The Evolution and Gestalt of the French Constitution

Résumé 0

France’s chaotic constitutional history may have ended with the Constitution of 1958. Because of the strong constitutional constructivism that emerged with the Revolution, every constitution was connected to a specific ideology. Political conflict could hardly be internalized, so that great instability resulted (high-energy constitutionalism). Constitutional rigidity only offered a parchment barrier to political movements, while the rejection of constitutional review of legislation contributed to the lack of a popular constitutional culture (low juridicity constitutionalism). As constitutions passed, legicentrism made ordinary statutes addressing the organization of private relations, as well as setting the administrative and judicial structure of the country, the building blocks of the French polity. Whatever kind of separation of powers was established, the principle of political representation dominated the rival principle of direct democracy (delegative constitutionalism). This went hand in hand with the constant proclamation of several generations of fundamental rights (human rights constitutionalism). Although it has borrowed from this heritage, the constitution of the Fifth Republic has transformed it considerably. It has replaced parliamentary sovereignty with a unique combination of semi-presidentialism and semi-direct democracy. The creation of the Constitutional Council led to an unforeseen judicialization of French constitutionalism. As a broad consensus has emerged regarding the Gestalt of the French constitution, one may wonder whether, precisely because it managed to avoid the pitfalls of French history, this text has not killed constitutional debate.