Code pénal (France)

The Penal Code project began with the work of a commission created by President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in a decree issued on November 8, 1974.

The president of the commission was Maurice Aydalot [fr], later replaced by Guy Chavanon, the procureur général of the Court of Cassation.

The definitive draft of Book I (General Provisions), heavily criticised by the criminal justice community, was rejected by the Élysée Palace on February 22, 1980.

[1] After government changed hands in the 1981 presidential election, Robert Badinter, a former criminal lawyer who had become Minister of Justice, returned to the idea of penal code reform.

It introduced a number of new concepts, such as the criminal responsibility of moral persons (responsabilité pénale des personnes morales) apart from that of the State, (Article 121-2), and increased the sentencing for almost all délits and crimes.