A judge by definition impartial/neutral, that's the point of a judge.
That's frightening that France and Belgium have the need of a special judge called a neutral judge.
That's frightening that France and Belgium have the need of a special judge called a neutral judge.
Edit : And the Juge d'Instruction IS a special judge, because he doesn't judge anything, his job is to head all investigations in serious and complicated cases. Normally that would be the prosecutors job... so it's an independent and trully neutral man (a judge) doing a prosecutor job, in the interest of the accusation and the defense, at the same time. That's quite special.