The Political Offence and the Safeguarding of the Nation State: Constitutional Ideals, French Legal Standards and Belgian Legal Practice, 1830–70

Abstract

Both the French Constitutional Charter (1830) and the Belgian Constitution (1831) stated that a jury was required to judge press offences and political offences. While the latter was a terminological novelty in the Western legal discourse, no precise definition of its legal meaning was given. The French law of 8 October 1830 provided a non-delimiting list of all offences that were considered political, but the Belgian legislature gave barely any indication. In this paper, after stressing a number of similarities in the conception of the political offence as a key element in political thought, a comparison is made between the French legal standards and Belgian legal practice. Despite the obvious French influence, there were substantial differences in Belgium, especially where Church-State relationships were involved. This clearly reveals the pragmatic approach of the Belgian judiciary towards the safeguarding of the young nation state.