Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-r5zm4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-21T05:29:18.819Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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: Veronique.Bouillier@ehess.fr
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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.

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bandes, S (1996) Empathy, Narrative and Victim Impact Statement. The University of Chicago Law Review 63(2): 361–412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bandes, S (ed.) (1999) The Passions of Law. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Bloch, M (1963) ‘Pour une histoire comparée des sociétés européennes’ [1928], in M. Bloch, Mélanges Historiques, i. Paris: SEVPEN.Google Scholar
Bouillier, V (2011) ‘French Law Courts and South Asian Litigants’, in Holden, L. (ed.), Cultural Expertise and Litigation: Patterns, Conflicts, Narratives. London: Routledge, pp. 53–70.Google Scholar
Conley, JM, O’Barr, WM (2005) Just Words. Law, Language and Power. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (1st edn, 1998).Google Scholar
Davis, NZ (1987) Fiction in the Archives: Pardon Tales and their Tellers in Sixteenth-Century France. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Detienne, M (2000) Comparer l’incomparable. Paris: Seuil.Google Scholar
Dubarry, H (2008) Assise de Tarbes. 15 ans requis contre le sherpa. La Dépêche (11 October) and Quinze ans de réclusion pour le sherpa meurtrier. La Dépêche (12 October); www.ladepeche.fr/article/2008/10/12/481206-quinze-ans-de-reclusion-pour-le-sherpa-meurtrier.html.Google Scholar
Dundes Renteln, A (2005) The Use and Abuse of the Cultural Defense. Canadian Journal of Law and Society 20(1): 47–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eagleton, T (2000) The Idea of Culture. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Fortier, V (2000) Justice, religions et croyances. Paris: CNRS.Google Scholar
Garapon, A, Papadopoulos, I (2003) Juger en Amérique et en France. Culture juridique française et common law. Paris: Odile Jacob.Google Scholar
Garfinkel, H (1967) Studies in Ethnomethodology. Englewoods Cliffs, New Jersey: Practice-Hall Inc.Google Scholar
Good, A (2008) Cultural Evidence in Courts of Law. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 14(s1): S47–S60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hale, S (2002) How Faithfully Do Court Interpreters Render the Style of Non-English Speaking Witnesses’ Testimonies? A Date-Based Study of Spanish-English Bilingual Proceedings. Discourse Studies 4(25): 25–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larchet, K (2012) Des ‘non-experts ?’ Les experts interprètes traducteurs auprès de la justice. In Pelisse, J, Protais, C, Larchet, K, Charrier, É (eds) Des chiffres, des maux et des lettres. Une sociologie de l’expertise judiciaire en économie, psychiatrie et traduction. Paris: Armand Colin, pp. 129–191.Google Scholar
Latour, B (2002) La Fabrique du droit. Un ethnographe au Conseil d’État. Paris: La Découverte.Google Scholar
Le Caisne, L (2008) Avoir 16 ans à Fleury. Ethnographie d’un centre de jeunes détenus. Paris: Seuil.Google Scholar
Lynch, M, Bogen, D (1996) The Spectacle of History. Speech, Text, and Memory at the Iran-Contra Hearings. Durham/London: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Moskovitz, M (1995) The O. J. Inquisition: A United States Encounter With Continental Criminal Justice. Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law 28: 1121–1195.Google Scholar
Roberts, D (1999) Why Culture Matters to Law. In Sarat, A, Kearns, T (eds) Cultural Pluralism, Identity Politics, and the Law. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, pp. 85–110.Google Scholar
Rosen, L (1977) The Anthropologist as Expert Witness. American Anthropologist 79(3): 555–578.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rude-Antoine, E (2001) La coexistence des systèmes juridiques différents en France : l’exemple du droit familial. In Kahn, P (ed.) L’Étranger et le droit de la famille, pluralité ethnique, pluralisme juridique. Paris: La Documentation française, pp. 146–170.Google Scholar
Salas, D (2005) La Volonté de punir : essai sur le populisme pénal. Paris: Hachette.Google Scholar
Sarat, A (1999) Remorse, Responsability, and Criminal Punishment: An Analysis of Popular Culture. In Bandes, S (ed.) The Passions of Law. New York: New York Unversity Press, pp. 168–190.Google Scholar
Shah, P (2009) Transnational Hindu Law Adoptions: Recognition and Treatment in Britain. International Journal of Law in Context 5(2): 107–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Terrio, SJ (2009) Judging Mohammed. Juvenile Delinquency, Immigration, and Exclusion at the Paris Palace of Justice. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Van Broeck, J (2001) Cultural Defence and Culturally Motivated Crimes (Cultural Offences). European Journal of Crime 9: 1–32.Google Scholar