Talk:French criminal law

Translation of French wikilinks
Use Wikidata links to find the correct wikilink at en-wiki:

Where equivalents exists, they are shown (use lower-case s needed); where they do not, use ill template as shown. Where '+ efn' is indicated, it means that no brief translation would be adequate, and an explanatory note is recommended.


 * fr:Action publique en droit pénal français ⟶  Public action in French law + efn
 * fr:CJUE ⟶ CJEU
 * fr:Code pénal (France) ⟶  French penal code
 * fr:Code pénal de 1810 ⟶  French Penal Code of 1810|Penal Code of 1810
 * fr:Contravention en droit pénal français ⟶   Contravention in French law
 * fr:Cour d'appel (France) ⟶   Court of appeal (France)|court of appeal
 * fr:Cour d'assises (France) ⟶  cour d'assises
 * fr:Cour de cassation (France) ⟶  Court of Cassation (France)|Court of Cassation
 * fr:Cour de justice de l'Union européenne ⟶  Court of Justice of the European Union
 * fr:Cour européenne des droits de l'homme ⟶  European Court of Human Rights
 * fr:Crime en France ⟶  Crime in France|crime + efn
 * fr:Culpabilité (droit) ⟶  culpability
 * fr:Délit pénal en France ⟶  Délit in French law + efn
 * fr:Démocratie libérale ⟶  liberal democracies
 * fr:Droit civil en France ⟶  Civil law in France
 * fr:droit français ⟶  law of France
 * fr:droit pénal ⟶  criminal law
 * fr:droit privé ⟶  private law
 * fr:droit public ⟶  public law
 * fr:Élément matériel en droit pénal français ⟶  Material element in French law + efn
 * fr:Élément moral en droit pénal français ⟶  Moral element in French law + efn
 * fr:enquête de police ⟶  Police investigation in French law
 * fr:infraction ⟶   offense
 * fr:Instruction (droit) ⟶   Judicial inquiry (French law) + efn
 * fr:Jour-amende (droit français) ⟶  day-fine
 * fr:Jugement en droit français ⟶  Judgement in French law
 * fr:jurisprudence ⟶   case law
 * législateur ⟶  legislator
 * fr:libre arbitre ⟶   free will
 * fr:Personne morale en droit français ⟶  Juridical person in French law
 * fr:Personne physique en droit français ⟶  Natural person in French law
 * fr:Poursuite (droit) ⟶  lawsuit
 * fr:pouvoir exécutif ⟶  Executive (government)|executive powers
 * fr:préalable légal ⟶
 * fr:Premier Empire ⟶  First French Empire
 * fr:Principe de légalité en droit pénal ⟶   principle of legality
 * fr:Procédure pénale en France ⟶  Criminal procedure in France
 * fr:Procureur de la République (France) ⟶  Public prosecutor (France)
 * fr:Réclusion criminelle en France ⟶  criminal detention + efn
 * fr:Sanction pénale en France ⟶  Penal sanctions in France
 * fr:Source du droit ⟶  --unlink--
 * fr:Sursis en procédure pénale française ⟶  Conditional sentencing in French law
 * sursis avec mise à l'épreuve ⟶  Conditional sentencing in French law
 * fr:système juridique ⟶  Juridical system
 * fr:Travail d'intérêt général en France ⟶  Community service penal sanctions in France
 * fr:Tribunal correctionnel (France) ⟶  Tribunal correctionnel ⟶ Correctional court
 * fr:Tribunal de police (France) ⟶  Police Tribunal (France)|police tribunal
 * fr:Tribunal ⟶  court

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Mathglot (talk • contribs) 22:54, 19 November 2022 (UTC)

Possible in-links and redirects
The following articles may have content useful for possible in-links to this article:

✔️ Alain Pompidou

✔️ Anti-Sacrilege Act

✔️ Biens mal acquis

✔️ Code of Offences and Penalties

✔️ Code pénal (France)

✔️ Conférence des avocats du barreau de Paris

✔️ Constitution of France

✔️ Cour d'assises

✔️ Court of Cassation (France)

✔️ Criminal justice in New France

✔️ Criminal justice system of France

✔️ Criminal Ordinance of 1670

✔️ Criminal law

✔️ Criminal responsibility in French law

✔️ Faustin Hélie

✔️ Fourth French Republic

✔️ French Penal Code of 1791

✔️ French Penal Code of 1810

❌   Gayssot Act

✔️ Hester Rebecca Nepping

✔️ History of France

✔️ History of zoophilia

✔️ Jean-Jacques-Régis de Cambacérès

✔️ Law in France

✔️ Law on the fight against terrorism

❌   LICRA v. Yahoo!

