted on a more inquisitorial model. A good example are the many administrative boards such as the New York City Traffic Violations Bureau: a minor tribunal that deals with traffic infractions where the adjudicator also functions as the prosecutor and questions the witnesses; he or she also render judgment and sets the fine to be paid. Traffic Violations Bureau, often abbreviated as TVB is an arm of the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles.
These types of tribunals or boards can be found in most modern democracies. They function as an expedited form of justice where the state agents conduct an initial investigation and the adjudicator's job is to confirm these preliminary findings through a simplified form of procedure that grants some basic amount of due process or fundamental justice in which the accused party has an opportunity to place his or her objections on the record. Due process (more fully due process of law) is the principle that a person has a right to receive notice and be heard in an orderly proceeding in order to protect his or her Fundamental justice is a legal term that signifies a dynamic concept of fairness underlying the administration of justice and its operation whereas principles of fundamental
References
- French Code of Penal Procedure (Code de procédure pénale)
- legislative part
- regulatory section — regulations taken after advice of the Conseil d'État
- ^ Les chiffres-clés de la Justice, French Ministry of Justice, October 2006
See also
This article is about the present-day French institution For institutions with the same name during the Ancien Régime in France see Conseil du Roi. Law is a system of rules enforced through a set of Institutions used as an instrument to underpin civil obedience politics economics and society In Law, the judiciary or judicial system is the system of Courts which administer Justice in the name of the sovereign or StateDapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic