Non-Compliance: A Human Approach and a Hair Splitting Legal System

Abstract

This article reviews the French system of recall: paradoxicallly, for a system tightly bound by complex rules, a great deal of discretion is left to judges (particularly those responsible for sentence enforcement). Building on the initial findings from her current research, the author argues that juges de l'application des peines generally have a rehabilitative approach to sanctioning non-compliance, for example, taking offenders' personal circumstances and individual 'merit' seriously. She fears that non-compliance may soon become a political issue.

Keywords: therapeutic jurisprudence, breach, community work, consistency, discipline, discretion, electronic monitoring, furlough, individualisation, probation, rehabilitation, juge de l'application des peines, prison escape, prosecutor, recall, release, remission, supervision, suspended sentence

JEL Classification: K10, K14, K19, K40, K42, K49