Constitutional Law, Political Law, Political Power, French Constitution, Constitutional Review, Constitutional Custom, Political Actors
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Abstract
This document explores the relationship between constitutional law and politics, examining whether constitutional law is a law made by politics or a law that applies to politics.
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[...] Is constitutional law a political law? The Portalis Notebooks, n 6(1), 107-128. https://doi.org/10.3917/capo.006.0107.) Constitutional law is classically defined as the law that governs political power, both in its expression and in its exercise. For Dean Vedel, it is the law of the constitution, that is to say the law "the set of the most important rules of the State", "those that determine the very form of the State (unitary or federal), the form of its government (republican or monarchical), the bodies that direct it and the manner in which they are constituted, the powers with which they are vested, the rights of citizens". [...]
[...] Indeed, the current events of the past few months, with dissolution, censorship, the multiple and sometimes irregular uses of article 49, paragraph 3 of the Constitution, show well all the stakes that there are in looking at constitutional law as a political law. Indeed, since politicians use constitutional law, but it regulates their action, we find a certain tension between constitutional law and politics. Is constitutional law a law made by politics or a law that applies to politics? Constitutional law is a political law. Indeed, it is a law governing politics but it is also a law that is governed by political life (II). I. [...]
[...] Therefore, it is a political law B - A framework for the exercise of political power Constitutional law is also political because it comes to regulate the behavior of political actors. It sets the rules of the game. It is through it that the dissolution, or even the censorship, is exercised. It gives the different competences. Without constitutional law, there is no exercise of political power. However, constitutional law is also a law that can be modified by the political (II). II. [...]
[...] Constitutional revision procedure (art explain). Involves parliamentarians and the executive power, and sometimes the people to validate, but in practice only parliamentarians and the executive (except in 2000 on the passage from the septennat to the quinquennat). B - A law materially modified by the practice of political actors The practice of political actors sometimes modifies constitutional law. This is the idea of custom or convention of the constitution. The question was raised in France with the constitutional referendums of 1962 and 1969. [...]
