French state in the dock over crumbling justice system
The French justice system is cracking apart from the effects of a dire shortage of personnel and resources, with one of the smallest budgets, in comparison to national GDP, in Europe. Magistrates complain they are crushed by their workload, unable to fulfil their tasks. The chronic logjam of cases has often tragic humain consequences, as Michaël Hajdenberg discovered when he asked six magistrates from different jurisdictions across France to give their own accounts of the problems they face.
InIn the case of the crumbling French justice system, the State is in the defendant’s box, and even the smartest lawyer would have an impossible task to see it acquitted.