Chapter III: Composition of the Assize Court

A list of the criminal jury shall be drawn up annually within the jurisdiction of each assize court.

This list comprises, for the Assize Court of Paris, one thousand eight hundred jurors and, for the other Assize Court jurisdictions, one juror for every one thousand three hundred inhabitants, although the number of jurors may not be less than two hundred. An order of the Minister of Justice may, for the annual list of each assize court, set a higher number of jurors than that resulting from the provisions…

In each commune, the mayor, with a view to drawing up the preparatory list for the annual list, publicly draws by lot from the electoral roll a number of names three times the number set by the prefectoral decree for the constituency. For the purposes of drawing up this preparatory list, persons who have not reached the age of twenty-three during the following calendar year will not be included. When…

The preparatory list must be drawn up in two originals, one of which is deposited at the town hall, and for Paris at the annexed town hall, and the other sent before 15 July to the secretariat-registry of the court sitting the assize court. The mayor must notify the persons who have been drawn by lot. He asks them to state their profession. He informs them that they have the…

The annual list is drawn up at the seat of each assize court by a commission chaired, at the seat of the court of appeal, by the first president or his delegate and, in the judicial courts, seats of the assize court, by the president of the court or his delegate. This commission comprises, in addition to its chairman: Three judges appointed each year by the general assembly of the…

The committee meets when convened by its chairman at the seat of the assize court, during the month of September. Its secretariat is provided by the registrar of the court in which the Assize Court has its seat. It excludes people who do not meet the legal aptitude conditions resulting from articles 255,256 and 257. It rules on applications submitted pursuant to Article 258. Also excluded are the persons referred…

A special list of alternate jurors shall also be drawn up each year by the commission, under the conditions provided for in Article 263, outside the annual list of jurors. Alternate jurors must reside in the town in which the Assize Court has its seat. The number of jurors appearing on this list, which may not be less than fifty nor more than seven hundred, is fixed, for each assize…

Notwithstanding the last paragraph of Article 260, the first two paragraphs of Article 261-1 and the first paragraph of Article 263, the timetable for the operations required to draw up the annual list of jurors is set by decree in the Conseil d’Etat.

The annual list and the special list are sent by the chairman of the commission to the mayor of each municipality. The mayor is required to inform the first president of the court of appeal or the president of the judicial court, seat of the assize court, of any deaths, incapacities or legal incompatibilities that may affect the persons whose names are entered on these lists, as soon as they…