réserve civile

21:03 Feb 1, 2018 

for valued comments

05:29 Jan 30, 2018 

... in the context of this ST (so it's for sure not about the Swiss system of having civilians acting as a reserve Army ...)

IOW to get to the bottom of it, you really need to decipher the whole sentence, including the "donner acte" part of it.

Also, although having a first hand experience of the Swiss legal system would be definitely a huge bonus, there are enough reliable explanations available on the Web - all you need is enough understanding of basics of law to interpret them correctly.

21:51 Jan 29, 2018 

The question is "réserve civile", not "donner acte".

21:46 Jan 29, 2018 

I found this link:
https://books.google.it/books?id=xHljrFTWlR4C&pg=PA322&lpg=P...
which appears to confirm 1) AllegroTrans' impression of there being a separate civil and criminal action in the Swiss system, and 2) that Daryo's suggestion is nearer to the mark here, namely that the grounds for a civil claim exist.

17:55 Jan 27, 2018 

"... que constater que les conditions d’existence d’une action civile sont réunies"

in practical terms, it's not simply "taking note" [which would imply that the judge has no say in the matter, reducing the judge to no more than some kind of observer], it's the literal meaning of "constater que = stating that ...", or in effect "giving the authorisation to make a civil claim ..." [a decision by the judge, not by any of the parties], a bit comparable to "giving leave to appeal"

12:24 Jan 27, 2018 

So I believe but I am not an authority. I tend to keep away from la procédure but got interested in this question because I had never seen réserves civiles before.

00:17 Jan 27, 2018 

It seems that in the Swiss system there has to be a separate civil action unlike in France where both the criminal case and the civil action can be heard by the same (criminal) Judge; that's right isn't it?

21:03 Jan 26, 2018 

The following example explains that in a Swiss criminal case, the judge acknowledged that the victim had “reservations” (my choice of word, which may not be right), meaning that as far as the civil side of things is concerned, the victim believed he, the lésé, had a right to claim damages in a civil court and the judge acknowledged that conditions were met for the victims to do so:
Lorsque le juge pénal donne acte au lésé de ses réserves civiles, cette décision n’a aucune autorité de chose jugée ; en effet, le juge pénal ne fait que constater que les conditions d’existence d’une action civile sont réunies et laisse le soin au juge civil de décider.
https://books.google.fr/books?id=xHljrFTWlR4C&pg=PA322&lpg=P...

21:02 Jan 26, 2018 

I imagine that as the Swiss system does not have a statutory compensation system within the criminal courts (e.g. as in England & Wales) and a compensation claim has to be a civil claim, then the accused is free to enter into as settlement agreement. Makes sense now.

17:14 Jan 26, 2018 

I don't think you have any way of knowing, since you don't have the context. But he clearly has signed an agreement. I looked up "interêts civiles", and it's civil compensation for criminal acts.

15:39 Jan 26, 2018 

but I don't see how ZZZ (the accused) could make any agreement with XXX and YYY about any civil claim against him

15:23 Jan 26, 2018 

I think it could mean "noted their civil claim". I know that in some jurisdictions the victim doesn't get awarded compensation by the criminal courts, and has to claim against the perpetrator. But I'm not totally sure.

14:51 Jan 26, 2018 

I can't be sure but I think they are related to the victim of the crime (which was murder) and yes I think they had a civil case against ZZZ as costs were awarded to the lawyers who represented both of them

14:41 Jan 26, 2018 

Who are XXX and YYY? I don't mean their names, just their involvement. Are they victims who have a civil case against ZZZ?