This study deals with the French action civile, whereby the victim of a criminal offence may participate, as civil party, in the criminal proceedings brought against the offender, and there claim reparation from such offender if he can prove that he has suffered loss or damage directly resulting from the offence. This procedure differs from what obtains in the common-law jurisdictions, where a crime victim's participation in the criminal trial is limited to being a witness for the prosecution, and can only bring an action for damages before the civil courts. / In addition to examining the requirements for the admissibility of the action civile, the study elicits certain procedural and evidentiary issues, such as the burden and standard of proof, the Civilian approach to tortious liability, res judicata, the problem of judicial interpretation of code provisions by a common-law jurisdiction and the respective merits that justify the civil party action. These issues occasionally provide the background for a critical and comparative analysis in relation to common-law procedural practice. / The study also seeks to demonstrate the need for greater victim participation in the criminal process and, thereby, attempts to defeat the generally-held view in common-law jurisdictions that the victim's place is the witness box. In this way, it may be a helpful source of reference for a common-law - Civil law mixed system, like Cameroon's, that is going through a legal harmonisation process, and other common-law jurisdictions that may want to adopt the civil party procedure.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.22701 |
| Date | January 1995 |
| Creators | Ntoko Ngome, Emmanuel |
| Contributors | Healy, Patrick (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Laws (Institute of Comparative Law.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001453393, proquestno: MM05502, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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