History
article | Reading time5 min
A justice of exception
In the heart of the revolutionary justice
Reforming justice
At first, the Revolution profoundly reformed Justice, in the continuity of the Enlightenment and of the work of Cesare Beccaria, author of the famous Des délits et des peines (1764). Torture was abolished in France even before the Revolution, in 1788, by Louis XVI. But the justice of the Ancien Régime was neither egalitarian nor transparent. The nobles benefited from more lenient sentences and the state prison of the Bastille symbolized the royal arbitrariness in the eyes of the population, which targeted it on July 14, 1789.
Trials are opened to the public and to journalists. Judges are now elected and the accused gain the right to be defended free of charge. The death penalty is even discussed in the Assembly. If it is not abolished, the method of execution is transformed: the guillotine is developed to eliminate the suffering previously caused by hanging or by the axe. Above all, the law is reformed in writing to protect citizens from injustice, from the family sphere to the whole society.
© Benjamin Gavaudo - Centre des monuments nationaux
The cult of the Law
Voted on August 26, 1789, the Declaration of the Rights of Man assures all individuals the right to "freedom, property, security and resistance to oppression". The law became the cornerstone of the new society: to be a good citizen, one had to swear an oath "to the nation, the law and the king. Protestants and Jews were fully integrated into citizenship.
But others were left out: in the colonies, this was the case of people of color and especially slaves; in metropolitan France, women, children, foreigners and servants remained discriminated against for a long time.
Benjamin Gavaudo - Centre des monuments-nationaux
The penal code
A pillar of contemporary law, the Penal Code (1791) is one of the main works left by the Revolution.
Crimes are precisely defined and proportional penalties are associated with them. Citizens must be equal before the law, which is now written and enforceable against all.
But in the face of rising conflicts, ordinary justice is quickly outdated.
As early as 1789, a special jurisdiction is created to judge political crimes that threaten the very survival of the Revolution: the National High Court. But soon, it is not enough to regulate the conflicts.
Benjamin Gavaudo - Centre des monuments-nationaux
The revolutionary court
Threatened on the borders by the external war and by the civil war inside, especially in the West, the young Republic fears for its survival.
Instituted on March 10, 1793, the "Extraordinary Criminal Court" must judge the most important political crimes. Thus began the period known as the "Terror".
"Let's be terrible so that the people don't have to be": this famous phrase of Danton refers to the idea that the deputies who created the Revolutionary Tribunal wanted to break the cycle of revenge and contain the risks of excesses: it is up to the State, within the framework of the law, and not to individuals to render justice.
The court has no possibility of appeal. It is not a return to the justice of the Ancien Régime
The accused are read their indictment in a public hearing. They also have the right to lawyers. Witnesses may be called. The jurors deliberate and give their conclusions aloud.
But faced with the rapid deterioration of the country's situation, the real possibilities of defending one's cause are slimmer, the repression increases and the revolutionary justice becomes more executive. On September 17, 1793, the "law of suspects" is adopted and the government is declared revolutionary, that is to say exceptional, until peace. These deliberately vague notions suppressed part of the democratic freedoms and could not contain all the excesses.
Between June and July 1794, the repression is ferocious: it is the "period of the Great Terror" which leads to the fall of Robespierre on 9 thermidor year II.
Benjamin Gavaudo - Centre des monuments-nationaux
