Criminal court
Criminal court
In Switzerland, the organisation of the courts and their jurisdiction is governed by 27 different laws! Each canton has sovereignty over the way its courts are organised, which means that they may differ from one canton to another. In Geneva, the Law on the Organisation of the Judiciary establishes all the courts in the canton, whether civil, administrative or criminal, and whether at first or second instance. Articles 91 et seq. detail the various divisions of the Criminal Court, which - as its name suggests - tries all criminal law cases. The 3 main divisions of this court that are most often mentioned in the newspapers are the Police Court, the Magistrates' Court and the Criminal Court. Whether an offence is tried before one of these courts depends solely on the penalty requested by the Public Prosecutor. When the penalty requested by the Public Prosecutor is less than 2 years' imprisonment, particularly when it is only a minor offence punishable by a simple fine, the Police Court has jurisdiction. If the sentence requested by the prosecuting authority is between 2 and 10 years' imprisonment for the offence in question, the trial will be heard by the Criminal Court. If the penalty is more than 10 years' imprisonment, the case is heard by the Criminal Court. Each of these three courts of first instance is constituted differently. The Police Court has a single judge, the Magistrates' Court has three judges, while the Criminal Court has 3 professional judges and 4 assessors. If one of the parties to the proceedings is not satisfied with the decision handed down by one of the above-mentioned courts, it has the right to appeal against the decision. It will then be up to the Criminal Court to review the first instance decisions as the cantonal second instance authority, the last level before the Federal Supreme Court.
