Pradel studied at the Faculty of Law at the
University of Poitiers from 1951 to 1957 and subsequently passed the entrance exam for the
French National School for the Judiciary. He briefly served as a deputy judge at the of
Brest before serving in the
Algerian War from 1958 to 1960. In 1962, he became a Deputy and a military prosecutor in
Nemours. In 1970, Pradel became an associate lecturer at the Faculty of Law of
Tunis University before returning to his alma mater, the Faculty of Law of Poitiers, in 1972 as a professor. He retired in 2003. While at Poitiers, he directed the institute of judicial studies and the institute of criminal sciences. He served on the from 1984 to 1997. In 2000, he became a professor of criminal studies at the
Institut catholique d'études supérieures in
La Roche-sur-Yon. Jean Pradel died on 12 July 2021 at the age of 87. ==References==