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How Should the Other be Judged?: Justice and Cultural Difference in French Assize Courts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Véronique Bouillier
Véronique Bouillier*
Affiliation:
CNRS-EHESS, France
*
Véronique Bouillier, Centre d’Etudes de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud, EHESS, 190-198 Avenue de France, 75013 Paris, France. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This paper shows how, in the French Assizes Courts, the accusation of foreign defendants (here, mainly Sri Lankans) and the verbal exchanges with them during their trial reveal the implicit codes and presuppositions that govern the French judiciary system. Through an analysis of the part that the language plays in court, and hence the importance of interpreters, this paper will consider the emotions that are revealed during the trial and the role assigned to ‘culture’. It will conclude that the two requirements of equality before the law and of individualization of punishment are often in contradiction.

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Information
Diogenes , Volume 60 , Issue 3-4: The Boundaries of Law. Justice, Powers, and Politics , November 2013 , pp. 74 - 86
Copyright
Copyright © ICPHS 2015

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