❌   List of national constitutions

❌   Martin Dumollard

✔️ Murder (French law)

❌   Organic Articles

❌   Parliamentary immunity in France

❌   Preamble

✔️ Right to silence

✔️ Tribunal correctionnel

✔️ Tulle massacre

✔️ Women in Islam


 * Possible redirects:
 * Criminal law in France –  (currently points to Law of France)
 * Criminal law (France)

Third paragraph
, thanks for helping out with the third paragraph. Regarding the inline hidden comments you added, thanks as well. The article will no doubt go through expansion and evolution once it is launched. My initial approach is just to faithfully translate the lead, whether it be right, wrong, iffy, or unclear. We may end up reorganizing, modifying, or tearing it all up and starting from scratch, but I would like to just get those four paragraphs done as faithfully as possible, add a few references to pass notability, and then move it to mainspace. At that point, it will have much higher visibility, and hopefully the editing community will pitch in and take it to the next level.

As far as your inline comments, methodologically I prefer higher visibility than leaving them hidden. I use two approaches for this: explanatory notes, and template clarify span. Notes are useful when we know perfectly well what the French text is saying (e.g., délit), but it can't easily be rendered in English in just a few words; in this case, add an explanatory note about it, which will allow readers to read straight through the running text without stopping, but refer to the note if they wish to understand better. (There are three of these created already but not yet filled out.) In cases where we are *not* sure what the French text intends, then take your best shot, and  which will visibly tag the questionable translation and alert editors to hover over the tag or read the wikicode to fix it. Thanks, Mathglot (talk) 22:12, 8 December 2021 (UTC)


 * I'll follow your suggestions, :)   Santacruz  &#8258;  Please ping me!  22:24, 8 December 2021 (UTC)

Inspiration
At Talk:Éric Zemmour (diff); now in Archive 2. Mathglot (talk) 01:43, 10 February 2022 (UTC)

Invitations
JBchrch, you made some good observations about rendering concepts of French criminal law into English a year ago in a discussion at the Eric Zemmour article TP (now at Talk:Éric_Zemmour/Archive_2). In part, they inspired the creation of this article. Elinruby, we've worked well together before, both in French historical articles, as well as in articles such as the Operation Car Wash series, involving concepts in Brazilian law (which derive from the Napoleonic system) which is so different and complex I ended up creating WP:Brazil/Glossary just to find my way around.

Anyway, after idling for months, I finally had to release French criminal law to avoid deletion out of Draft space, but it is in need of expansion and fresh eyes. You are both cordially invited to have a look, and to get involved as little or as much as you would like. If it seems difficult to know where to begin, that seems about right, as I had to immerse myself at the outset and throughout the editing process in a lot of contextual background material on the French constitutional, governmental, administrative, judicial, and legal systems, to see how things fit together, almost none of which was obvious or familiar to me at the beginning, and hardly any of which is directly relevant to this article (with the exception of some outlines of the judicial system). Browsing the diagram expanded to max size may help; as would an outline-style article on the topic area, although I think outlines are not supposed to have lots (or any?) red links, and at this point, an outline article would be almost all red links (echoing the splatter of red links all over the lead of this article which reflect the void in en-wiki about this entire subject). Besides contributing directly to this article, another entry point to the topic area would be to address any of the red links and expand it into an article, if that appeals. Happy to offer suggestions or respond to questions based on my still elementary understanding of the topic area, if I can help. Thanks, and welcome! Mathglot (talk) 22:08, 19 November 2022 (UTC)

Sanctions section
The section on Punishment should be considerably expanded. The French article Sanction pénale en France is a long article about the topic, but unfortunately it has almost no references, so it is probably not a good source to translate from but may be useful for general background. Mathglot (talk) 22:52, 19 November 2022 (UTC)
 * This section now has six references. Just found a great resource in Understanding the sentencing process in France (Hodgson-Soubise, 2016). It covers this topic in detail (and in English), and could be used to considerably expand the #Sanctions section. Mathglot (talk) 22:45, 18 February 2023 (UTC)

