France: Procedural Nullities and Exclusion

Abstract

In this chapter, we have the first thorough discussion of what many continental European countries call “nullities” which are violations of the rules of gathering or introducing evidence into criminal proceedings and lead to a negation of the validity of the investigative act in question and its removal from the case dossier and thus from the trial itself. The rules for nullities predate modern exclusionary rules, and often lead to exclusion of evidence, but the many exceptions to exclusion and the interpretations of these rules by the French courts, have led to a rather weak doctrine of exclusion of evidence when compared to other countries coming from similar traditions, such as Spain. Professor Pradel explains how “nullities” work in the French system, focusing, as do all the chapters, on violations of the right to privacy and the right to silence and human dignity during police interrogations.