Questionnaire France

I.36 Who needs to give his consent for the withdrawal of the charge?

As stated in sect. 353 CCP, the law does not ask judges to account for the means by which they convinced themselves; it does not charge them with any rule from which they shall specifically derive the fullness and adequacy of evidence. It requires them to question themselves in silence and reflection, and to seek in the sincerity of their conscience what impression has been made on their reason by the evidence brought against the accused and the arguments of his defence. The law asks them but this single question, which contains the full scope of their duties: are you inwardly convinced? Except where the law otherwise provides, offences may be proved by any mode of evidence, and the judge decides according to his innermost conviction. The judge can only base his decision on evidence that was submitted in the course of the hearing and discussed before him in an adversarial way (sect. 427 CCP).