Laurent-Franck Lienard is a lawyer at the Paris Court of Appeal and a specialist in matters of self-defense.
FIGAROVOX.- Jean-Louis Leroux, a farmer from Ambrières in the Marne, is currently incarcerated for having shot a young thief who entered his farm. He had obviously complained dozens of times, including the day before the tragedy, without being heard. What does this case tell us about the dysfunctions of our judicial system?
Laurent-Franck LIENARD.- Historically in our country, owners have used force to repel, at their homes, assaults directed against their person or against their property. At present there are obvious dysfunctions in the criminal chain which could lead to more frequent use of force by the citizens themselves. Indeed, the cruel lack of material and human resources, both in the gendarmerie services and in the courts, has an obvious effect on the capacity of the State to stem crime. Violence against people is increasing in worrying proportions while citizens develop a feeling of impunity for offenders which is fully justified because it conforms to objective reality.
Everyone must fear a society that is turning into private violence.It is to be feared that citizens, fortified by this feeling of impunity, victims on several occasions of the same events, and not finding in the gendarmerie services the reactivity that they would be entitled to expect, decide to resort to force to repel their attackers. This drift would be socially and judicially very dangerous. Everyone must fear a society that is turning into private violence.
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This bankruptcy of justice and gendarmerie services pushes more and more individuals to take justice for themselves. How to get out of this dangerous gear?
It will be very difficult in our country to restore respect for authority and rule. The simple democratic principle of submission to the laws of the Republic is disputed all day long by demonstrators, bloggers but also by deputy politicians who call for disobedience by saying "rebellious". Yet the key is there. The founding principles of our Republic must be accepted, taught, recalled and respected so that society can calm down and deviant acts can be properly prosecuted and punished.
One may be surprised at the severity of the system in the judicial approach to these cases of personal defense.In today's society, which has lost all its bearings and makes the offender a victim and the police a culprit, it is normal for citizens to become more and more individualistic, to the point of taking justice for themselves. We therefore need additional human and material resources, but we also need a profound societal change to redress the situation, and I fear that it is no longer possible today.
Does French legislation on the principle of self-defense seem to you adapted to the realities of the time? Some believe that this principle is too strictly framed.
Self-defense as provided by our law is perfectly suited. It authorizes a citizen attacked to repel aggression with measure, which is legitimate. No one should die for trying to steal gas. On the other hand, one may be surprised at the severity of the system in the judicial approach to these cases of personal defense. A citizen who is assaulted may not know the law, or may be mistaken about the danger he faces. The justice system, which must ensure the sanction of deviant behavior, must obviously recall the rule, but be kind in the treatment of citizens who have only defended themselves in the face of an unjust aggression. The place of a man who shoots his burglar is not in prison. Originally it was a victim who defended himself, even if he exceeded what the law authorized him to implement in his response. So don't change the law, but change the mindset of those who apply it. Here again it is a vast site.
