{"id":22954,"date":"2016-02-15T23:17:09","date_gmt":"2016-02-15T22:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=22954"},"modified":"2017-10-24T15:42:11","modified_gmt":"2017-10-24T13:42:11","slug":"the-french-judiciary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/the-french-judiciary\/","title":{"rendered":"The French Judiciary"},"content":{"rendered":"

The American judiciary has been in the news a lot lately due to the passing of Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia. The Supreme Court, as most people know, is the highest federal court in the United States and acts as the final interpreter of all federal constitutional law.<\/p>\n

In France, the court that interprets constitutional law is the Constitutional Council (Conseil Constitutionnel).\u00a0<\/i>Like the Supreme Court, it reviews laws and makes sure that the rights and laws set forth in the French constitution are upheld. However, it also works different than the Supreme Court in the United States. Normally, the Constitutional Council reviews all laws passed by the parliament and signed by the president a priori.<\/p>\n

While the government of France is divided into an executive branch, legislative branch, and judicial branch, like in the United States, its court system is not set up as a hierarchy, as in the United States. This means that there are different courts that take on different roles in the judicial branch. For this reason, some legal scholars don’t consider the Constitutional Council to be like the Supreme Court, because it is not necessarily considered the highest and most powerful court in all circumstances.<\/p>\n

Also unlike in the United States, the Constitutional Council is made up of a combination of former French presidents and other members who serve non-renewable nine year terms and are appointed either by the President of the Republic, the president of the National Assembly, or the president of the Senate. Former presidents who are currently involved in politics, like Nicholas Sarkozy, are unable to sit on the Constitutional Council. Today, one former president, Val\u00e9rie Giscard d’Estaing, currently sits on the Council.<\/p>\n

According to this site,<\/a> the Constitutional Council has the following missions:<\/p>\n

Le Conseil constitutionnel, cr\u00e9\u00e9 en 1958, a plusieurs missions.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Il est, d\u2019abord et avant tout, charg\u00e9 d\u2019assurer le respect de la Constitution<\/strong>, qui est la norme supr\u00eame en droit fran\u00e7ais. Il effectue pour cela un contr\u00f4le de la constitutionnalit\u00e9<\/span> des lois et des trait\u00e9s internationaux, c\u2019est-\u00e0-dire qu\u2019il v\u00e9rifie leur conformit\u00e9 \u00e0 la Constitution (art. 54 et 61 de la Constitution).<\/p>\n

Above everything else, it is tasked with assuring respect of the Constitution, which is the supreme law in the French legal system. To do this, it evaluates the constitutionality of laws and international treaties, which means that it verifies if they conform with the Constitution.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2013 Le Conseil constitutionnel est en outre le juge de la r\u00e9gularit\u00e9 des consultations nationales<\/strong> que sont l\u2019\u00e9lection pr\u00e9sidentielle, le r\u00e9f\u00e9rendum, les \u00e9lections l\u00e9gislatives et s\u00e9natoriales (art. 58, 59 et 60 de la Constitution).<\/p>\n

The Constitutional Council also judges the legality of national\u00a0consultations, which are the presidential election, referendums, and legislative and senatorial elections.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2013 De mani\u00e8re beaucoup plus exceptionnelle, le Conseil constitutionnel est amen\u00e9 \u00e0 \u00e9mettre des avis et \u00e0 constater l\u2019existence de certaines situations<\/strong> (emp\u00eachement ou vacance de la pr\u00e9sidence de la R\u00e9publique, situation justifiant l\u2019octroi des pouvoirs exceptionnels conf\u00e9r\u00e9s par l\u2019article 16 de la Constitution au pr\u00e9sident de la R\u00e9publique).<\/p>\n

In a much more exceptional way, the Constitutional Council issues options and notes the existence of certain situations (the president of the Republic’s impeachment or resignation, a situation that justifies the\u00a0granting of exceptional powers conferred by article 16 of the Constitution to the president of the Republic).<\/em><\/p>\n

Do you have any other questions about the branches of government in France, the rights afforded to French citizens under the Constitution, or the way in which the French judiciary works? Leave your questions in the comments!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The American judiciary has been in the news a lot lately due to the passing of Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia. The Supreme Court, as most people know, is the highest federal court in the United States and acts as the final interpreter of all federal constitutional law. In France, the court that interprets constitutional…<\/p>\n

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