Title VII: Challenges

Any judge or adviser may be challenged for the following reasons: 1° If the judge or his spouse or his partner linked by a civil solidarity pact or his cohabitee are relatives or allies of one of the parties or of his spouse, his partner linked by a civil solidarity pact or his cohabitee up to and including the degree of cousin descended from the first degree. The challenge may…

The accused person, the defendant, the accused and any party to the proceedings who wishes to challenge an examining magistrate, a police magistrate, one, several or all of the judges of the criminal court, the councillors of the court of appeal or the assize court must, on pain of nullity, submit a request to the first president of the court of appeal. The magistrates of the public prosecutor’s office may…

The First President shall notify the President of the court to which the disqualified judge belongs of the application he has received in administrative form. The application for disqualification shall not relieve the judge whose disqualification is proposed. However, the First President may, after obtaining the opinion of the Public Prosecutor, order that either the continuation of the investigation or the hearings or the delivery of the judgment be suspended.

The First President shall receive the supplementary pleading of the applicant, if any, and that of the magistrate whose disqualification is proposed; he shall take the opinion of the Public Prosecutor and shall rule on the application. The order ruling on the disqualification shall not be subject to any appeal. It shall take effect ipso jure.

Any application for the first president of the court of appeal to be disqualified must be the subject of a request addressed to the first president of the Court of Cassation who, after obtaining the opinion of the public prosecutor at the said court, shall decide by an order, which shall not be subject to any appeal. The provisions of Article 670 shall apply.

Any order rejecting an application for recusal shall order the applicant to pay a civil fine of between 75 and 750 euros.

None of the judges or councillors referred to in Article 668 may not disqualify himself ex officio without the authorisation of the first president of the court of appeal, whose decision, made after consultation with the public prosecutor, is not subject to appeal.

An application for the disqualification of a judge of the Court of Cassation hearing a criminal case must state the reasons on which it is based; it is lodged with the court registry. The assistance of a lawyer is not compulsory.

The competent chamber shall rule within one month of the lodging of the application at the registry, after the challenged magistrate has made his observations. For the remainder, the provisions of Book II, Title XX, of the Code of Civil Procedure shall be observed.