•  
  •  
 

Abstract

An "application for a priority preliminary ruling on the issue of constitutionality" is the right for any person who is involved in legal proceedings before a court to argue that a statutory provision infringes rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.

Once conditions of admissibility have been complied with, the Constitutional Council, to whom the application will have been referred by the Council of State or the Court of Cassation, will give its ruling and, if need be, repeal the challenged statutory provision.

The application for a priority preliminary ruling on the issue of constitutionality was introduced under the constitutional reform of July 23rd 2008.

Prior to this reform, it was impossible to challenge the constitutionality of a statute which had come into force. From now on, persons involved in legal proceedings will be vested with this new right under Article 61-1 of the Constitution:

(If, during proceedings in progress before a court of law, it is claimed that a legislative provision infringes the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution, the matter may be referred by the Council of State or the Court of Cassation to the Constitutional Council which shall rule within a determined period).

The rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution are the rights and freedoms found in the Constitution of October 4th 1958 ,- the texts referred to by the Preamble to the Constitution of October 4th 1958, namely : - the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen of 1789, - the Preamble to the Constitution of 1946, - the fundamental principles recognized by the laws of the Republic (to which the Preamble to the Constitution of 1946 refers) ; for instance freedom of association or freedom of education, the Charter for the Environment of 2004.

Download

Share

COinS