Judiciary of France
France's independent court system enjoys special statutory protection from the executive branch.
Procedures for the appointment, promotion, and removal of judges vary depending on whether it is for the ordinary ("judiciaire") or the administrative stream.
Once appointed, career judges serve for life and cannot be removed without specific disciplinary proceedings conducted before the council with due process.
The Ministry of Justice handles the administration of courts and the judiciary, including paying salaries or constructing new courthouses.
Lastly, it receives and processes applications for presidential pardons and proposes legislation dealing with matters of civil or criminal justice.
The Minister of Justice is also the head of public prosecution, though this is controversial since it is seen to represent a conflict of interest in cases such as political corruption against politicians.
At the basic level, the courts can be seen as organized into:[1] The structure of the French judiciary is divided into three tiers: There are exceptions to this scheme, as noted below.
[2] There is no stare decisis, or principle of precedent, binding lower courts to respect superior courts' rulings (case law) on questions of law; but a line of similar case decisions, while not precedent per se, forms the jurisprudence constante.
[2] Public offenses are categorized as:[3] For petty misdemeanors like most traffic violations, suspected offenders may either plea nolo contendere and pay a set fine amount (amende forfaitaire) or contest the charge in court.
There are two kinds of conflicts: In both cases, the tribunal des conflits will render final judgment on which system is competent.
Instead, financial cases concerning private funds and money fall within the jurisdiction of the civil justice system.
That is, they judge the accounting of public accountants (comptables publics) and may fine them in case of certain failures: In addition, the Cour des Comptes supports and provides half of the judges of the Cour de discipline financière et budgétaire (Court of financial and budgetary discipline), the other half being provided by the Conseil d'État.
Most of the activity of the Cour des Comptes and the regional chambers is not of a judicial kind (juridictionnel); rather, they act as a general auditing system.
The court and chamber publish a yearly report in which it discusses a selection of misuses of funds and other incidents.
They may, for instance, criticize an expense that was legally ordered and accounted for, but which was inappropriate with respect to criteria of good financial management.
