On January 15, 2019, the French Conseil constitutionnel decided an important case concerning the constitutionality of providing separate specialized tribunals with jurisdiction to try offenses committed by uniformed gendarmerie personnel in the course of maintaining order. In Decision No. 2018-756 QPC, which was made public on January 17, the Council distinguished the circumstances of the gendarmerie from those of the national police, and rejected an argument that the statutory provision at issue violates the principle of equality before the courts in the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.Query: will this issue now go to the European Court of Human Rights?
Paragraph 8 of the Decision by the “Conseil constitutional” confirms that in France “la Gendarmerie nationale” or the National Gendarmerie is past of the French Armed Forces. Their members are subject to their Code of Service Discipline.
ReplyDeleteThe National Gendarmerie – with a strength of approx.. 100,000 - is one of two national police forces in France, along with the National Police. It is a branch of the French Armed Forces. Due to its military status, the Gendarmerie also fulfills a range of military and defence missions. There are five branches of the Gendarmerie: 1. Air Gendarmerie 2. Maritime Gendarmerie 3. Air Transportation 4. Ordnance Gendarmerie b. Nuclear Ordnance Gendarmerie. There are other specialized formations: a. The Departmental Gendarmerie in charge of police in small towns and rural areas ; b. the Mobile Gendarmerie; c. the Republican Guard; d. the Overseas Gendarmerie; e) the Provost Gendarmerie (which acts as the military police for overseas deployment of French Armed Forces.