In many civil law countries (e.g.:

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, Switzerland,

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

) a contravention is a non-criminal offense, similar to an infraction or

civil penalty A civil penalty or civil fine is a financial penalty imposed by a government agency as restitution for wrongdoing. The wrongdoing is typically defined by a codification of legislation, regulations, and decrees. The civil fine is not considered ...

common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipres ...

countries.

France

Contravention is, in

French law The Law of France refers to the legal system in the French Republic, which is a civil law legal system primarily based on legal codes and statutes, with case law also playing an important role. The most influential of the French legal codes is t ...

, an act which violates the

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

, a treaty or an agreement which the party has made. It designates a minor infraction, as opposed to a '' délit'' or misdemeanor, or a ''

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...

'' (felony). Any infraction of a law or regulation enforced by the agents of the State executive, that is not punishable by more than a €3000 fine for a person, is considered as a contravention. The fine may also be accompanied by an additional sentence (peine complémentaire).

Competence

Contraventions and their penalties are determined by the executive organs of the French State, unlike délits and

crimes In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Can ...

which are determined by the legislative organs (Parliament Senate), as per Article 34 of the

French Constitution of 1958 The current Constitution of France was adopted on 4 October 1958. It is typically called the Constitution of the Fifth Republic , and it replaced the Constitution of the Fourth Republic of 1946 with the exception of the preamble per a Consti ...

.
The executive organs include: *The President of the Republic *The government (Cabinet) *The local government (prefects of regions and departments) *The department and region Councils *The police prefect of Paris *The town Council and Mayor

Penalties

As previously stated the maximum fine for an individual is €3000, and the maximum for a corporation or collectivity is €45,000. The additional penalties are defined in the Article 131-10 of the Code Pénal. They include: *

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcohol ...

s (e.g. prohibition of

residency Residency may refer to: * Domicile (law), the act of establishing or maintaining a residence in a given place ** Permanent residency, indefinite residence within a country despite not having citizenship * Residency (medicine), a stage of postgra ...

in the country (for foreign individuals only), prohibition of civil and family rights) * Forfeitures (e.g. loss of the

French nationality French nationality law is historically based on the principles of ''jus soli'' (Latin for "right of soil") and ''jus sanguinis'', according to Ernest Renan's definition, in opposition to the German definition of nationality, ''jus sanguinis'' ( ...

- extremely rare) *

Incapacity Legal capacity is a quality denoting either the legal aptitude of a person to have rights and liabilities (in this sense also called transaction capacity), or altogether the personhood itself in regard to an entity other than a natural person ( ...

(e.g. prohibition to take action on one's own property) * Retraction of a right (e.g. confiscation of

driving licence A driver's license is a legal authorization, or the official document confirming such an authorization, for a specific individual to operate one or more types of motorized vehicles—such as motorcycles, cars, trucks, or buses—on a public ...

) *

Obligation An obligation is a course of action that someone is required to take, whether legal or moral. Obligations are constraints; they limit freedom. People who are under obligations may choose to freely act under obligations. Obligation exists when the ...

to seek treatment (e.g. obligation to prove a medical treatment has been followed) * Obligation of action (e.g. obligation to

reimburse Reimbursement is the act of compensating someone for an out-of-pocket expense by giving them an amount of money equal to what was spent. Companies, governments and nonprofit organizations may compensate their employees or officers for necessary ...

the victims) * Immobilisation or confiscation of an object (e.g. confiscation of

weapon A weapon, arm or armament is any implement or device that can be used to deter, threaten, inflict physical damage, harm, or kill. Weapons are used to increase the efficacy and efficiency of activities such as hunting, crime, law enforcement, ...

s or drugs etc.) *

Confiscation Confiscation (from the Latin ''confiscatio'' "to consign to the ''fiscus'', i.e. transfer to the treasury") is a legal form of seizure by a government or other public authority. The word is also used, popularly, of spoliation under legal forms, ...

of an animal (previously considered as objects) * Closure of an establishment * Obligation to publish the

court decision In law, a judgment, also spelled judgement, is a decision of a court regarding the rights and liabilities of parties in a legal action or proceeding. Judgments also generally provide the court's explanation of why it has chosen to make a particular ...

publicly, and since the law n°2004-575 in date of June 21, 2004 obligation to communication the decision to the public by electronic means (internet). The penalties are determined by the legislative organs:

Assemblée Nationale The National Assembly (french: link=no, italics=set, Assemblée nationale; ) is the lower house of the bicameral French Parliament under the Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are know ...

and

Sénat The Senate (french: Sénat, ) is the upper house of the French Parliament, with the lower house being the National Assembly, the two houses constituting the legislature of France. The French Senate is made up of 348 senators (''sénateurs'' ...

, or the government in the cases defined in article 49-3 of the Constitution (attribution of certain legislative rights to the government, in particular cases). There are 5 classes of contraventions, each having a progressively higher maximum fine.

Brazil

, contravention is a sort of penal infraction — not only an administrative offense - which is considered to be less serious than a crime. Since 1941,

Brazilian Law The law of Brazil is based on statutes and, partly and more recently, a mechanism called ''súmulas vinculantes''. It derives mainly from the civil law systems of European countries, particularly Portugal, the Napoleonic Code and the Germanic l ...

has a dual system which separates penal infractions in two main different acts. They are the Código Penal (

Brazilian Penal Code The current Penal Code of Brazil ( pt, Código Penal brasileiro) was promulgated in 1940, during the Estado Novo regime in the Vargas Era, and is in effect since January 1, 1942. It is the third codification of criminal law in the country's hist ...

) — describing crimes in general — and the Lei de Contravenções Penais (Penal Contraventions Act) — describing the contraventions. Contraventions are punished less severely than crimes in Brazilian Law. While crimes may be punished to ''reclusão'' (reclusion) or ''detenção'' (detention), the only kind of possible imprisonment for contraventions is ''prisão simples'' (simple prison), which is never served under closed conditions (only open and semi-closed conditions may be applied). Fines may also be imposed due to contravention sentencing. In Brazilian Law System, one who is already convicted for a crime is not considered to be recidivist when committing a contravention for the first time, and vice versa.

France

Competence

Penalties

Brazil

See also