Marshalcy
This makes my teeth hurt, but I don't have a better suggestion ATM. Marshal does seem to be the best translation of maréchal, as I recall from previous adventures in the Ancient Régime. I don't like it because American minds will go to Tombstone etc. Let's start with: is this actually a word in English? Elinruby (talk) 16:44, 20 November 2022 (UTC)


 * I see it is. Elinruby (talk) 16:54, 20 November 2022 (UTC)
 * Just like Maréchaussée is an infrequent word in French, mostly reserved for the historical entity under the Ancien Regime, the same could be said of Marshalcy in a British context. My impression is that the situation has some good parellelism, with both words being rare-ish in their respective languages, except to designate a particular entity from past centuries (although I think there are multiple kinds of historical Marshalcies in British history, but I could be wrong about that). So using the unfamiliar Marshalcy to translate the unfamiliar Maréchaussée (besides the fact that that's the term dictionaries actually give as the translation) is probably a good thing. We're both well aware that translation hardly ever is a one-to-one business, and the difficulties and imprecision of choosing a word in one language for one in another with completely different cultural and historical baggage is never an exact science; but with that caveat, my current opinion is that Marshalcy is about as close as we can get, and is good enough. Mathglot (talk) 08:12, 21 November 2022 (UTC)


 * I don't have a better idea, and it's at least a word. I am mentally putting this on the pile of terms that possibly should be treated as foreign language words, but at least for the moment I agree that it should stay, although I still don't like it, lol Elinruby (talk) 17:20, 21 November 2022 (UTC)

Moral persons
This would include corporations? And who else? Elinruby (talk) 16:50, 20 November 2022 (UTC)

The fr-wiki article on this is vast; considering it for translation Elinruby (talk) 18:29, 21 November 2022 (UTC)

The what and awkward tags
Thanks for adding the what and awkward tags in recent edits. You've nailed a few items that I had trouble translating, and that I suspect are fuzzy in the original (which is insufficiently sourced, otherwise I could've just gone straight to the source, and recreated the gist from there; but mostly they weren't there when needed, leaving just the cryptic text). Those sections indeed need improvement. Mathglot (talk) 08:57, 21 November 2022 (UTC)

No problem, but I noticed that the article is now listed at Articles needing copyedit, so we may have an influx of well-meaning editors who have never heard of Napoleonic law, FYI. Not sure what I can or should do about that. Elinruby (talk) 17:16, 21 November 2022 (UTC)
 * We could change it to WP:HIDDEN text instead (not my fave solution), or I wonder if there's another maint template that doesn't have a tracking category? probably not. But the influx, if any, is likely to be small; the articles tagged for copyedit just in this month of November are here, and the fuller list is a couple thousand, so not too worried. Mathglot (talk) 19:20, 21 November 2022 (UTC)

Juge d'instruction problem
In the lede: "The *public prosecutor* [fr] and his staff are responsible for the pursuit of legal proceedings and criminal prosecution, in collaboration with the police. To determine the offense, the *judge* must have..." (Bold mine)

Indeed correct afaik, but the average quidam will not understand. I did not attempt to fix this, as doing so will require verifying that we are in fact talking about the juge d'instruction here. Elinruby (talk) 19:09, 21 November 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks; I'll go back and check the source where I got that. Mathglot (talk) 18:18, 4 December 2022 (UTC)

Redlink abatement
Translated the lede of "action publique"; I got a translated temple on it but have to look up the syntax of the expand tag. I will get to that at some point today. Elinruby (talk) 19:17, 21 November 2022 (UTC)
 * Public action in French law is a good start. It only has one reference, and my rule of thumb is WP:THREE to give it a solid foothold in main space, but it's clearly a notable topic so I don't think there's any chance of deletion, but still two more refs would be better. Mathglot (talk) 18:26, 4 December 2022 (UTC)

MT pitfall re société
To whom it may concern: The French word for society in general, société, is also the translation for "company", as in an organization, and Google Translate (at least) confuses the two meanings. We should not rely on Google, but the keyword is "rely". In experienced and fluent hands it's an ok first-pass tool imho. I am just saying: there is a hole in the road there, if we run into confusing text in this area. Elinruby (talk) 20:02, 21 November 2022 (UTC)

