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Culture and the Courts in France: the Plaidoirie Sentimentale in the Nineteenth and EarlyTwentieth Centuries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 June 2017

Extract

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Vital Mareille—a champion of the plaidoirie sentimentale—tried to explain the reasons for its rise in France and its continued popularity into his own era. He defined it in the following terms: “The plaidoirie [defense summation] sentimentale is, precisely, that which seeks to move; one can say: that which comes from the heart of the attorney, to address that of the judges.” The plaidoirie sentimentale had existed in France before 1800, but it entered its golden age in the nineteenth century, and became a specialized form of judicial oratory. It developed chiefly in response to the introduction of trial by jury in 1791. Attorneys had to craft a rhetorical approach that would appeal to these “simple citizens,” and for this, sentimental eloquence was ideal; however, no recent scholar has attempted a systematic study of this important form of courtroom rhetoric from its origins in the early nineteenth century to its gradual replacement after 1890 or thereabouts by a more fact-based, “positivist” approach. This is unfortunate, because the history of the plaidoirie sentimentale reveals much. It includes juridical issues such as how the rhetorical practices of magistrates themselves contributed to the affective nature of French jury trial and the impact of the abolition in 1881 the résumé (summing up),which had been the judge's one means of countering the effect on a jury of an eloquent defense summation. It also reveals important changes in the attitudes of judges and jurors toward male mistreatment of women and the sexual “double standard” from the middle of the nineteenth century on and of how attorneys of the era drew on both the “new” emotion of sympathy and the “old” one of honor to persuade jurors to acquit. This adds to the evidence that emotions have a “history.”

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Copyright © the American Society for Legal History, Inc. 2017 

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Footnotes

An earlier version of this article was presented at the 37th annual meeting of the Western Society for French History, in Boulder, CO, on October 23, 2009. The author thanks Elizabeth Dale and the anonymous reviewers of Law and History Review for their helpful comments.

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36. GT, December 26–27, 1877, 1242.

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38. GT, December 17, 1890, 1202.

39. GT, August 27, 1884, 836.

40. GT, August 28, 1890, 816.

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47. Martin, Crime and Criminal Justice, 247.

48. According to Yves Ozanam, a number of plaidoiries in political cases were published during the Restoration era. Yves Ozanam, “L'avocat en cour d'assises (XIXe et XXe siècles),” in Association pour l'histoire de la justice, in La cour d'assises : Bilan d'un héritage démocratique (Paris : Documentation française, 2001), 149–50. Moreover, a perusal of the WorldCat shows eighty-six plaidoiries in all types of cases published in France from 1826 through 1938. These are the ones that have survived in the world's libraries.

49. See, for example, GT, November 8, 1830, 6; Mme Steinheil est acquitte, Le Petit Journal, November 14, 1909, 2; and Mme Caillaux comparait avant le jury, Le Siècle, July 29, 1914, 2.

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56. Berenson, The Trial of Madame Caillaux, 5.

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61. Martin, Crime and Criminal Justice, 178.

62. Garner, “Criminal Procedure in France,” 263–67; Coudert, “French Criminal Procedure,” 339; and Pinon, “La Réforme,” 76–77.

63. Garner, “Criminal Procedure in France,” 270–71.

64. Code d'instruction criminelle, Article 336; and Loubat, William, “Programme minimum de réformes pénales [2],” Revue politique et parlementaire 74 (1913): 457Google Scholar.

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66. Cruppi, La Cour d'assises, 32, 169; Esmein, A History of Continental Criminal Procedure, 563; Saleilles, Raymond (trans. Rachel Szold Jastrow), The Individualization of Punishment, (Montclair, NJ : Patterson Smith, 1968), 97Google Scholar; and Gineste, Mme Caillaux comparait devant le jury, Essai sur l'histoire, 176, 176n.

67. Librairie Academique, ed., Œuvres de Berryer, 1:478; Mme Caillaux comparait devant le jury, Le Siècle, July 29, 1914, 1; Ferrari, Robert, “Crime passionnel in French Courts,” California Law Review 6 (1918): 337Google Scholar; Reddy, The Navigation of Feeling, 265, 272; and GT, December 21, 1890, 1219.

