Constructing the Pre-Trial Role of the Defence in French Criminal Procedure: An Adversarial Outsider in an Inquisitorial Process?

Abstract

In this paper I wish to outline the ways in which the role of the defence lawyer in French pre-trial criminal procedure is constructed and the factors which have both influenced and constrained its recent evolution. Beginning with an examination of the changing ways in which the pre-trial defence role is characterised by the text of the law and the official discourse surrounding it, I then go on to provide an empirically based account of the ways in which the defence avocat is perceived and accommodated by the key legal actors, namely the police and the judicial officers charged with the supervision of criminal investigations.

Keywords: French pre-trial criminal procedure, defence lawyer, empirical study