Ministère public (France)

In French law, the ministère public or le parquet is the authority charged with defending the interests of society and of the application of law. It is primarily made up of magistrates, but is sometimes represented by other persons such as police officials. Its magistrates can be referred to as "standing" magistrates, as opposed to magistrats du siège (magistrates of the seat). Its closest equivalent in some English-speaking countries is the (office of the) director of public prosecutions and the attorney general in others.

The term ministère public translates literally as "public ministry" and that institution can exercise a public action (action publique) in penal infractions that cause a disturbance of the ordre public, and can also initiate prosecutions or non-prosecutions. It can intervene in all jurisdictions of the judiciary, but has never really exercised the same role in the administrative areas, except for financial venues (juridictions financières).

In France, the ministère public (in the person of an Attorney-general, a procureur de la République or one of his substituts or representatives) is designated as "le parquet" in legal jargon. The word parquet itself may have stemmed from the Old French, where it meant a "small park or enclosure". The term "parquet" goes back to the medieval expression "parquet des Gens du Roi". The origin of this use and meaning of the word is not known with certainty, but the most probable hypothesis is that these magistrates were separated from the magistrates du siège in a sort of "park".

The location of the ministère public has been called the "parquet" because in the Great Chamber (la Grand-Chambre) of Paris the enclosure delimited on three sides by the seats of judges and on the fourth by a barre or handrail, this heart of the room, a closed and dedicated space,(sacré), a small parc or parquet, that the people of the king (les gens du roi) crossed to take their places and where the gens d'armes, gendarmes, came forward to relate the findings of their investigations, to erect (en dresser) the procès-verbal.

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