Back on a case which rocked the Third Republic. For this Nuit du Droit taking place at the Ecrin in Talant on Monday, October 4, 350 people, mainly law students, had to judge whether the death of Councilor Albert Prince in February 1934 was the result of suicide or a political crime.
The Nuit du Droit is an event taking place in many cities in France with the aim of making the greatest number of people aware of the law, its principles, its institutions and its professions. It takes place on the anniversary of the promulgation of the Constitution of the Fifth Republic, on October 4, 1958.
This October 4, 2021, the Nuit du Droit is organized by the Dijon Bar, the Faculty of Law of the University of Burgundy, the Dijon Law Association (ADD) and the Dijon Court of Justice to “enter into the passionate debate between the proponents of the suicide thesis [du conseiller Prince] and those of the assassination thesis ”, as indicated by Bruno Laplane, president of the judicial tribunal of Dijon.
“I see the interest of entering into what constitutes the judicial essence, which is obviously the contradiction between two theses, between which obviously we must decide”, added Bruno Laplane.
The evening took place in four stages. Screening of a television program “Alain Decaux tells” devoted to the Prince affair as an extension of the Stavisky affair (59 min, director Jean-Charles Dudrumet, 1975). Presentation of the two theses by the students. Public verdict. Then, finally, discussions with the audience on “the substance of a plea”.
The context of the Stavisky case
On January 8, 1934, Alexandre Stavisky, known as Serge Alexandre or “the handsome Sacha”, was found dead in a chalet in Chamonix. In December 1933, the authorities unearthed a Ponzi scheme which allowed Alexandre Stavisky to embezzle 200 million francs via false bearer bonds of the municipal credit of Bayonne with the complicity of the deputy mayor of the city.
Advisor to the Paris Court of Appeal, Albert Prince is head of the financial section of the Paris prosecutor’s office. He discovers that Alexander Stavisky’s relations extend to the police, justice, the press and the political sphere. On January 27, 1934, the government of Camille Chautemps fell, the prefect of Paris Jean Chiappe was dismissed. Anti-parliamentary riots culminated in the night of February 6, 1934 at the Place de la Concorde.
The fairy valley is the scene of a drama
On February 20, 1394, the shredded body of Albert Prince was found by railway workers in La Combe aux Fées, in the town of Talant. It was therefore particularly symbolic to organize this Nuit du Droit at Talant itself. Mayor of the city, Fabian Ruinet (LR-Agir) welcomes the speakers.
“The law governs all aspects of the life of the French and, even when they are not necessarily aware of it, it protects freedoms, it guarantees legal certainty, it allows the peaceful settlement of conflicts and it ensures the proper functioning of economic and social life ”, summarizes Fabian Ruinet.
“We wanted to draw your attention to the fact that there can be no political system without a constitution and an independent judicial system”, underlines the Republican.
“Practice an oratory”
At the end of the screening of Alain Decaux’s show, Alexis Mages, dean of the faculty of law, welcomes “an extremely complete and extremely disturbing film”. “I would like to thank the students who seized the opportunity offered to them to practice an oratorical art that they will have to handle afterwards, whatever the profession they will have to occupy. It was really a golden opportunity that gave them, ”says Alexis Mages.
“This case raises the questions of memory and judicial truth”, underlines the one who is also professor of legal history. “We see that there is not a single truth: there is the truth of journalists, the truth of the police, the truth of historians … When I looked on my side, I made my own opinion”.
The official thesis of the time concluded with suicide and the file was dismissed in 1937. But, in the turmoil of the Stavisky affair, the popular press as well as the extreme-right and extreme-left newspapers tended to favor the thesis of political crime. Alain Decaux’s presentation, full of nuances, leaves room for doubt. The way was therefore clear for the students.
Forty students, two theses, one verdict
Forty L2, M1 and M2 law students were divided into two groups. Each student group elected the two representatives, a man and a woman, to carry each thesis, suicide and assassination. If the preparatory work was carried out in a group, each pair wrote their plea. Most did not know about Councilor Prince’s case before.
Krisztina Winter (L2 Droit) indicates that she was motivated by the “experience” brought: “going to the archives, conceiving a speech with my teammate”. “There were more than twenty files”, indicates Romain Villaboa (M1 Tax Law), the students having been able to consult the original documents in the departmental archives of Côte-d’Or.
“It allowed us to put into context some of the things we learned in class. We were able to see the report of the investigators, we were able to see the discontinuance of the case in the 1930s, ”explains Romain Villaboa.
“There is a bright future for them in terms of eloquence”
The students were accompanied by two lawyers by profession. “We have seen a real improvement since the times when we coached them, it is particularly remarkable to be able to express yourself like that in public and to be so comfortable. There is a bright future for them in terms of eloquence, law and legal skills, ”said Maître Alexandre Jaffeux at the end of the pleadings.
Maître Laure Abramowitch will recall the importance of the litigant’s illustration of the context of the facts because “an assize jury does not have access to the file”. Just writing and rehearsing the pleadings required about fifteen hours of work for each pair.
“The pleadings were of very high quality”
Once on the stage of the Ecrin, the supporters of the assassination thesis, Krisztina Winter and Noé Noga, are the first to speak. They practice putting forward the difficult credibility of a suicide without dwelling on the politico-media turmoil of the Stavisky affair, focusing on the financial aspects of the scam to sketch the possible responsibility of the adviser Albert Prince in the case: Alexandre Stavisky benefited from nineteen postponements of judgment. Responsibility that can be used as a pretext for an assassination.
The proponents of the suicide thesis, Romain Villaboa and Amandine Faure, opt for an original approach asking to imagine a kind of hara-kiri, even if they do not put it that way. That is to say a suicide exerted by Albert Prince to wash his honor by leaving clues (including a file still kept in the departmental archives) to explore the scam. He would therefore have voluntarily installed himself on the railway line of the combe aux fées and let the Paris-Dijon strike that evening. Albert Prince had indicated to his wife that he had to leave Paris to visit his mother, sick, living in Dijon.
The verdict of the popular jury constituted by the audience is made by show of hands while Olivier Caracotch, prosecutor of the Republic of Dijon, presides over the vote. By a narrow majority, the thesis of honor suicide wins out among the public. “It’s a vote, not a judgment,” recalls Olivier Caracotch before congratulating the two teams whose “pleadings were of very high quality”.
“Advocacy means being credible by controlling your case”
“This is the very principle of the pleading, to convince his audience, for the lawyer, to convince the court, it is to move the judge by a thesis or another, it is to defend a cause, it is main to capture the voice of the litigant by approaching the case in the most objective way possible. You have to be credible to plead and convince. Advocacy means being credible by controlling your case, ”recalls Jean-Philippe Schmitt, current vice-president of the Dijon bar (and next president on January 1, 2022).
Sincere, synthetic and hard-hitting arguments, fair criticism of the opposing file, adaptation to the audience are some of the key elements in bringing the plea to life.
An upcoming Fête du Droit in March 2022
The conclusion of this Night of Law is brought by Caroline Bugnon, lecturer in public law at the Dijon law faculty, who praised the involvement and the collective work of the students: “they really knew how to establish cohesion. of group”.
Upcoming moot court competitions will be organized by the ADD and the law faculty, in particular for the Fête du Droit next March on the theme of “nature and law”. Still in the spirit of the evening, to promote access to law, the University of Burgundy and the Dijon judicial tribunal are setting up the “Thursday of the city” with in particular a conference on December 2 on the work of ‘general interest.
Jean-Christophe Tardivon
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