Indian and French Prosecution System- A Comparative Study On Criminal Law Jurisprudence

Abstract

The prosecution is a sine qua non of every modern criminal justice system to exist in any democratic country, whether adversarial or inquisitorial in its modus operandi. Legal systems across the world can be bifurcated into two groupings viz., (A) Common Law (based on consensus and precedents) and (B) Civil Law (based on Code of Law), which forms the primary source of divergence apropos the methods of prosecution and trial procedures in any criminal justice system. It must be emphasized that India being a common law country adheres to the adversarial or accusatorial criminal justice system, whereas, France being a civil law country follows an inquisitorial criminal justice system for the delivery of justice. Ergo, the prosecution is the cornerstone of every criminal justice system to determine the guilt of the accused. The determinants of criminal justice system inter alia, role of the police, prosecutors, modus operandi and the judges duly changes in accordance with the model of the criminal justice system in a country.

This research paper is structured as follows. The first part will lay out the mechanism and important facets of Indian and French prosecution system. The second part will draw up a comparative study of the two prosecution system vis-à-vis statutory provisions as the overriding theme of the research paper. The third part will construct analysis of the concomitant issues apropos the relative importance of the prosecution in each system and evaluates the strengths and limitations of each system. Lastly, the fourth part will be the conclusion vis-à-vis the comparative study.

Keywords: Prosecution, Inquisitorial, Adversarial, Criminal Justice System, Accused, India, France, Trial, Common Law, Civil Law