Fundamental principles recognized by the laws of the Republic

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In France, the fundamental principles recognized by the laws of the Republic (French: principes fondamentaux reconnus par les lois de la République, abbreviated to PFRLR) are certain principles identified by the Constitutional Council and the Council of State as having constitutional force.

This notion is mentioned without further explanation in the preamble of the Constitution of 1946. The preamble of the constitution of 1958 references the 1946 preamble, and the constitutional judge, in their decision n°71-44 DC of 16 July 1971, which gave constitutional force to this preamble. These fundamental principles are thus principles included in the constitutionality corpus (fr) (French: bloc de constitutionnalité [lower-alpha 1]).

Initial appearance

The notion of fundamental principles was mentioned in a budgetary law of 31 March 1931 (article 91) to characterize freedom of instruction. (fr)[1][2] This notion was taken as a compromise by the deputies from the Popular Republican Movement (MRP) when writing the Constitution of the Fourth Republic, the SFIO (socialist) and PCF (communist) deputies having declared themselves hostile to a constitutionalization of this freedom along with the other rights cited in the preamble.[citation needed]

The principles attached to this notion were defined by the judge. First, the Council of State identified freedom of association as a fundamental principle, initially basing it on a 1956 appellate decision[lower-alpha 2] and then from 1971 the Constitutional Council in its Decision #71-44 DC on freedom of association as well.[citation needed]

Today, the fundamental principles designate in the modern spirit the landmark laws of the first, second, and third republics, notably the freedom of conscience and freedom of association.[citation needed]

Constitutionalization of principles

The extensive design of the constitutional text developed by the Constitutional Council since 1971 gave constitutional force to some principles by giving them the status of one of the fundamental principles recognized by the laws of the Republic (PFRLR). These essential principles of French law, created by the legislature but not specified in the constitution or raised as a constitutional norm, such as the principle of independence of administrative jurisdiction or freedom of association, are then imposed on the legislature and administration.

PFRLR are mainly defined by the constitutional judges, even if its first mention was from the Council of State.[lower-alpha 2] These jurisdictions consider themselves as not the creators but as the interpreters of these principles, to avoid accusations of a “government by the judges”.[3] The judges “discover” these principles by extracting them from French republican tradition.[3]

Applicability criteria

The Constitutional Council verified four criteria before recognizing the PFRLR. Thus, a principle must come from:

  • A legislative text from before 1946[4] (instauration of the Fourth Republic), of a general scope stating the principle.
  • Taken from a republican regime (excluding legislation from the monarchical regimes and from the Vichy regime), even if an exception exists from the PFRLR identified in the decision of 23 January 1987 “Competitiveness council”, relying partly on the law of 16 and 24 August 1790 adopted by the National Constituent Assembly and sanctioned by Louis XVI ;
  • Having been applied continuously; there can be no exception allowed.[4]
  • And passed as a general (and not contingent) legal principle. This condition explains why the Jus soli is not identified as a PFRLR, since the law of 1889 giving it an absolute character (confirmed by a law of 1927) was not affirming a principle but was linked to the circumstances of the time, here the establishment of conscription (Constitutional Council, Decision n°93-321 DC of 20 July 1993[5]). As such, PFRLR are not comparable to traditions, customs, or simple habits of positive law.[6]
  • The principle must have a “sufficient importance”[4] (see Decision no. 98-407 DC of 14 January 1999, Act determining the mode of election of regional councillors, 9th “Considering that, in any event, the invoked rule does not have a sufficient importance to be regarded as a 'fundamental principle recognized by the laws of the Republic' mentioned in the first paragraph of the Preamble of the Constitution of 1946, thus the gripe must be rejected”.[7])

Since 2013 and the Decision no. 2013-669 DC of 17 May 2013 “Law providing for same-sex marriage”,[8] three new conditions were identified. At this occasion, the Council ruled that the opposite-sex character of marriage was not a PFRLR.[9]

The principles must pertain to at least one of the following topics:

List of principles

As of April 2022, the Constitutional Council has identified eleven principles as PFRLR:

Furthermore, the Council of State has identified in 1996 the prohibition of political extradition.[23]

The PFRLR are to be distinguished from other principles identified by the Constitutional Council:

Criticisms

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. The Constitutional Council has been accused of "government by the judiciary", for increasing the force of texts in the constitutionality corpus that were deliberately ignored when the constitutions of the Fourth and Fifth Republics were developed. Criticism is based on explanations given in early 1959 by Justice Minister Michel Debré.

See also

References

Notes

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Citations

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  1. ↑ Loi du 31 mars 1931 Loi portant fixation du budget general de l'exercise 1931-1932., article 91 (in French), in JORF, 1 April 1931. (pdf) p. 3585.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found..
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Loi du 1er juillet 1901, Décision No. 71-44 DC du 16 juillet 1971, « liberté d'association »
  11. ↑ Décision No. 76-70 DC du 2 décembre 1976, « prévention des accidents du travail »
  12. ↑ Décision No. 76-75 DC du 12 janvier 1977, « fouille des véhicules »
  13. ↑ Article 91 de la loi de finances du 31 mars 1931, Décision No. 77-87 DC du 23 novembre 1977, « liberté d'enseignement et de conscience »
  14. ↑ Lois du 12 juillet 1875 et 18 mars 1880, Décision No. 99-414 DC du 8 juillet 1999, « loi d'orientation agricole »
  15. ↑ Décision No. 77-87 DC du 23 novembre 1977, « liberté d'enseignement et de conscience »
  16. ↑ Loi du 24 mai 1872, Décision No. 80-119 DC du 22 juillet 1980, « validation d'actes administratifs »
  17. ↑ Décision No. 83-165 DC du 20 janvier 1984, « libertés universitaires »
  18. ↑ Décision No. 86-224 DC du 23 janvier 1987, « Conseil de la concurrence »
  19. ↑ Décision No. 89-256 DC du 25 juillet 1989, « urbanisme et agglomérations nouvelles »
  20. ↑ Lois du 12 avril 1906 sur la majorité pénale des mineurs et du 22 juillet 1912 sur les tribunaux pour enfants, Ordonnance du 2 février 1945 sur l'enfance délinquante, Décision No. 2002-461 DC du 29 août 2002, « loi d'orientation et de programmation de la justice »
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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