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39 Tul. L. Rev. 687 (1964-1965)
Civil Action for Damages in French Criminal Procedure

handle is hein.journals/tulr39 and id is 723 raw text is: THE CIVIL ACTION FOR DAMAGES IN FRENCH CRIMINAL PROCEDURE JEAN LARGUIER* The first paragraph of article 2 of the French Code of Criminal Procedure provides that a civil action in reparation of the damage caused by a felony, misdemeanor, or violation is reserved to those who have personally suffered the harm directly caused by the offense.1 Article 3 provides that this civil action for reparation may be pursued at the same time and before the same court as the criminal prosecution and that the reparation includes all kinds of damages, material as well as bodily and moral, which flow from the acts which are the object of the prosecution.'2 This is one of the most distinctive features of French criminal procedure when compared with that of England or North America. Although the injured party may assert his claim for reparation in a separate civil proceeding,3 he will generally prefer to bring his action before the criminal court because of the following advantages: in a criminal court the victim may avail himself of the investigatory means provided in criminal prosecutions, for example, with regard to searches, which measures are not permitted in purely civil actions; the criminal proceeding is more rapid than the civil one ;4 it is less expensive for the victim to bring the civil action in the criminal proceeding; and, finally, there is a certain psychological satisfaction to the victim in causing his offender to be involved in a criminal process rather than in a civil one. Other advantages, more general than the ones just discussed, arise because justice is rendered more efficient, more exact, and at the same time simpler through the use of this procedure. It is made more efficient in that by having this right the civil party obliges the public prosecutor to begin the criminal proceeding, if such has not yet been begun, even though the prosecutor, for reasons of policy rather than of justice, would prefer not to prose- cute. It is made more exact in that the judges are able to get a more complete view of the affair when the civil and criminal aspects are united in one trial. It is made more simple in that *Professeur A la Facult6 de Droit et des Sciences Economiques de Grenoble, France. 1French Code Crim. P. art. 2 (7 American Series of Foreign Penal Codes, Kock transl. 1964). 2French Code Crim. P. art. 3. 3French Code Crim. P. art. 4. 41n order to make the compensation more rapid and efficient, several proposals have been made, in certain countries, to admit a state system of compensation for victims of offenses.

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