22 March 2010
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Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe. It borders on Belgium and Luxem-bourg to the north-east, Germany, Switzerland and Italy to the East, Monaco to the south-east, and Spain and Andorra to the south-west. It also has three maritime borders: the North Sea and the Channel to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Overseas France comprises four Departements (Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyane and Reunion Island) and various Territoires including New Caledonia and Polynesia. Metropolitan and Overseas France constitute territories under French sovereignty. The political and administrative capital is Paris.
France is a constitutional parliamentary republic functioning on the basis of the sepa-ration of powers. Legislative power is exercised by Parliament which has two cham-bers (the Senate and the National Assembly). The 321 Senators are elected by indirect suffrage and the 577 Deputés in the National Assembly are elected by direct suffrage.
In France, the State is responsible for protecting persons and property, maintaining public order and enforcing the law. These tasks are performed by two institutions, the Police Nationale and the Gendarmerie Nationale. Other government institutions are responsible for law enforcement in their particular sectors. Two main examples are the Direction générale des Douanes et Droits indi-rects (Customs Office) and the Direction générale de la Concurrence, de la Consom-mation et de la Repression des Fraudes (Competition, Consumption and Fraud Office), both of which are departments of the Ministry of Finance. The Police Nationale The Police Nationale constitutes one of the three General Directorates at the Ministry of the Interior. It is staffed by almost 126,000 people divided into two categories: police officers and administrative employees. It comprises eleven Directorates and Central Departments. Nine of them are 'active' and therefore engaged on operational police tasks. The most important operational Directorates are the Direction centrale de la Police judiciaire and the Direction centra-le de la Sécurité publique which, under the law, are responsible for assisting the judiciary by investigating crimes under the supervision and control of the appropriate judicial authorities. In fact, the sole mission of the Direction centrale de la Police judiciaire is to investiga-te crimes. It plays an essential role in the machinery which exists to combat crime thanks to its centralized organization with, in particular, the various Offices centraux, original institutions with interministerial responsibilities established to combat certain types of organized crime with the assistance of the Services regionaux de Police judiciaire located at different points on French territory. Furthermore, since the Directeur central of the Police judiciaire is the Head of France's Interpol National Central Bureau, the Direction centrale de la Police judiciaire plays an important role in combating international organized crime. The Gendarmerie nationale The Gendarmerie Nationale is an integral part of the armed forces and is in fact one of them. It thus comes under the responsibility of the Ministry of Defence for administra-tive and organic purposes. It is divided into two major Sub-Divisions which perform different tasks. Its total manpower (commissioned and non-commissioned officers and gendarmes) is nearly 90,000. The gendarmerie mobile, with a force of about 20,000, is essentially responsible for maintaining public order during peace-time. Another 17,000 men staff the various units performing special tasks. The Gendarmerie territoriale conducts crime investigations under exactly the same laws and regulations as the members of the active Directorates of the Police Nationale It has about 53,000 men distributed all over the territory of France, concentrated mainly in rural areas but also present in recently urbanized zones. Its members also perform certain military tasks.
Under construction. Since the French Interpol National Central Bureau is an integral part of the Direction centrale de la police judiciaire, functio-ning within the latters International Relations Division, the Directeur central de la police judiciaire is, ipso facto, Head of the French NCB. The French NCB has no operational police duties but it is the sole and exclusive unit through which French police departments may have contact with the Interpol General Secretariat and with the other NCBs. Its task is to centralize and transmit requests for international police co-operation in the crime investigation sector. The requests may be received-from or intended for other countries and they are handled in the light of their urgency, the type of request and the type of case.
Under French law, only legally appointed national authorities may conduct investigati-ons on territories under French sovereignty. Requests for general information which do not require formal investigation procedures may be sent to, and responded to, by law enforcement departments. All other requests have to be submitted to the ministry of Justice by the French NCB. In urgent cases, and within the context of an international rogatory commission, such requests may be sent via the French NCB; however the official channel remains the diplomatic one. Furthermore, acceptance of a request for assistance in a judicial matter depends on whether the countries concerned have signed a convention. In practice, a request for judicial assistance, if it is transmitted via the French NCB because of its urgency, must comprise all the information stipulated in the European Convention on mutual judicial assistance.
(*) For 24 hours initially and for a further 24 hours with agreement
from the Public Prosecutor.
(*) For 24 hours initially and a further 24 hours with agreement from the Examining Magistrate.
In France, criminal courts of first instance handle violations of the law listed in the Penal Code; they are divided into three categories, contraventions (minor offences), délits (misdemeanours) and crimes (capital offences felonies). Contraventions are handled by Tribunaux de Police which sit with a single judge. Délits are handled by Tribunaux Correctionnels which usually sit with three judges unless the law specifically provides for a single one. Crimes are tried by the Cours d'Assises composed of three judges and a jury of nine citizens drawn by lot from a list of names. The judges and jury together decide whe-ther the accused is innocent or guilty and on the sentence to be passed. However, for certain particularly 'sensitive' cases, e.g. those concerning terrorist crimes, there are special Cours d'Assises composed of seven judges sitting without a jury. Appeals against judgments given by the Tribunaux de Police and the Tribunaux Correctionnels can be taken before an appellate court, the Chambre des appels correc-tionnels of the Cour d'Appel. Judgments given by the Cours d'Appel can be appealed against to the supreme instance, the Cour de Cassation, but only on points of law. Decisions by the Cours d'Assises cannot be appealed against except on points of law to the Cour de Cassation which takes account only of the legality and application of the law by the lower court: it does not consider the facts of the case. The French justice system has a distinctive aspect: the judicial investigation of crimes and of some delits and contraventions by the juge d’instruction (examining magistra-te). When the Prosecutor turns over a case to an examining magistrate, the latter will delegate some of his powers of investigation and coercion, within strict limits and under his direct supervision, to police or gendarmerie officers, by rogatory commissi-on. Judicial decisions taken by examining magistrates can be appealed against before the Chambre d'Accusation of the appeal court of the district concerned. Furthermore, only the Chambre d'Accusation can decide to close a judicial investigation and send the case to the Cours d'Assises. The tasks of the officials of the French Parquet or ministère public are to defend society by acting as its advocates and to ask the deliberating judges to apply the criminal law. They decide on the advisability of instituting criminal proceedings and set them in motion by transferring cases to an examining magistrate. However, they supervise and control all police and gendarmerie investigations before such transfers. Once a case has been transferred and a judicial investigation has begun, the police and gendarmerie officers act (as described in 3.2 above) under the direct authority and supervision of the examining magistrate.
4.3.1 French liaison officers posted abroad Belgium, Colombia, Cyprus, Germany, Italy, Lebanon, Marocco, Netherlands, Pakistan, Romania, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela. Note: The Service de Cooperation Technique Internationale de Police (SCTIP) has 56 délégations abroad. 4.3.2 Foreign liaison officers posted in France Belgium, Canada, Corea, Germany, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Tunisia, United Kingdom, United States.
As indicated above (cf. 2.1), the Direction générale des Douanes et Droits indirects has specific control and enforcement duties in connection with customs and tax matters. In addition, it co-operates with the Police and the Gendarmerie on crime investigation operations, especially in cases of traffic in drugs and weapons, so that information is shared. Officers from the Police judiciaire and Police Nationale are, in fact, seconded to the Customs Office.
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