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69. Taylor, In the Theater of Criminal Justice, 10–14.

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72. Ozanam, “L'avocat en cour d'assises,” 150.

73. Quoted in Mareille, La plaidoirie sentimentale, 273.

74. Ibid.

75. GT, November 17, 1830, 54.

76. Frevert, Emotions in History, 214.

77. Reddy, The Navigation of Feeling, 264–77.

78. Quoted in Ibid., 276.

79. Ibid., 277.

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81. Ozanam, “L'avocat en cour d'assises,” 150.

82. Collingham, The July Monarchy, 119; and Nord, The Republican Moment, 118.

83. Munier-Jolain, La plaidoirie, 3: 288–89, 321.

84. Berryer, Pierre-Antoine, Leçons et modèles d’éloquence judiciaire (Paris: J. L'Henry et Cie, 1838), 1655 Google Scholar.

85. Librairie Académique, ed., Œuvres de Berryer, 1:463–65.

86. Ibid., 1:467.

87. Ibid., 1:469.

88. Ibid., 1:470.

89. Ibid., 1:478.

90. Ibid.

91. Rousse, ed., Discours et plaidoiries de M. Chaix d'Est-Ange, 2:563.

92. Ibid., 2:567.

93. Ibid., 2:619.

94. Ibid., 2:619, 621–22.

95. Louis Huart, “Physiologie de l'avocat,” in La Musée pour rire, eds. Philadelphe Maurice Alhoy, Louis Huart, and Charles Philopon. (Paris: Aubert, 1839), 1:n.p.

96. Nord, The Republican Moment, 125–26.

97. Chauvaud, La chair des prétoires, 141.

98. Harris, “Melodrama,” 43–56.

99. Shapiro, Breaking the Codes, 136.

100. Ibid., 138; and Guillais, Joëlle (trans. Jane Dunnett), Crimes of Passion: Dramas of Private Life in Nineteenth-century France, (New York: Routledge, 1991), 183, 215Google Scholar.

101. Guillais, Crimes of Passion, 69, 203, 219; and Shapiro, Breaking the Codes, 138–40, 148.

102. Guillais, Crimes of Passion, 215.

103. Ibid., 170; and Shapiro, Breaking the Codes, 139.

104. Guillais, Crimes of Passion, 170, 226.

105. Ferguson, Eliza Earle, Gender and Justice: Violence, Intimacy, and Community in Fin–de-Siècle Paris (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010), 165Google Scholar.

106. Shapiro, Breaking the Codes, 141, 148, 168.

107. Harris, “Melodrama,” 59 n.

108. Ferguson, “Judicial Authority,” 293–94, 305–9.

109. Ajam, Maurice, “Monographie d'un jury d'assises,” Archives d'anthropologie criminelle 14 (1899), 366Google Scholar; and Soulas, Le Recrutement du jury, 124.

110. Ozanam, “L'avocat en cour d'assises,” 151.

111. Chauvaud, La chair des prétoires, 141, 207.

112. Shapiro, Breaking the Codes, 37.

113. Sangnier, ed., Plaidoiries de Ch. Lachaud, 425–29.

114. Ibid., 430.

115. Ibid., 431, 433, 437, 449, 452–53, 456.

116. Ibid., 426, 458, 458 n.

117. Shapiro, Breaking the Codes, 168–69.

118. Offen, Karen, European Feminisms, 1700–1950 : A Political History (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000), 20, 144249 Google Scholar (quote at 20).

119. Fuchs, Rachel G., Contested Paternity: Constructing Families in Modern France (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 59–61, 68100 Google Scholar.

120. Fuchs, Rachel G., Poor and Pregnant in Paris: Strategies for Survival in the Nineteenth Century (New Brunswick, NJ : Rutgers University Press, 1992), 9293 Google Scholar.

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122. Ibid, 541–49.

123. Ibid., 548–49; and Duvergier, Jean-Baptiste, Code pénal annoté (Paris: A. Guyot et Scribe, 1833)Google Scholar, Article 324.

