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Human rights and French criminal justice : opening the door to pre-trial defence rights
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Hodgson, Jacqueline (2009) Human rights and French criminal justice : opening the door to pre-trial defence rights. Working Paper. Coventry, UK: University of Warwick, School of Law. Warwick School of Law Research .
An open access version can be found in:Abstract
The passing of the Human Rights Act 1998 has been celebrated by many as the dawning of a new era, in which human rights will now become a natural part of UK legal discourse, upheld by the courts, asserted by lawyers and legislated by Parliament. More cautious observers will want to wait a little before proclaiming the legislation an unqualified success. What I seek to do in this chapter is to offer some observations upon another jurisdiction, France, where the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) has been incorporated into domestic law for nearly 30 years. Drawing upon my own qualitative empirical work , as well as case law and recent legislation, I consider some of the ways in which the ECHR has impacted upon the French criminal justice process and the legal actors working within it. An examination of the legal, political and structural contexts that both influence and constrain the reception of Convention rights, illustrates the complexity of operationalising and making effective, even rights which are, in theory, fully incorporated into the domestic legal system. It also poses questions about the nature and scope of Convention rights and the extent to which we can legitimately expect them to provide ‘universal’ guarantees which are understood and applied consistently across jurisdictions.
Item Type: | Working or Discussion Paper (Working Paper) | ||||
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Law | ||||
Series Name: | Warwick School of Law Research | ||||
Publisher: | University of Warwick, School of Law | ||||
Place of Publication: | Coventry, UK | ||||
Official Date: | 2009 | ||||
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Number of Pages: | 28 | ||||
Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Status: | Not Peer Reviewed | ||||
Open Access Version: |
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