by Stephen Bindman

“You can’t just ask for the information [you need for an investigation] over the telephone, so you always have to go by very formal channels. You have two countries, with two systems of law, two judges or prosecutors who have to follow channels and follow the law.

“In the middle you have someone like me who can explain the two systems and tell them, ‘If you need this kind of assistance, you have to do that.’ It is explaining one side to the other side, but it saves a lot of time.”

Liaison magistrates are judges in their country of origin who are sent to the Department of Justice of the host country. Each magistrate’s duties depend on the requirements in the country to which they are posted and the state of mutual legal assistance relations between France and the partner country.

The liaison magistrate concept began about ten years ago, when France and Italy swapped resident judges in a bid to speed up cooperation in terrorism and organized crime cases.

Despite the proximity of the two countries, assistance requests were taking months and years to complete, Jacob says.

The liaison magistrate concept began about ten years ago

“When you have these kinds of files, for a prosecutor or judge it is almost impossible to work without an international request somewhere.

“… But it was sometimes years before receiving an answer and that is impossible in a system we have now where criminals can in one second send money all around the world. It’s impossible that you have judges and prosecutors waiting for months before having an answer to a request and the answer is ‘Give me more information.’”

Now, France has judges posted in 10 countries (including Morocco, Spain, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and the Czech Republic) and seven countries have sent officials to Paris.

(Canada will shortly send a representative to France and Elaine Krivel, formerly director of the Federal Prosecution Service in Toronto, was appointed last year as Counsellor, International Criminal Operations to the Canadian Mission to the European Union in Brussels.)

Jacob doesn’t get involved in specific cases or requests, however, but acts as educator, facilitator or mediator.

“When the Canadian authorities have a question about our system—for example, they get a request from a juge d’instruction and they don’t know exactly what are the powers of a juge d’instruction, what can he do, what can’t he do—I can explain. When they have a question about something that has been done perhaps two years ago, if they want to know if something has changed, I can tell them.

“If the Canadian authorities want to ask something from France and they want to know how they can do it to be sure that they can have an answer, they can ask me before, ‘Is that possible for the French to do?’

“I have French colleagues asking me before sending a request to Canadian authorities, ‘Do you think Canadians can do that for me? Is that possible? What are the provisions in Canadian law?’

“Then I ask the Canadians, ‘Do you think in a file it is possible to have this or that?’ and without knowing the file they can tell me, ‘Yes, in this kind of file, you can have that kind of assistance or perhaps you have to see that decision of the Supreme Court of Canada’ and I can phone back and it can make its way.”

Assistant Deputy Attorney General D.A. Bellemare, head of the Federal Prosecution Service, says Jacob’s contribution to bilateral cooperation between France and Canada has been significant.

“Not only has she demystified the French system for Canadian prosecutors, (and hopefully, demystified our system for our French counterparts), she has already facilitated the development of personal relationships between Canadian and French prosecutors. This is a key achievement, as personal relations are the cornerstone of effective international cooperation.”

Like all French judges, Jacob attended l’Ècole de la Magistrature after law school and has been a judge since 1983. She spent time as a civil judge, criminal judge and juge d’instruction, and two stints at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs before her Ottawa posting.

In Canada, she spends her mornings at the French embassy and her afternoons at the Department of Justice.

She plans to travel the country, learning about the Canadian justice system and explaining the French legal world to Canadian judges, lawyers and academics.

Jacob is also able to report to French authorities on some of our hot-button legal issues, such as decriminalization of marijuana, recognition of same-sex marriage, child pornography on the Internet and reforms to youth justice laws.

The French judge says she has been received warmly everywhere she has gone in Canada—except perhaps by Ottawa’s winter.

“Canada is interesting for France not just because of judicial cooperation. It is also interesting because you have two systems of law in civil matters, which is very interesting.

“It is interesting too because it is a federal country. Because of the European Union, everything is changing in Europe in the judicial cooperation field. We are taking great steps and we are going to perhaps have one day a prosecutor for all the European countries. How you work in a confederation is very interesting for us because it can be an example to us.”