The 2022 promotion of the National School of Magistracy, during the swearing-in ceremony at the courthouse in Bordeaux on February 10, 2022, is supposed to be the culmination of their training. During forty weeks, auditors of justice – students at the National School of Magistracy (ENM) – go on internships in a jurisdiction. There, they try out different roles, both in the prosecutor’s office and in civil and criminal court. It is a moment where their vocation sharpens and they gain practical experience. However, many auditors quickly become disillusioned. They are frequently subjected to abuse: humiliating and degrading comments, feeling belittled… To address this issue, the Syndicat de la magistrature (SM, left-wing) of the 2021 promotion of the ENM set up an anonymous questionnaire about internships in jurisdictions a year ago to objectify the phenomenon.
The results of the first survey were synthesized in a document of around forty pages, distributed internally at the end of 2023, which Le Monde had access to. It reported nearly a hundred “reported cases of abuse”. The Syndicat de la magistrature wrote: “It is more than necessary for the school to tackle this issue, which is far from being circumstantial or anecdotal. It is experienced by a significant number of auditors and sometimes results in serious situations that could have criminal consequences.” In detail, the results of the survey are enlightening. While the majority of respondents said they had a “good” or “very good” experience during their internship, about a quarter reported having a “fair”, “poor” or “very poor” experience, especially due to “abusive behavior from one or more interlocutors” and feeling constantly evaluated.
Overall, 63% of respondents reported experiencing “one or more behavior problems” from a magistrate or another person at the court during their internship. Nine times out of ten, this behavior was “humiliating or degrading”, often repeated and coming from the internship supervisor, who is usually a magistrate. The most serious incidents were few: seven people reported “verbal abuse”, eight reported “racist, sexist, ableist, or homophobic behavior”. Six respondents described experiencing harassment and one reported a “sexual abuse situation”. The survey highlights the issues auditors face during their internships and the need for the National School of Magistracy to address these concerns and ensure a positive and safe learning environment for its students.
