(Apr. 27, 2018) On April 20, 2018, the French Minister of Justice announced that the government planned to submit a bill to reform the country’s judicial system. (Compte-rendu du Conseil des ministers du vendredi 20 avril 2018: Projet de Loi, Renforcement de l’organisation des juridictions et programmation pour la justice 2018–2022 [Minutes of the Council of Ministers of Friday 20 April 2018: Legislation Project, Reinforcing the Organization of Jurisdictions and Programming for Justice 2018–2022], ELYSEE.FR (website of the French Presidency) (Apr. 20, 2018).)
The proposed bill would increase the resources available to the French judicial system, allowing the expansion of prison capacities to accommodate 7,000 more inmates, the hiring of 6,500 additional civil servants, and the increase in the budget of the Ministry of Justice by 1.6 billion Euros (about US$2 billion) by 2022. (Ministere de la Justice [Ministry of Justice], Projet de loi de programmation 2018–2022 et de réforme pour la Justice [Bill for the 2018–2022 Programming and Reform for Justice] 2 (Apr. 2018), Ministry of Justice website.) The proposed bill also aims to simplify civil and criminal procedures—for example, by developing alternative dispute resolutions; establishing a national digital case management system; simplifying and accelerating divorce procedures; simplifying procedures for the protection of vulnerable adults; instituting a single mode of filing suit in civil matters; improving victims’ access to criminal justice, eliminating unnecessary formalities; simplifying the courts’ fact-finding procedures; and increasing the justice system’s efficiency in dealing with common everyday criminal offenses. (Id. at 5–19.) The proposed legislation also aims to improve the efficacy of criminal sentences by, among other measures, establishing new sentencing guidelines, improving the effective application of the sentences pronounced, developing community service sentences, establishing probationary suspended sentences, accelerating the construction of penitentiaries, and introducing better ways to deal with juvenile offenders. (Id. at 21–25.) Finally, the proposal also aims to change the organization of the French court system by merging certain lower courts, allowing the creation of specialized branches in larger jurisdictions, and reorganizing courts of appeals. (Id. at 27–28.)
Although the exact text of the bill has not yet been made public, several proposals are already proving controversial. Many lawyers, magistrates, and court clerks have already expressed concern that, contrary to the government’s stated intentions, the proposed reforms would actually make access to the justice system more difficult for victims and plaintiffs and infringe the rights of defendants. (France: la ministre de la Justice présente son projet de reforme controversé [France: the Minister of Justice Presents Her Controversial Reform Project], RFI (Apr. 20, 2018).)