Lord Advocate addresses French conference
12 Oct 07
Guest speaker at Cour de Cassation event on future of the public prosecutor
Scotland's Lord Advocate, Elish Angiolini QC, was among the speakers today invited to address a French Senate Conference on "The Future of the Public Prosecutor in France".
Mrs Angiolini, along with Madame Françoise Tulkens, Judge of the European Court of Human Rights, Monsieur Yves Bot, Advocate General of the European Court of Justice, and Monsieur Joao Manuel Da Silva Miguel, Procurator General of Portugal, were considering how the role of the public prosecutor is evolving across Europe.
The Lord Advocate was invited to address the conference, which took place at the Cour de Cassation (the French Supreme Court) in Paris, by the Procureur General of France, Jean Paul Nadal.
Speaking to an audience of French prosecutors, law professionals and parliamentarians, she explained the history of recent changes to her own role and its evolution.
During her address Mrs Angiolini said: “The checks and balances which protect individuals from abuse, and yet enable society to act properly in the general interest, do not come from words on a page. They come from a pluralism in public institutions, from the establishment of independent public bodies, and from not concentrating too much power in any one place.
“A properly functioning legal system depends upon independent judges, who will apply the law without fear or favour. But it also depends upon an independent legal profession which will bring questions of ministerial conduct before it, and upon politicians who will not seek knowingly to move beyond their proper responsibilities. In relation to the prosecution function it depends upon a prosecutor who is able to act, but also determined to act, independently and with utter integrity and in the knowledge that her actions will be scrutinised by the courts and the Parliament.”