124. Shapiro, Breaking the Codes, 140–41.

125. Frevert, Emotions in History, 37–77.

126. Harris, “Melodrama,” 57.

127. Garner, “Criminal Procedure in France,” 271.

128. Loubat, “Programme minimum de réformes pénales [2],” 457.

129. Code d'instruction criminelle, Article 336.

130. Cruppi, La Cour d'assises, 141; Garner, “Criminal Procedure in France,” 264, 271–72; Bouchardon, Pierre, Le magistrat (Paris: Hachette, 1926), 98Google Scholar; Schnapper, Bernard, “Le Jury français aux XIX et XX siècles,” in The Trial Jury in England, France, Germany, 1700–1900, ed. Antonio Padoa Schioppa (Berlin : Duncker and Humblot, 1987), 228–29Google Scholar; and Pradel, Jean, “Le Jury en France: Une histoire jamais terminée,” Revue internationale de droit pénal 72 (2001): 176Google Scholar.

131. Cruppi, La Cour d'assises, 141.

132. Pradel, “Le Jury en France,” 176; Schnapper, “Le Jury,” 228–29.

133. From the 1830s through the 1870s, the overall conviction rate had slowly increased. From 1873 through 1879, 33,059 persons were tried in the cours d'assises, of whom 26,256 (79.4%) were convicted and 6,803 (20.6%) were acquitted. In 1880, 4,125 were tried, of whom 3,103 (75.2%) were convicted and 1,022 (24.8%) were acquitted. In 1881, the figures were 4,320 tried, 3,183 (73.7%) convicted, and 1,137 (26.3%) acquitted. In 1882, 4,814 were tried, 3,497 (72.6%) were convicted, and 1,317 (27.4%) were acquitted. The figures for 1883 were 4,313 tried, 3,110 (72.1%) convicted, and 1,203 (27.9 %) acquitted. Through the remainder of the 1880s, the percentages barely budged. From 1890 through 1894, the conviction rate declined very slightly. In 1895, however, when 3,553 persons were tried, the conviction rate more significantly dropped to 2,372 (66.8%), and acquittals rose to 1,181 (33.2%). In 1913, 3,088 persons were tried, 1,988 (64.4%) were convicted, and 1,100 (35.6%) were acquitted. Donovan, James M., Juries and the Transformation of Criminal Justice in France in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010), 58Google Scholar. de la Justice, Ministère, Compte général de l'administration de la justice criminelle pendant l'année… (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1875–97 and 1915), 1873–95Google Scholar, Table 2, p. 5; 1913, Table 2, p. 7 (hereafter referred to as Compte général).

134. In 1880, 1,604 persons were tried for theft in the cours d'assises, of whom 261 (16.3 %) were acquitted. In 1881, 1,658 were tried and 246 (14.8%) were acquitted. In 1882, acquittals rose to 352 (18.0%) of the 1,960 persons tried for theft. However, in the following year, the acquittal rate dropped to 17.4% (283 of 1,630 persons tried). The acquittal rate for theft barely budged in the following years, and stood at 17.1% (302 of 1,685 tried) in 1890. The acquittal rate for meurtre rose from 24.2% (40 of 165 persons tried) in 1880, to 67 (30.9 %) of the 217 persons tried in 1881. In 1882, however, the acquittal rate dropped to 26.2% (56 of 214 tried). It rose to 37.4% (74 of 222 tried) in 1883. The acquittal rate then dropped again to 30.8% (74 of 240 tried) in 1884. Through the remainder of the 1880s, the acquittal rate for meurtre generally remained very near 30%. For assassinat, the acquittal rate dropped from 29.4% (74 of 252 persons tried) in 1880 to 19.5 % (54 of 277 tried) in 1882. Thereafter, the acquittal rate for assassinat varied from approximately 20–25% through the remainder of the 1880s. For white collar crimes, the acquittal rate was 35.9% (193 of 538 persons tried) in 1880, and it was scarcely higher (36.2% or 229 of 633 tried) in 1882. The acquittal rate then rose to 40.3% (225 of 558 persons tried) in 1884. It remained very near 40% through the rest of the 1880s. Acquittals for abortion rose sharply from 18 (39.1%) of 46 persons tried in 1880, to 40 (56.3% of 71 persons tried) in 1881, to 60.5% (23 of 38 persons tried) in 1882. By 1890, the acquittal rate had risen to 66.7% (36 of 54 persons tried). The acquittal rate for arson rose from 32.9% (80 of 243 tried) in 1880, to 43.7% (76 of 204 persons tried) in 1884. It remained near 40% through the remainder of the 1880s. Compte général, 1880–90, Tables 1 and 2, pp. 4–5.