Terminology
Thinking about a terminology section, and what to add there. Being that this is about a French topic, clearly there are very many terms that will be unfamiliar to English-speaking readers, and translations are very often only approximations, and there are pitfalls, so we should probably say something about that. Otoh, with the quantity of foreign terms in the article, explaining them all (outside of a brief, parenthetical note or explanatory note in line) would be too much. I'm leaning towards just including some of the most important ones, as well as any that are problematic because of false friend issues or where the real meaning cannot be determined from the cognate term in English (e.g., action publique), or which have dual meanings in the original French which would be unclear or misleading if simply translated with one term in English and not explained (like droit civil). Here's the list of terms that currently appear somewhere in the article as of rev. 1141959857‎:


 * action civile
 * action publique
 * application de la loi pénale dans le temps
 * cas prévôtaux
 * code pénal
 * compétence
 * compositions pénale
 * Conférence de consensus
 * contravention
 * contraventions
 * cour de cassation
 * cours d'assises
 * crime
 * crimes
 * délit
 * délits
 * détention criminelle
 * détention
 * droit administratif
 * droit commun
 * droit privé
 * élément matériel
 * élément moral
 * emprisonnement
 * enquête
 * favoriser son amendement, son insertion ou sa réinsertion
 * Habit de Procureur
 * Il n'y a point de crime ou de délit sans intention de le commettre.
 * infraction
 * instruction
 * juge de l'application des peines
 * juge d'instruction
 * juridictions de l'ordre judiciaire
 * Légalité des délits et des peines
 * maréchaussée
 * nouveau code pénal
 * Nul ne peut être puni qu'en vertu d'une loi établie et promulguée antérieurement au délit, et légalement appliquée.
 * order administrative
 * ordre judiciaire
 * partie civile
 * peine de stage
 * Personne physique en droit français
 * préalable légal
 * prévôtés
 * principe de légalité
 * procureur
 * réclusion a perpétuité
 * réclusion criminelle
 * réclusion
 * responsabilité pénale des personnes morales
 * travail d'intérêt général
 * tribunal correctionnel
 * tribunal de police

Mathglot (talk) 20:35, 27 February 2023 (UTC)
 * The Glossary of French criminal law now mostly serves this purpose, and every headword is directly addressable. Some terms, especially those which are false friends or whose literal translation is opaque (e.g., action publique) might still require in-line explanation, or an explanatory note. Mathglot (talk) 03:01, 9 July 2023 (UTC)

Merge from old article pre-redirect?
Note: revision 1153654616 of Criminal justice system of France (now a redirect to this article) may have some content that could be merged here. Mathglot (talk) 01:35, 28 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Had another look, and now I don't think so. Mathglot (talk) 05:20, 10 July 2023 (UTC)

Sources of the law
The theme of studying the "sources of the law" is highly developed in France, and this section should be expanded and developed. Possibly the main treatment should reside in French law with a summary here, since most of the discussion pertains to both criminal and civil law.

To expand this section, see Dickson & Hübner, ch. 1, and Elliott, Jeanpierre & Vernon chap. 3 & 4 dealing with "written" (droit écrit) and unwritten sources (droit coutumier) of the law. Interestingly, EJV says some of the "unwritten sources" are actually written,, so this written/unwritten dichotomy seems misnamed, and defines "unwritten" as "sources which do not emanate from a public authority". Dickson & Hübner deal with this on p. 6. Dadomo & Farran use different language, calling them "authoritative" and "persuasive". De Noblet calls them "creative sources" and "interpretive sources"..

From Dadomo & Farran:
 * Sources of law in France are divided into those that are authoritative — the primary sources of law — which give rise to legal rules; and those that are persuasive — the subsidiary sources of law — from which no binding rules can be derived. The former includes legislation and custom, the latter jurisprudence — the decisions of the courts — and doctrine — legal writings.

D & F go on to subdivide "authoritative" sources into 1) "written law", i.e., the lois, the Constitution, the décrets-lois, constitutional, organic, and ordinary laws, réglements (referred to in the Const.), ordonnances (ditto), treaties and int'l agreements, and community law; and 2) "custom", which emanates "from the people, not the State, but is recognized and safeguarded by the State". There is no definition of custom, but the law recognizes three types. Mathglot (talk) 20:50, 12 September 2023 (UTC)


 * Citations


 * Works