About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

52 Acta Jur. Hng. 1 (2011)

handle is hein.journals/ajur52 and id is 1 raw text is: 1216-2574/USD 20. 00 ACTA JURIDICA HUNGARICA © 2011 Akademiai Kiad6, Budapest 52, No 1, pp. 1-18 (2011) DOI: 10.1556/AJur 52.2011. 1.1 MARIE-PIERRE GRANGER* The Preamble(s) of the French Constitution: Content, Status, Uses and Amendment Abstract. This article analyses the way of the French Constitutional Council, starting with its famous Association decision in 1971, transformed a brief reference to historical declarations of rights in the thin Preamble of the current French constitution (adopted in 1958) into a wide-ranging judge-made catalogue of fundamental rights. This, combined with two important reforms of the procedure for submissions of statutes to the Constitutional Council for review (in 1974 and 2008), are gradually establishing the Constitutional Council as an important actor in the legislative process and a central body for the protection of human rights in France. The article also briefly explores the scope and limits of this protection. It then discusses recent proposals for amending the Preamble. It analyses the only amendment so far, namely the inclusion of a reference to the Charter for the Environment, which aimed at providing a constitutional basis for the protection of environment, as well as other controversial suggestions, such as those aiming at enabling positive discrimination measures towards minorities, the guarantee of media pluralism, the protection of privacy and personal data and the respect of human dignity. It concludes on the use and misuses of comparative law for constitutional reforms. Keywords: constitutional reform, constitutional preamble, constitutional review, protection of fundamental rights, comparative law 1. Introductory remarks: the 1958 Political Constitution, its Amputated Constitutional Judge and its Insignificant Preamble As is well-known, France has had a tormented constitutional history, going through many different political regimes, and no less than fifteen constitutions since the French Revolution in 1789. This is to say that the French should know about constitutions! One can differ as to whether the history of France should be considered a fruitful garden of constitutional thought, a graveyard of constitutional experiments, a muse des constitutions , or a minefield; in any case it is beyond doubt that the French are rather experienced in constitutions and constitutional changes. The current constitution, which provides for the basic rules for France's Fifth Republic, was adopted in 1958. It is the longest lasting French constitution after the constitutional laws of the Third Republic (1875). It has been amended twenty-four times. As to the significance of the Constitution in French political life, it is important to recall that prior to 1958, the system was centered on the loi which was, in the words of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the expression of the -volontd gdndrale (general will).2 As such, it * Associate Professor, Central European University (Budapest), Department of Public Policy, H-1051 Budapest, Ntdor u. 9. E-mail: Grangermgceu.hu I van Nifterik, G.: French Constitutional History, Garden or Graveyard? European Constitutional Law Review (EuConst), 3 (2007) 3, 476. 2 See also Art. 6 of the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most