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Tuesday, 21 August 2007 |
Finance Minister Christine Lagarde is drawing up plans for
allowing class actions in French legal practice. These allow
consumers, notably, to join forces to sue big companies.
Under President Chirac any move in this direction was
resisted on the grounds that such actions are subject to
abuse by unscrupulous lawyers and publicity-seeking
pressure groups.
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Tuesday, 21 August 2007 |
in Latin was announced in a letter to the faithful – Motu
proprio. It will not change everyday practice much in many
parts of France where such services have taken place
regardless of Vatican disapproval.
The letter says that if a stable group of the faithful
requests the priest may celebrate in Latin using the tradition
liturgique antérieure. The letter does not bring back into the
fold the followers of Monseigneur Lefèbvre who broke with
the Vatican in 1976 over the liberalisation under Vatican II.
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Tuesday, 21 August 2007 |
Three men are to appear before the Assizes in Strasbourg,
accused of daubing Jewish gravestones with neo-Nazi
symbols on Hitler’s birthday three years ago. They will be
charged with defacing graves and inciting racial hatred.
Two of the men were already charged, in January 2006,
with attempted murder and accused of trying to kill a
Moroccan workman by detonating a home-made bomb in his
garden shed.
A fourth man was discharged as the only evidence
against him was a graphologist’s opinion that some of the
symbols were in his handwriting.
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Tuesday, 21 August 2007 |
Rachida Dati, the new Justice Minister
(Garde des Sceaux) has launched the
consultation process for the reform of
the judicial map of France. The
consultative committee made up of
representatives of all the different
professions involved has now had its
first meeting.
Unsurprisingly, the lawyers are not
happy. The barristers (avocats) affected
are not enthusiastic about the idea that
certain rather sleepy local courts might
close. The idea is to concentrate cases in
the busier areas to make for a more
efficient administration of justice.
There have been widespread
demonstrations in front of the courts
likely to be concerned. The national
council of the Bar (Conseil National des
Barreaux) is calling for quite different
reforms, such as the extension of
legal aid.
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Tuesday, 21 August 2007 |
By a stroke of fate, Rachida Dati, the
charismatic new Minister of Justice,
found herself in the Assemblée nationale
introducing a new and controversial law
on compulsory prison sentences for
repeat offenders on the same day that her
brother Jamal appeared in court in
Nancy for a repeat drug offence.
The main elements of the new law
are the possibility of treating repeat
juvenile offenders above the age of 16 as
adults and covers all repeat offences
liable to a sentence of more than three
years. The minimum sentences, known
in French as peines planchers, are
generally one third of the maximum.
Magistrates would have the power to
ignore the compulsory sentences in
limited circumstances but will have to
justify their decisions.
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