Dthese weeks of an extraordinary and unprecedented trial. The Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti, must appear, from November 6 to 17, before the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) for “illegal taking of interests”. The Keeper of the Seals is accused of having, after his appointment to the government, in July 2020, ordered administrative investigations against magistrates with whom he had clashed when he was a lawyer. For the first time, the CJR judges a serving minister, who contests the legitimacy of the upcoming hearing. “One thing is certain: this trial revives a debate dating back more than thirty years on the merits of having a special jurisdiction to judge ministers, estimates journalist Abel Mestre, in The world dated September 16. A large majority of jurists, academics and even politicians advocate either for an outright abolition of the CJR, or for an in-depth overhaul of the latter. »
The CJR has fueled criticism since its birth, on July 27, 1993, and even a little before. In the spring of that year, the Minister of Justice, the centrist Pierre Méhaignerie, presented his draft constitutional revision. “Regarding the High Court of Justice, notes journalist Anne Chemin, May 7, 1993, Mr. Méhaignerie announced that he wanted to maintain the commission which sorts through complaints received by the Court of Cassation, but the name of this body could be changed to become the “Court of Justice of the Republic”. » Much more than a change of name, this new jurisdiction, which can be seized by complaints from ordinary individuals, must make it possible to judge ministers for crimes or offenses committed within the framework of their functions. Without needing the approval of Parliament, as was the case with the High Court, making any trial impossible until then.
As soon as the text was studied before the Senate, the debates were lively, noted Gilles Paris on May 28, 1993, and the CJR was “the point in the text which gives rise to the most reservations”, with the opposition of “two conceptions” : ““Parliamentary jurisdiction”, chaired by a politician, which the Law Commission wishes [du Sénat]and the “judicial jurisdiction”, presided over by a magistrate, that the government wants”. But the executive holds firm, the presidency of the CJR is reserved for a magistrate. The court is made up of fifteen judges: three magistrates from the Court of Cassation and twelve parliamentarians drawn equally from the National Assembly and the Senate.
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