Le procès par Camus d’une justice inique dans L’Étranger

Abstract

A legal columnist for Alger Républicain in 1939, Camus was well acquainted with the world of pre-war justice. The Stranger, written in early 1940, gave him the opportunity to put on trial a justice system whose failings he had criticized. The following study focuses on the representation of Meursault's trial perceived as realistic by some critics, a parody of justice by others, and as a parody of injustice by still others. To what extent did Camus achieve his goal of putting on trial an unjust justice system? If he refused to adhere to the philosophy of the end justifying the means and asserted himself before the war as a defender of Arab rights, how could he in good conscience put on trial colonial justice at the cost of an Arab who was twice a victim, first killed (Part 1), then whose death was “forgotten” (Part 2)?