The Law of Suspects was passed on September 17, 1793, allowing revolutionary authorities to arrest people considered enemies or potential enemies of the Revolution.
The decree was adopted by the National Convention during a period of war, political rebellion, food shortages, and mounting fear of counter-revolution. It targeted categories such as former nobles, émigrés, suspended officials, suspected traitors, hoarders, and people who could not demonstrate their revolutionary loyalty.
Rather than requiring proof of a specific crime, the law relied heavily on suspicion. Local surveillance committees helped identify and arrest suspects, many of whom were imprisoned without a conventional criminal conviction. The measure therefore became one of the legal foundations of the Reign of Terror and contributed to the erosion of the principle that people were presumed innocent.
The Law of Suspects is often confused with the Law of 22 Prairial, passed in June 1794. That later law further accelerated trials before the Revolutionary Tribunal, while the September 1793 decree chiefly established broad grounds for arrest.