The Court of Cassation issued a landmark judgment establishing the complex notion of universal jurisdiction in the French judicial system. The latter allows a country to prosecute and repress, without time and geographical limit, any foreign person guilty abroad of torture, war, genocide and crimes against humanity.
This judgment comes in particular in the context of the war in Ukraine and the investigations against war crimes perpetrated there. The judgment has broken down two of the four locks that until then hindered jurisdiction. The decision has an impact on half of the proceedings pending in France.