Page:The Constitutions and Other Select Documents Illustrative of the History of France, 1789-1907, Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged.pdf/271

Rh any of the executive acts emanating from the constituted authorities;

4th. Disturbances caused and assaults committed in order to hinder the collection of taxes and the free circulation of provisions and other articles of commerce.

244. There is one criminal tribunal for each department.

245. The criminal tribunal is composed of a president, a public accuser, four judges taken from the civil tribunal, the commissioner of the executive power before the tribunal or his substitute, and a recorder.

There is in the criminal tribunal of the department of the Seine, a vice-president and a substitute for the public accuser this tribunal is divided into two sections; eight members of the civil tribunal discharge there the duties of judges.

246. The presidents of the sections of the civil tribunals cannot fill the positions of judges upon the criminal tribunal.

247. The other judges, each in his turn for six months in the order of his appointment, perform their duty there and they cannot discharge any functions in the civil tribunal during that time.

248. The public accuser is charged:

To prosecute the offences according to the warrants of accusation accepted by the first juries;

To transmit to the police officers the denunciations which are addressed directly to him;

To watch over the police officers of the department and to proceed against them, according to the law, in cases of negligence or more serious acts.

249. The commissioner of the executive power is charged:

To require regularity of forms in the course of the proceedings before the decision, and the application of the law.

To obtain the execution of the decisions rendered by the criminal tribunal.

250. The judges cannot propound to the jurors any complex question.

251. The trial jury consists of at least twelve jurors: the accused has the right to reject the number of them which the law determines.

252. The proceedings before the trial jury are public and the accused cannot be denied the assistance of counsel whom he has chosen or who has been selected for him ex-officio.