MovieChat Forums > Engrenages (2005) Discussion > Need someone who knows France

Need someone who knows France

posted 8 years ago by Thorakus
2 replies | jump to latest

I'm just finishing season 3 and have some questions.

1. Are prosecutors not lawyers? This could be a subtitle problem but when Pierre decided to quit being a prosecutor he had to be sweared in as a lawyer according to the captions.

Edit: Answered

2. They keep talking about 20 years for murder or less. Is that really the standard for murder in France? Now we are talking murder here not manslaughter. It could be similar here in the USA to I really don't know. Just seems light especially for some of these killings.

3. French police are allowed to carry guns but not batons? That just seems silly. Can someone explain why this is the case?

Edit: Answered

Yes I'm aware that it's a TV show so not necessarily reality but that's why I'm asking.

[–] clong_clong 8 years ago

I'm not the best person to answer but since noone else replied, I'll give my opinion.

"Are prosecutors not lawyers? This could be a subtitle problem but when Pierre decided to quit being a prosecutor he had to be sweared in as a lawyer according to the captions. "

I'm surprised by your question. Prosecutor ("Procureur" in France) and lawyer (barrister in UK, if I'm not mistaken) ("Avocat" in France) are 2 very different roles. The prosecutor "attacks" while the lawyer "defends". The prosecutor in France is under the authority of the State, while the lawyer in independent. It's a different job. I'm no specialist so I hope I didn't say anything wrong though.

"They keep talking about 20 years for murder or less. Is that really the standard for murder in France? "

I think so - more or less, yes - but I'm no specialist of the matter.
I think France's justice system is generally more "lenient" than the US one (at least it's my impression).

"French police are allowed to carry guns but not batons? That just seems silly. Can someone explain why this is the case? "

The basic Policemen are using a baton (in French "bâton" is a generic term meaning "stick", this type of weapon is called "matraque" over here). In this case (Season 2 right?), for what I understand, it's because Laure had used a "personal" (and apparently legally non-authorized weapon (for a policeman in duty)) "bâton"/"matraque" called a "matraque télescopique" (which is not normally used by policemen).

[–] Thorakus 8 years ago

Thanks for the reply! As fare as lawyer prosecutor goes. our prosecutors are called the prosecuting attorney and the defense attorney to which there jobs are what you describe however they are both Attorneys or Lawyers. The terms overlap. Him being sworn in as a lawyer therefor confused me as here both types have to pass what we call the Bar to practice as a lawyer.

I am not aware of any swearing in to be a defense attorney however since I don't know there may be a swearing in for prosecutor to uphold the law and such. I believe if you are a prosecutor and switch to being a defense type lawyer you just become that since you already have the formal education required.

There may also be a swearing in to become any type of lawyer after you pass the bar but I am really not educated on the matter to speak definitively. I think it's just the terminology that threw me. You apparently only call defense attorney's lawyer whereas here both types are considered lawyers.