Comparative criminal procedure E.S.S.A.Y

Erasmus Student
Charlotte Launoy
09260846
We call "police custody" the period of a few hours or a few days during which a person suspected of having committed a malpractice is held in a premises of police having been arrested without warrant for arrest. As a general rule, the police can place in police custody the persons caught in “flagrante delicto” as well as those whom it suspects of having committed - even to be about to commit - a malpractice when this measure seems necessary to facilitate the good progress of the penal investigation or to prevent the suspects from committing other malpractices.
The legislative measures concerning the police custody evolved a lot during the last years, but the fundamental principles of the 1679 law on the habeas corpus continue to apply, in particular the right which every person has to be informed about the motives for its arrest.

Most of the european texts subordinate the placement in police custody to the existence of a malpractice of a certain gravity. In Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Spain and Italy the rules of the criminal procedure subordinate in a more or less explicit way the placement in police custody to the existence of a malpractice of a certain gravity. In Belgium, in Spain and in Italy, the code of criminal procedure defines explicitly the malpractices which can entail an placement in custody.
At the opposite, in England and in Wales, since January 1st, 2006, all the malpractices, whatever is their gravity, may justify an placement in police custody.
In Belgium, in Germany, in Spain and in Italy, the duration of the police custody, fixed by constitutional way, cannot be prolonged. In Belgium, according to the constitution, the duration of the police custody is limited at 24 hours. In Germany, the fundamental law prevents the police from detaining somebody " of its own authority " beyond the next day of the arrest, so that the total duration of the