ABSTRACT

Both case law of the European Court of Human Rights and EU legal instruments on the one hand, and academic legal psychological literature on the other, recognise the specific needs of so-called vulnerable suspects in criminal proceedings. In this regard, the important role of the criminal defence lawyer in compensating for a suspect’s vulnerability is emphasised, especially because vulnerable persons require special care to understand their legal rights and to improve the quality of their statements. Consequently, defence lawyers must be aware early on in proceedings whether their clients can be qualified as vulnerable in order to adequately deal with this presumed vulnerability. In practice, determining early on whether or not a client is vulnerable is a challenging task. Drawing from a legal theoretical and qualitative empirical analysis, this article outlines how Belgian defence lawyers perceive and identify suspect vulnerability in the early stages of a criminal investigation.

摘要

一方面，欧洲人权法院的判例法和欧盟法律文书，另一方面，学术法律心理学文献，都承认刑事诉讼中所谓的弱势嫌疑人的特殊需要。对此，强调了刑事辩护律师在弥补嫌疑人的弱点方面的重要作用，特别是因为弱势群体需要特别注意以了解其合法权利并提高其陈述的质量。因此，辩护律师必须在诉讼程序的早期就意识到他们的委托人是否可以被认定为弱势群体，以便充分应对这种假定的弱势群体。在实践中，尽早确定客户是否易受攻击是一项具有挑战性的任务。本文借鉴法律理论和定性实证分析，概述了比利时辩护律师如何在刑事调查的早期阶段感知和识别嫌疑人的弱点。