Suspects’ rights in custodial interrogation in Greece and France: Isolationism, legal cosmopolitanism and local resistance

Abstract

This paper discusses isolationism, cosmopolitanism and local resistance as conflicting powers shaping law reform. It concentrates on legislation recently introduced in France giving suspects the right to be assisted by a lawyer when questioned by the police. France has for a very long time maintained an idiosyncratic position on this issue, effectively barring lawyers’ presence in police interrogations, thus diverging from the solutions adopted by most legal systems in Europe and the Western world. Under pressure from the ECtHR (post Salduz v Turkey jurisprudence and, notably, Brusco v France), France has finally abandoned this position. The focus then moves on to Greece, where isolationism similar to that exhibited in France can be demonstrated with respect to notification of the right to silence and suspects’ rights during custodial interrogation more generally. The two countries are compared and contrasted in relation to their ‘spontaneous’ cosmopolitan attitudes and reactions to external cosmopolitan pressures for reform. The conclusions allow for reflection on legal cosmopolitanism’s assumed ubiquity.