135. Schnapper, “Le Jury,” 165.

136. Royer, Jean-Pierre, Histoire de la justice en France de la monarchie absolue à la République (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1995), 577Google Scholar; and Martin, Crime and Criminal Justice, 196, 207.

137. Martin, Crime and Criminal Justice, 196–97.

138. Ibid., 207.

139. Chauvaud, La chair des prétoires, 115.

140. Donovan, James M., “The Changing Composition of Juries in France, 1825–1913,” Proceedings of the Western Society for French History: Selected Papers of the Annual Meeting 23 (1996): 258–59Google Scholar.

141. From 1849 through 1853, 625,470 persons were inscribed on the annual jury lists. Of these, 51,539 (8.2 %) were workers, 87,926 (14.1%) were peasants (cultivateurs, fermiers, laboureurs), 49,396 (7.9 %) were civil servants, 111,931 (17.9%) were merchants and manufacturers, 70,295 (11.2 %) belonged to the liberal professions, and 254,383 (40.7%) were propriétaires and rentiersvivant de leur revenue.” Compte général, 1849, Table 148, p. 255; 1850, Table 149, p. 255; 1851, Table 147, p. 259; 1852, Table 141, p. 353; 1853, Table 139, p. 255.

142. For the jury law of 1853, see Donovan, “The Changing Composition,” 260. When this law was in effect, from 1854 (the lists for this year were drawn up in the fall of 1853) through 1870, 723,796 persons were inscribed on the annual jury lists. Of these, 11,517 (1.6 %) were workers, 48,476 (6.7% were peasants, 92,088 (12.7%) were civil servants, 120,751 (16.7 %) were merchants and manufacturers, 107,951 (14.9 %) belonged to the liberal professions, and 343,013 (47.4%) were propriétaires and rentiers. Compte général, 1854, Table 139, p. 251; 1855, Table 135, p. 251; 1856–57, Table 137, p. 251; 1858–59, Table 135, p. 249; 1860, Table 133, p. 247; 1861–62, Table 131, p. 249; 1863, Table 134, p. 255; 1864, Table 131, p. 253; 1865–69, Table 132, p. 253; 1870, Table 101, p. 203.

143. “Décret remettant provisoirement en vigueur le décret du 7 août 1848 sur le jury,” Journal officiel de la République Français, October 15, 1879, 1639. The Compte général for 1871 does not include a table on the occupations of persons included in the annual jury lists. In 1872, the number of men inscribed on the annual jury lists was 123,882. Of these, 55,562 (44.9%) were propriétaires and rentiers, 12,486 (10.1%) belonged to the liberal professions, 24,261 (19.6%) were merchants and manufacturers, 8,292 (6.7%) were civil servants, 6,045 (4.9%) were workers, and 17,236 (13.9%) were peasants. Compte général, 1872, Table 3, p. 209.

144. Donovan, James M., “Not a Right But a Public Function: The Debate in the French National Assembly Over the 1872 Law on Jury Formation,” French History 21 (2007): 403–8Google Scholar.

145. Of the 15,000 persons inscribed on the annual jury lists in the Seine department from 1849 through 1853, 725 (4.8%) were workers, 132 (0.9%) were peasants, 1,319 (8.8%) were civil servants, 6,269 (41.8%) were merchants and manufacturers, 3,014 (20.1%) belonged to the liberal professions, and 3,541 (23.6%) were propriétaires and rentiers. Of the 34,000 persons inscribed on the annual jury lists in the department of the Seine from 1854 through 1870, 290 (0.9%) were workers, 254 (0.7%) were peasants, 3,045 (9.0%) were civil servants, 12,451 (36.6%) were merchants and manufacturers, 5,707 (16.8%) belonged to the liberal professions, and 12,253 (36.0%) were propriétaires and rentiers. Compte général, 1849, Table 148, p. 255; 1850, Table 149, p. 255; 1851, Table 147, p. 259; 1852, Table 141, p. 253; 1853, Table 139, p. 255; 1854, Table 139, p. 251; 1855, Table 135, p. 251; 1856–57, Table 137, p. 251; 1858–59, Table 135, p. 249; 1860, Table 133, p. 247; 1861–62, Table 131, p. 249; 1863, Table 134, p. 255; 1864, Table 131, p. 253; 1865–69, Table 132, p. 253; 1870, Table 101, p. 203.

