FRANCE. Since 1789 France has undergone numerous changes in government, and each change has been embodied in constitutional documents. It will suffice here to enumerate the. several constitutions which were in force before the definite establishment of the Third Republic: 1. The Constitution of 3 September 1791 established a limited monarchy, but disappeared with the fall of the King in the succeeding year. 2. The Republican Constitution of 24 June 1793 had not been put in force before the fall of the Jacobins who framed it, and was disregarded by those who succeeded to their power. 3. The Constitution of 22 August 1795 vested the executive power in five Directors, and the legislative power in a Council of Five Hundred and a Council of Ancients. It represents the conservative reaction from the Jacobin principles of 1793. 4. The usurpations of the Directory and the coup d'état of 9 November 1799 put an end to the Constitution of 1795. Under the Constitution of 13 December 1799 Napoleon gained as First Consul the supreme executive power to which he aspired. 5. The senatus-consulta of 2 and 4 August 1802 proclaimed Napoleon First Consul for life with extended powers, and on 18 May 1804 the Consulate was replaced by the Empire. The Constitution was altered by several other less important acts between 1804 and 1814. Intimately connected with the first Imperial Constitution is the Additional Act of 22 April 1815, which by its liberal principles attempted to outbid the Bourbon Charter of 1814; the Additional Act disappeared with the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo. 6. Upon the restoration of the Bourbons the Constitutional Charter of 4 June 18141 was issued by Louis XVIII; with this Constitution was first established the parliamentary system with ministerial responsibility; the legislature was composed of two houses, one appointive, the other elective, but with a very limited electorate. 7. The Constitution of 14 August 18302 and the organic laws of 1831 came as a result of the July revolution of 1830. The Constitution of 1814 remained almost unchanged, except for a limited extension of the suffrage and the abolition of hereditary peerages. 1 French text in the British and Foreign State Papers, 1: pp. 960-966. 8. The Republican Constitution of 4 November 18481 introduced universal suffrage, with an unicameral legislature, and an elective president chosen for four years and ineligible to succeed himself. 9. The Constitution of 14 January 18522 extended for 10 years the power of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte as President of the Republic; the senatus-consultum of 7 November,3 ratified by the plebiscite of 21 and 22 November 1852, reestablished the Empire. Between 1852 and 1870 the Constitution was altered by numerous senatus-consulta, the most important of which was that of 8 September 1869, establishing ministerial responsibility. 10. The senatus-consultum of 21 May 1870, a codification of constitutional changes since 1860, was really a new Imperial Constitution, and was submitted to a vote of the people as such. 11. Imperial institutions in France were now destined to be of short duration; the Empire disappeared on 4 September 1870, when news reached Paris of the French disaster at Sedan. The Government of the National Defense, which succeeded the Empire, gave way in February, 1871, to a National Assembly which chose Thiers chief of the executive power of the French Republic. For two years after 1871 nothing was done by the National Assembly toward the permanent establishment of the Republic. In fact the majority of the Assembly were monarchists; the overthrow of Thiers and the election of Marshal de MacMahon as President were considered the first steps toward the restoration of monarchy, but the attitude of the Comte de Chambord wrecked the hopes of his supporters. Definite steps toward a constitutional organization were not taken until hope of a restoration of the Bourbons had disappeared. Even after the failure to reestablish the Monarchy the majority of the National Assembly hoped to prevent the permanent establishment of the Republic. But the provisional organization of the Government could not continue forever, nor could the Assembly, elected to meet the national crisis of 1871, expect much longer to remain in power. The constitutional and organic laws were finally enacted iu 1875, and the elections of 1876 proved that the people of France were ready to support republican institutions. In addition to these laws, some subsequent laws bearing upon constitutional matters have been included here.* 1 French text in the British and Foreign State Papers, 36: pp. 1072-1085. 2 French text in the British and Foreign State Papers, 41: pp. 1085–1090. 3 French text in the British and Foreign State Papers, 41: pp. 1095-1098. 4 These introductory paragraphs are based upon W. F. DODD, Modern Constitutions (Chicago, 1909), vol. I, pp. 283-285. There is also a very good account in F. R. DARESTE ET P. DARESTE, Les Constitutions modernes (3d edition, Paris, 1910), vol. I, pp. 1-9. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW OF 25 FEBRUARY 1875.1 ON THE ORGANIZATION OF THE PUBLIC POWERS. ARTICLE 1. The legislative power shall be exercised by two assemblies: The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.. The Chamber of Deputies shall be elected by universal suffrage, under the conditions determined by the electoral law.2 The composition, the method of election and the attributions of the Senate shall be regulated by a special law. ART. 2. The President of the Republic shall be chosen by an absolute majority of votes of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies united in National Assembly. He shall be elected for seven years. He shall be eligible for reelection. ART. 3. The President of the Republic shall have the initiative of laws, concurrently with the members of the two houses. He shall promulgate the laws when they have been voted by the two houses *; he shall look after and secure their execution. He shall have the right of pardon; amnesty may only be granted by law.5 He shall dispose of the armed force. He shall appoint to all civil and military positions. He shall preside over State functions; envoys and ambassadors of foreign powers shall be accredited to him. Every act of the President of the Republic shall be countersigned by a minister. ART. 4. As vacancies occur on and after the promulgation of the present law, the President of the Republic shall appoint, in the Council of Ministers, the councilors of State in regular service. The councilors of State thus chosen may be dismissed only by decree rendered in the Council of Ministers.