A legal issue regarding the limits of the notification to the criminal court in the matter of changing the legal classification ex officio

Résumé

The issue of the limits of the notification to the criminal court, in relation to the notification act drawn up by the prosecutor, often raises practical difficulties, especially in situations where the court considers that the facts brought to trial may receive a different legal classification than the one retained in the indictment. Although art. 386 para. (1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure allows the court to change the legal classification of the act; the exercise of this prerogative must be done in compliance with the limits of the notification provided for in art. 328–329 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, according to which the indictment constitutes the notification act of the court and determines the act and the person for whom the criminal investigation was carried out and the criminal action was initiated.