Forms of the reviewing of a jury trial decision and its grounds in France

This article examines the forms of the reviewing of a jury trial decision and its grounds in France which were legally recognized with the establishment of the jury system during the French Revolution period. It reveals the fundamentals of trial by jury and implementation of the right to appeal a judicial decision in courts of superior jurisdiction as stipulated in the French Code of Criminal Procedure of 1808 and the French Code of Criminal Procedure of 1957. Under the French Code of Criminal Procedure of 1808, Assize Courts (cour d'assises) were established at criminal divisions of department appellate courts. Cases were tried by a panel of 3 professional judges (one of them was a president of the court) and a jury of 12 jurors. Their verdicts could only be appealed to the Court of Cassation at the request of a person convicted of a crime or the public prosecutor and only on points of procedure; their verdicts could not be appealed to the Court of Appeal. The French Code of Criminal Procedure of 1957 stipulates that Assize Court decisions can be considered in cassation and quashed, since June 15, 2000 the decisions can be appealed. The Court of Cassation reviews judicial decisions on the grounds of the violations of substantive or procedural law; it hears cassations in the interest of the parties and in the interest of the law. Cassation proceedings in the interest of the parties are initiated by the prosecutor or an aggrieved party within 5 days of the conviction. The Court of Cassation is a French court of last resort; it delivers decisions based on the facts revealed by first instance and appellate courts which rule on the merits of the case. If lower courts do not apply the law correctly, the Court of Cassation sets aside a decision and the case is remanded back to another court or the originating court (never with the same judges). The verdict of not guilty rendered by a jury trial can be appealed only in the interest of the law and the acquitted person cannot be put in a worse position. Cassation in the interest of the law gives future interpretation of the law; it is not aimed at reviewing a final court decision. Only the guilty verdict of the jury can be appealed. An appeal to the Court of Cassation is initiated by a person convicted of a crime, a prosecutor, a civil plaintiff and a defendant (in case of a civil appeal). The Criminal Division of the French Court of Cassation commits an applicant to stand trial before a larger jury at another Assize Court, which in this case acts as a first instance court. The article concludes that there exist special conditions for reviewing a jury trial decision: professional judges are restricted from reviewing a jury verdict; a verdict can be reviewed by a newly convened jury of an appellate court.

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