Constitutional Council of France - Definition and Overview

The Constitutional Council was established by the Constitution of the Fifth Republic on 4 October 1958. It is the highest constitutional authority in France. Its duty is to ensure that the principles and rules of the constitution are up held. The council can only do so when issues are brought before it, it has no power to judge otherwise. Thus legislation can only be judged to be unconstitutional if it is brought before the council before it is promulgated, not after it had been passed.

The council is made up of nine judges who serve a non-renewable term of nine years, one third renewable every three yeas. The selection of judges is made by the president of the republic, the president of the national assembly and the president of the senate, they each have to choose one third of its composition. The President of the Councils is then selected by the president of the republic.

The constitutional council has two main areas of power. The first is the supervision of elections, both presidential and parliamentary and ensuring the legitimacy of referendums (Articles 58, 59 and 60). They issue the official results, they ensure proper conduct and fairness and that spending limits are adhered to. The council is the supreme authority in this respect. The second area covers the following aspects: interpretation of the fundamental meanings of the constitution, procedure, legislation and treaties. Organic bills, the ones which fundamentally affect government and treaties need to be assessed by the council before they are considered ratified (Article 61-1 and 54); amendments concerning the rules governing parliamentary proceeding need to be considered; guidance in regard to whether reform should come under the heading ‘domain of law’ for discussion in parliament or whether issues are considered as reglement to be dealt with by ministerial decree need to be sought form the council. The council can only reside over issues brought before it. It must be noted here that not anyone can bring an issue before the council, this power is in the hand of a select few; president of the republic, president of the senate, president of the assembly, the prime minister or 60 deputies or senators.