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Trials By Peers: The Ebb And Flow Of The Criminal Jury In France And Belgium, Claire M. Germain
Trials By Peers: The Ebb And Flow Of The Criminal Jury In France And Belgium, Claire M. Germain
UF Law Faculty Publications
The participation of lay jurors in criminal courts has known much ebb and flow both in France and in Belgium. These two countries belong to the civil law tradition, where juries are the exception rather than the rule in criminal trials, and they only exist in criminal cases, not civil cases. In spite of some similarities, there are substantial differences between the two countries, and their systems will be examined in turn.
In France, the Cour d’assises itself was inherited from the French Revolution. Since a law of 1941, it is a mixed jury system, meaning that lay citizens sit …