® 1 Promulgated in the Journal officiel of 28 February 1875. Translation of this and the following laws based upon DODD, op. cit., pp. 286-288, which in turn was based upon the translation by C. F. A. CURRIER in the Supplement to the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, March, 1893 (Philadelphia, 1893), and in Foreign Constitutions [The Convention Manual of the Sixth New York State Constitutional Convention, 1894, part 2, vol. 3] (Albany, 1894), pp. 230-255. French texts in DARESTE, op. cit., pp. 10-37, and PAUL POSENER, Die Staatsverfassungen des Erdballs (Charlottenburg, 1909), pp. 564-587. 2 See Laws of 30 November 1875, 16 June 1885, 13 February 1889 and 17 July 1889, on pp. 203, 213, 214 and 215, respectively. * See Constitutional Law of 24 February 1875 and Laws of 2 August 1875 and 9 December 1884, on pp. 195, 198 and 210, respectively. 4 See Article 7 of the Constitutional Law of 16 July 1875 on p. 196. 5 The houses may, without amending the Constitution, decide that pardons granted by the President of the Republic shall, under certain conditions, produce all the effects of amnesty (Laws of 3 March 1879 and 11 July 1880). The Council of State is now governed by the Laws of 24 May 1872 and 13 July 1879. Clause 3 of the above article has been omitted, because it ceased to have application after 1881. ART. 5. The President of the Republic may, with the advice of the Senate, dissolve the Chamber of Deputies before the legal expiration of its mandate. In that case the electoral colleges shall be assembled for new elections within the space of 2 months, and the Chamber within the 10 days following the close of the elections.1 ART. 6. The ministers shall be collectively responsible to the houses for the general policy of the government, and individually for their personal acts. The President of the Republic shall be responsible only in case of high treason.2 ART. 7. In case of vacancy by death or for any other reason, the two houses assembled together shall proceed at once to the election of a new President. 3 In the meantime the Council of Ministers shall be vested with the executive power. ART. 8. The houses shall have the right by separate resolutions, taken in each by an absolute majority of votes, either upon their own initiative or upon the request of the President of the Republic, to declare a revision of the constitutional laws necessary. After each of the two houses shall have come to this decision, they shall meet together in National Assembly to proceed with the revision. The acts effecting revision of the constitutional laws, in whole or in part, shall be passed by an absolute majority of the members composing the National Assembly." The republican form of government shall not be made the subject of a proposed revision." Members of families that have reigned in France are ineligible to the Presidency of the Republic.® ART. 9.7 1 As amended by Article 1 of the Constitutional Law of 14 August 1884. 2 See Article 12 of the Constitutional Law of 16 July 1875, on p. 197. 3 See Article 3 of the Constitutional Law of 16 July 1875, on p. 196. * Article 8 has been put into practice twice, in 1879 and in 1884. See the introductory paragraphs preceding this law. 5 The clause following this, concerning the presidency of Marshal de MacMahon, is now without object. Added by Article 2 of the Constitutional Law of 14 August 1884. Repealed by the Constitutional Law of 21 June 1879. Article 9 originally read: "The seat of the executive power and of the two houses shall be at Versailles." Law of 22 July 1879, on p. 208. See CONSTITUTIONAL LAW OF 24 FEBRUARY 1875.1 ON THE ORGANIZATION OF THE SENATE. ARTICLES 1-7.2 ART. 8. The Senate shall have, concurrently with the Chamber of Deputies, the power to initiate and to pass laws. Money bills, however, shall first be introduced in and passed by the Chamber of Deputies.3 ART. 9. The Senate may be constituted a court of justice to try either the President of the Republic or the ministers, and to take cognizance of attacks made upon the safety of the State.* ART. 10. Elections to the Senate shall take place one month before the time fixed by the National Assembly for its own dissolution. The Senate shall organize and enter upon its duties the same day that the National Assembly is dissolved. ART. 11. The present law shall be promulgated only after the passage of the law on the public powers. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW OF 16 JULY 1875.5 ON THE RELATIONS OF THE PUBLIC POWERS. ARTICLE 1. The Senate and the Chamber of Deputies shall assemble each year on the second Tuesday of January, unless convened earlier by the President of the Republic. The two houses shall continue in session at least five months each year. The sessions of the two houses shall begin and end at the same time.R ART. 2. The President of the Republic pronounces the closing of the session. He may convene the houses in extraordinary session. He shall convene them if, during the recess, an absolute majority of the members of each house request it. The President may adjourn the houses. The adjournment, however, shall not exceed one month, nor take place more than twice. in the same session. 1 Promulgated in the Journal officiel of 28 February 1875. See above, p. 193, note 1. 2 These seven articles, concerning the composition of the Senate and of the electoral body which names the senators, were deprived of their constitutional character by Article 3 of the Law of 14 August 1884 and were repealed by Article 9 of the Law of 9 December 1884. See below, pp. 198 and 213, respectively. This text is an almost literal reproduction of Article 15 of the Charter of 1830, which in turn was borrowed from the Charter of 1814 (Articles 17 and 47). The Senate and the Chamber since 1876 have frequently been in disagreement upon the interpretation to be given to Article 8, the former maintaining that no exception for money bills is made to the general principle of the equality of the two houses in the passage of laws, the latter claiming exclusive control of budgetary rights. See below, p. 197, note 1. 'Promulgated in the Journal officiel of 18 July 1875. See above, p. 193, note 1. The third paragraph of this article, repealed by Article 4 of the Law of 14 August 1884, prescribed public prayers on the Sunday following the convening of the houses. |