146. Cruppi, La Cour d'assises, 22–23.

147. Of the 7,500 persons inscribed on the annual jury lists in the Sarthe from 1849 through 1853, 601 (8.0 %) were workers, 954 (12.7 %) were peasants, 312 (4.2 %) were civil servants, 1,594 (21.3%) were merchants and manufacturers, 838 (11.2 %) were members of the liberal professions, and 3,201 (42.7 %) were propriétaires and rentiers. Of the 8,500 persons inscribed on the jury lists in the Sarthe from 1854 through 1870, 104 (1.2%) were workers, 257 (3.0%) were peasants, 1,556 (18.3%) were civil servants, 1,082 (12.7%) were merchants and manufacturers, 1,426 (16.8%) belonged to the liberal professions, and 4,075 (47.9 %) were propriétaires and rentiers. Compte général, 1849, Table 148, p. 255; 1850, Table 149, p. 255; 1851, Table 147, p. 259; 1852, Table 141, p. 253; 1853, Table 139, p. 255; 1854, Table 139, p. 251; 1855, Table 135, p. 251; 1856–57, Table 137, p. 251; 1858–59, Table 135, p. 249; 1860, Table 133, p. 247; 1861–62, Table 131, p. 249; 1863, Table 134, p. 255; 1864, Table 131, p. 253; 1865–69, Table 132, p. 253; 1870, Table 101, p. 203.

148. Ajam, “Monographie d'un jury d'assises,” 350.

149. L'Inscription des ouvriers sur la liste annuelle du jury,” Revue pénitentiaire 32 (1908): 315–17Google Scholar; Léon Guibourg, Le jury criminal, son organization, son fonctionnement: Exposé pratique de la legislation et de la jurisprudence réglant la formation du Jury et ses attributions (Paris: Administration du Bulletin-commentaire des lois nouvelles et décrets, 1911), 23–25.

150. Dr. Maxwell, [J], “La crise du jury,Archives d'anthropologie criminelle 29 (1914): 253–54Google Scholar.

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152. Nye, Robert A., Crime, Madness and Politics in Modern France: The Medical Concept of National Decline (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984), 99–104, 107, 109Google Scholar.

153. Ibid., 119–22, 124–29.

154. Foucault, Michel, “The Dangerous Individual,” in Michel Foucault: Politics, Philosophy, Culture, ed. Kritzman, Lawrence D. (New York: Routledge, 1988), 125, 128Google Scholar.

155. O'Brien, Patricia, “The Kleptomania Diagnosis: Bourgeois Women and Theft in Late Nineteenth-Century France,” Journal of Social History 17 (1983): 6577 Google Scholar.

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157. Berenson, Edward, “The Politics of Divorce in France of the Belle Epoque: The Case of Joseph and Henriette Caillaux,” American Historical Review 93 (1988): 38Google Scholar; and Harris, “Melodrama,” 40–41.

158. Shapiro, Breaking the Codes, 116.

159. From 1873 to 1879, the acquittal rate for men in the cours d'assises was 18.5% and for women it was 31.3%. For the years 1880–93, the figures were 24.6% for men and 46.6% for women. From 1894 to 1908, 27.9% of the men were acquitted and for women the acquittal rate was 54.4%. Then, from 1909 to 1913, the acquittal rate for women (62.1%) was more than double the rate for men (30.7%). Donovan, Juries and the Transformation, 128.

