Terror on Trial: An Ethnography of French Courts

Name: Terror on Trial: An Ethnography of French Courts
Brand: Cambridge University Press
SKU: 9781009333221
Price: 1324.05 HKD
Availability: PreOrder
Author: Sharon Weill; Denis Salas; Antione Mégie; Christiane Bésnier
ISBN: 9781009333221

Edited by Sharon Weill · Denis Salas · Antione Mégie · Christiane Bésnier

Coming Soon Cambridge University Press Available August 2026

Specifications

ISBN-13: 9781009333221
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Publication: August 2026
Format: Hardback
Jurisdiction: U.K. ? Countri(es) for reference only

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Grounded in legal ethnomethodology, this book explores terrorism trials in France. Drawing on extensive court ethnography, a multidisciplinary research team examines how terrorism logics are reflected, represented, and negotiated within criminal proceedings. Based on hundreds of hearing days-ranging from small terrorism criminal cases to the so-called 'trials for history', commonly known as the 'Charlie Hebdo' and the 'Bataclan' trials-this study offers a nuanced, bottom-up perspective on the role of courts.

Through courtroom immersion, close observation of legal performances, and interviews with judicial actors, it investigates how justice is shaped in practice. Identifying three generations of trials, the book provides original insights into the evolving role of courts in terrorism cases. From an empirical and comparative perspective, it also seeks to make criminal trials more accessible to Anglophone readers, offering a deeper understanding of how terrorism is prosecuted in France, highlighting the role of judges, prosecutors, lawyers and victims.

Introduction: from the laboratory of the lower courts the Bataclan show trial: three generations of terror trials

1. Courtroom scenes and methodology

2. The trial actors: 'In the name of the French people'

3. The laboratory of the 16th chamber: designing the architecture and experimenting the policy

4. The second generation of Jihadist trials: the slow justice of the French assize court (2017–2019)

5. The 'trials for history': a new paradigm for the prosecution of mass crimes?

6. Final reflections

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