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English

Penal mediation, in french and iranian law

Penal mediation is defined as an alternative dispute resolution (A.D.R.) that implies the intervention of an outside party. This type of mediation is also prosecutor’s innovative response to the issues faced by the criminal justice system in France and Iran. Penal mediation was developed in France through the practice of the prosecutor’s office rather than through legislative intent and was expressly enshrined in French’s law in 1993. This type of mediation was institutionalized and formalized by the legislator for the first time in Iran in 2014, but unlike the French penal mediation, it exists alongside in different other informal, traditional, customary, non-judicial and quasi-judicial practices of A.R.D. These practices include reconciliation in criminal cases. This study discusses the emergence of governmental and non-governmental models of restorative justice in Iran and France, as well as the fundamental convergences and divergences between the way in which penal mediation has been implemented in these countries. In addition, this study examines the implication of the Government as well as the civil society in the penal mediation procedure. The conditions for the application of penal mediation in the French and Iranian legal systems are identified, as well as the purpose of this measure, its role, the mediators' function and the procedural guarantees are afforded to the parties, including those regarding the qualifications of the mediators.

Keywords : Alternative Dispute Resolution, Alternate proceedings, Closing of Case Without Further Action, Diversion proceedings, Principle of opportunity, Restorative Justice, Reconciliatory Justice, Civil Society, Procedural Guarantees.