The Keeper of the Seals unveils this Thursday the measures of his plan to respond to the “advanced decay” of Justice. According to his entourage, this plan is particularly inspired by the “consent“resulting from some 50,000 consultations carried out as part of the States General
launched by the Elysee in October 2021 and the conclusions of which were presented to Emmanuel Macron in July 2022. Long overdue, the announcement of his plan had been postponed at the last minute to the end of November for reasons of “schedule”. Since then magistrates, clerks and lawyers have once again taken to the streets to shout theirs “mess” despite a further increase in the Justice budget.
The Union of Magistrates (USM, majority) hopes that the measures will not further complicate the task of magistrates already grappling with a “tsunami of records”. “We must avoid repeating major reforms without an impact study on their cost in terms of personnel”warned its president Ludovic Friat.
One of France’s highest magistrates, the Attorney General of the Court of Cassation François Molins, expressed on Twitter on Monday the hope that the crisis of the institution will take over “finish early” So that the “justice is rendered to citizens with the means and the quality they deserve, in line with the ambitions of the States General”.
Here’s what we know about the action plan devised by Éric Dupond-Moretti to respond to concerns and grievances.
Hiring 10,000 civil servants by 2027
The Minister has already announced that a planning and orientation law is in the pipeline to guarantee the promises of hiring 10,000 justice officials by 2027, of which 1,500 magistratesand reduce the “chronic workforce underformat” taken over by the States General.
Balance between criminal and civil
The government plan should also focus on civil justice which, according to the report of the States General, is experiencing a “slow downgrading” and “it can no longer resolve disputes under decent conditions“while she represents 60% of judicial activity (divorce, employee-employer litigation, etc.). “We hope for a rebalancing between criminal and civil. recently indicated to AFP Kim Reuflet, president of the Syndicate of the judiciary (SM, classified on the left). “We must give back its place to this civil justice which maintains the bond of trust between the state and the citizens”.
Revision of the criminal procedure code
Criminal justice should also be on the menu with a titanic project: the revision of the criminal procedure code which will largely be done”to constant law”, without a new law. The reform, announced at the end of October by the head of state Emmanuel Macron, aims to simplify this procedural bible, whose number of articles grew by almost 40% between 2008 and 2022.
Reform of the procedure governing judicial investigations
Next to this “recode”, the executive could also initiate a reflection on the inflammable matter of the procedure governing judicial investigations.
The States General had judged the current system, on which it is based three types of surveys (flagranza, preliminary information, judicial), factor “of inequalities” amid litigation and confusion but have come out in favor of maintenance of the investigating judge.
Prison overcrowding
It will be difficult even for the Minister to ignore the situation in prisons who becomes “more and more frightening”, according to the recent diagnosis of the Comptroller General of places of deprivation of liberty. The number of detainees in France hit a record high again in December
: 72,836 people incarcerated for 60,698 places operational, or a density of 120%, according to statistical data published on December 28 by the Ministry of Justice.
Faced with this situation, the States General have asked for a “prison regulation mechanism” setting for each establishment an employment threshold beyond which it could be “considered” decongestion measures.
This is also the road hoped for by the union of magistrates, which awaits “strong measures” on this dossier, when the Chancellery traditionally insists on current plan to build 15,000 prison places.