Investigating judge (France)

In an inquisitorial system, the trial judges (mostly plural in serious crimes) are inquisitors who actively participate in fact-finding public inquiry by questioning defense lawyers, prosecutors, and witnesses.

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.

[4] This proposal prompted an outcry from the conservative judiciary, as well as from scholars and the media; "in the context of repeated investigations of Socialist Party officials, the proposition appeared self-interested.

"[4] Less extensive reforms were adopted instead; legislation that became effective in 1994 provided a right to counsel for persons in police custody (garde à vue), and also transferred the decision on bail and pretrial detention "to a team of magistrates not involved in the particular case."

Almost immediately, however, opponents of the reforms mobilized, upset with the substantial changes to historic French practice; several magistrates resigned in protest.

The reforms were reversed in August 1993, when a new law repealed the right to have counsel at the beginning of police detention (but retained the right to have counsel after 20 hours of detention); restored "the powers of the 'solitary' investigating judge involved in the case to bail or remand"; and again restricted the accused's access to the investigative dossier.

This followed the report of the Truche Commission and a proposal to revise the French code of criminal procedure by Michèle-Laure Rassat [fr].

[8][9] In 2009 and 2010, President Nicolas Sarkozy unsuccessfully attempted to abolish the post of investigating judge as part of a broader package of legal reforms.

[12] Each investigating judge is appointed by the president of France upon the recommendation of the Ministry of Justice and serves renewable three-year terms.

In serious cases the magistrate directs the investigation personally, ordering any potentially relevant witnesses to appear and authorizing searches of premises, seizure of financial records, examination by experts and viewings of physical evidence as he or she sees fit.

[16] Despite high media attention and frequent portrayals in TV series, examining judges are active in a small minority of cases.

[17] The vast majority of cases are therefore investigated directly by law enforcement agencies (police, gendarmerie) under the supervision of the Office of Public Prosecution.