The French judge and His Values as Seen Through FIlm

Abstract

In a society deserted by morality and religion, the judge is regularly called upon to make decisions on political and social issues, which invite one to reflect on the legal fiction of the judge’s axiological neutrality. Indeed, this judge, who supposedly represents the «mouth of the law», is asked to take sides, even if it is under cover of an apparently neutral form of rhetoric - that of the law. How can the abstract figure of the judge – that of an impartial third party, above the fray – be reconciled with their flesh-and-blood incarnation, with their own passions, prejudices and world view? Certain analyses, outside of legal opinion, have attempted to address the complex relations between the myth of impartiality and the reality of the judge’s take on values (sociology of the law and justice, so-called realist theories of law). At the same time, outside of all learned discussion, film has also explored, with its own specific means, this issue of the articulation between the judge’s mission, their personal opinions, where appropriate informed by the social context, and the value-based conflicts they find themselves confronted with in the courtroom, in a number of films featuring French judges and prosecutors.

KEYWORDS: Judge. Axiological neutrality. Values. Legal realism. Law and cinema. Judge. Prosecutor. Judicial ethics. Values conflicts.