Law of 22 Prairial

A law enacted on 10 June 1794 that curtailed defendants’ rights and broadened the Revolutionary Tribunal’s power to convict and sentence people to death.

Revolutionary Tribunal: A Paris court established in 1793 to try political offenses against the French Republic. The law reshaped this court’s procedures and enlarged its power to condemn.
Reign of Terror: A period of political repression and mass executions in revolutionary France, chiefly from 1793 to 1794. The law intensified repression during the Terror’s final months.
Great Terror: The final, especially deadly phase of the Reign of Terror in Paris in summer 1794. The law’s streamlined trials contributed to the sharp rise in executions during this phase.
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen: A 1789 French statement of political and civil rights, including principles of legal equality and due process. Its rights principles stand in sharp tension with the law’s removal of key trial safeguards.
Public Prosecutor of the Revolutionary Tribunal: The official who brought prosecutions before the Revolutionary Tribunal. The law strengthened the prosecutor’s role in deciding which cases proceeded.
Law of Suspects: A September 1793 French law defining categories of people liable to arrest as enemies of the Revolution. It supplied an earlier framework for identifying suspects that the 1794 law further weaponized.
9 Thermidor: The date of the 1794 coup that overthrew Robespierre and his allies in the National Convention. Opposition to the law fed the political crisis that culminated in Robespierre’s overthrow.
French Penal Code of 1791: The first modern French criminal code, enacted during the Revolution in 1791. The earlier code set out regular criminal procedures that the emergency law sharply displaced.
Capital punishment: A state-imposed death sentence carried out as punishment for a crime. The law narrowed verdicts to acquittal or death, removing lesser penalties.
Maximilien Robespierre: A French revolutionary leader and member of the Committee of Public Safety. Robespierre defended the law as a means of pursuing enemies of the Republic.

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