160. Cruppi, La Cour d'assises, 59–60.

161. Berenson, The Trial of Madame Caillaux, 15–16, 19–20, 39–40; Nye, Crime, Madness, and Politics, 202–26.

162. Ferguson, Gender and Justice, 164.

163. Ibid., note 9, 219–20.

164. Martin, Crime and Criminal Justice, 247–48.

165. Ibid., 70–71; and Shapiro, Breaking the Codes, 157.

166. GT, December 21, 1890, 1219; and Appignanesi, Trials of Passion, 222–24.

167. GT, December 21, 1890, 1219.

168. Chauvaud, La chaire des prétoires, 144.

169. Ozanam, “L'avocat en cour d'assises,” 152.

170. Chauvaud, La chair des prétoires, 144.

171. Cruppi, “Le procès de la plaidoirie,” 599; Munier-Jolain, La plaidoirie, 1:viii; 3:422. The three volumes of Munier-Jolain's book were originally published between 1896 and 1900.

172. Chauvaud, La chair des prétoires, 143.

173. Martin, Crime and Criminal Justice, 248.

174. Mareille, La plaidoirie sentimentale, vii.

175. Weber, Eugen, France, Fin-de-Siècle (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1986), 167Google Scholar.

176. Le Petit Journal, November 14, 1909, 2.

177. Ibid.

178. Millié, Henry, Quatre Plaidoiries (Mende: Ignon-Renouard, 1911), 59Google Scholar.

179. Ibid., 60.

180. Berenson, The Trial of Madame Caillaux, 16.

181. Mme Caillaux comparait devant le jury, Le Siècle, July 29, 1914, 2.

182. GT, July 30, 1914, 699.

183. Bredin and Lévy, Convaincre, 261.

184. Ibid., 265.

185. Robert, L'Avocat, 24–26, 35–36.

186. Chauvaud, La chair des prétoires, 145.

187. Martin, Crime and Criminal Justice, 247.

188. Cohendy, Georges, L'art de la plaidoirie (Paris: Libriarie générale de Droit et de Jurisprudence, 1948), 196, 101–2Google Scholar.

189. Ibid., 42–60.

190. Schnapper, “Le Jury français,” 233–34.

191. Ibid., 187; Kock, Gerald L., trans., The French Code of Criminal Procedure (South Hackensack, NJ: Fred B. Rothman, 1964)Google Scholar, Article 357 (hereafter referred to as The French Code).

192. From 1825 through 1941, the acquittal rate in the cours d'assises varied from approximately one fourth to two fifths of the cases that they tried, and the proportion acquitted in the magistrate-only tribunaux correctionnels was approximately only one tenth. However, in the years 1942–44, the acquittal rate in the cours d'assises dropped to only 8.8%, and the figure was 10.1% in the years 1945–52; approximately equal to the percentages in the tribunaux correctionnels. Donovan, Juries and the Transformation, 58, 60. In the years 2002–6, only 5.7% of persons tried in the cours d'assises were acquitted. Française, République, Général, Secrétariat, Service support et moyens du ministère, Annuaire statistique de la Justice 2008 (Paris: La Documentation française, 2009), 127Google Scholar.

193. The French Code, Article 328.

194. Ibid., Article 303; Taylor, In the Theater of Criminal Justice, 37; Hans, Valerie P. and Germain, Claire M., “The French Jury at a Crossroads,” Chicago-Kent Law Review 86 (2011): 750–51Google Scholar.

195. Pugh, “Administration of Criminal Justice in France,” 26.

196. Aron, Matthieu, ed., Les grandes plaidoiries des tenors du barreau: Quand les mots peuvent tout changer (Paris: Jacob-Duvernet, 2010)Google Scholar.

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198. In the post-World War II era, a criminal justice reform movement in France known as the Défense sociale nouvelle aimed to look at the “total man” in regard to the “treatment” (rather than simply punishment) of criminals, with the aim of their “resocialization.” The revised Code of Penal Procedure, put into place in 1958, provided for the individualized treatment of offenders based on a personality profile compiled by experts. The code also created the juges d'application des peines (supervising magistrates) in the prisons. Wright, Gordon, Between the Guillotine and Liberty: Two Centuries of the Crime Problem in France (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983), 194–98Google Scholar.