News & analyses
Decisions, reforms and practical insights in criminal law, commented by the firm.
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High-profile case, Bobigny criminal court, May 2025
Mr. Charles Bruguière acted as defence counsel in a high-profile criminal matter heard in May 2025 before the departmental criminal court of Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis).
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End of an era for the formula "in any event within the national territory and during a time not covered by the limitation period"
The formula "in any event within the national territory and during a time not covered by the limitation period" does not allow the trial court to rule on facts not listed in the charges. Analysis and consequences for the defence.
Read the full analysisAccess to the PNIJ: just a question of grammar?
Once they have received authorisation from the magistrate, investigators do not need any special clearance to access the National Platform for Judicial Interceptions (PNIJ). Analysis.
Read the full analysisRights of the person under investigation
The person under investigation in criminal proceedings has the right to defend themselves, which includes the possibility to request the nullity of procedural acts that infringe their interests, in particular their right to private life.
Read the full analysisCriminal law and minors
Juvenile criminal justice is guided by a principle of autonomy, expressed in the existence of a specific text, but that principle is not absolute: where no specific provision exists, ordinary law applies.
Read the full analysisThe ne bis in idem principle and financial offences
The ne bis in idem principle, which prohibits punishing the same conduct twice, has been the subject of significant developments in financial criminal matters, in particular at the intersection between administrative and criminal sanctions.
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Press offences
Freedom of expression and the offences that sanction its abuses (insult, defamation, incitement to hatred, discrimination and violence) give rise to important case law, built piece by piece, since the field is shaped by the facts of each case.
Read the full analysisCriminal liability and legal persons
Criminal liability of legal persons gives rise to abundant case law on the basis of Article 121-2 of the Criminal Code. A legal person can only be criminally liable for offences committed on its behalf by its organs or representatives.
Read the full analysisOffences against honour
The offence of slanderous denunciation gives rise to relatively limited case law, but the Criminal Chamber has nonetheless clarified its conditions in recent decisions.
Read the full analysisFair-trial guarantees
Many decisions of the Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation invoke Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights and, to a lesser extent, the preliminary article of the Code of Criminal Procedure, both of which set out the main fair-trial guarantees.
Read the full analysisProcedural nullities
Nullities are very frequently the sanction for the unlawfulness of a procedural act, and more rarely the sanction for a judge's excess of power.
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Money laundering
Set out at Article 324-1 of the Criminal Code, money laundering has the particularity of being a consequence offence: it is only possible to launder the direct or indirect proceeds of a crime or offence. Money laundering presupposes the existence of a prior offence.
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