Proximity justice, an approximation of justice and citizens?

Abstract

In the1990’s, the idea of Proximity Justice gave birth to the Maisons de la justice et du droit – MJD [Houses of Justice and Law] that aimed to reaffirm the presence of the law in neighborhoods, to improve the attention given to its inhabitants, to facilitate their access to justice, reestablish links between the perpetrators of criminal offences and their victims, allowing a faster judicial treatment of small delinquency. These MJD, founded by local initiatives and several other practices, since 2002, were replaced by the “jurisdictions of proximity” integrated to the judicial building, whose competencies were then greatly expanded. This institutionalization resulted in the abandonment of qualitative preoccupation in favor of a quantitative management of mass disputes. And even if the judges of proximity recruitment should open up to civil society, its diversification was singularly restricted after a decision of the Constitutional Council.