December 2013
Duality of the Justice system
 Judicial stream
 Administrative stream
 Court of conflicts
Judicial stream
1/First level of jurisdiction
 Civil courts
 Criminal courts
 Specialized courts: employment
tribunal, commercial tribunal
 Juvenile justice
2/Second level of jurisdiction
 Court of appeal
 Facts assessment + law application
3/Supreme Court
 Cour de cassation
 No
facts
reassessment;
application; unity of case law
law
Administrative stream
1/First level of jurisdiction
 Administrative
courts
(persons/authority;
public
person/public person)
2/Second level of jurisdiction
 Administrative appeals court
3/Supreme Court
 Conseil d’Etat (Council of State)
 Acts of government; appeals;
unity of administrative case law
Traditional architecture
Modern architecture
The Court room
The Judge’s robes
at the Court
at the Court of Appeal
The Prosecutor’s robes
at the Court
at the Court of Appeal
The Lawyer’s robes
 Established in 1958 under the
name of National Centre of
Judicial Studies.
 Current name adopted in 1970.
 Located in Bordeaux, in the
south west of France.
 Contributes to the initial and
life-long training of foreign
judges and prosecutors.
Several ways of becoming a judge
or prosecutor
 After 4 years of law studies, 31
years old maximum
 Civil servant for 4 years
 Have worked in a company for
8 years, aged 40 maximum
 Article
18-1: 4 years of
experience, 4 year law degree,
aged 31 minimum and 40
maximum
 Competitive recruitment
French judges’ training
31 months
Studies
 27 weeks of studies
Internships
 22 weeks in private practice
 1 week with police officers
 2 weeks in jail
 10 months as a trainee judge in a court
 7 weeks in a foreign country or in a French
firm
Final ranking
 Preparatory class for our first judicial
appointment
Judges in civil law
 Juge d’instance (First instance
judge)
 Juge aux affaires familiales
(Family Court judge)
 Juge des enfants (Juvenile judge)
Judges in criminal law
 Juge d’instruction (Investigating judge)
 Juge des libertés et de la détention (Judge
in charge of custody and release)
 Juge de l’application des peines (Judge in
charge of prison sentences)
 Juge des enfants (Juvenile judge)
Prosecutors
- Subordination in the chain of
command
- Indivisibility of the prosecution
service
- Unchallengeable legitimacy of
public prosecutors