Analysis of Article 6 of the Constitution of 1791: Legicentrism and National Sovereignty

Extract

[...] Article 6 and the centralization of legislative power In the 1791 Constitution, two distinct powers are found, the executive and the legislative, well separated from each other. The Constitution provides that, in the desired context of a legislative centrism, the legislative power must be ensured by a National Assembly, elected for two years, unique because the national sovereignty issued from article 6 is not divisible and which cannot be dissolved by the king. The Constitution, in article as throughout its text, emphasizes the fact that in France, there is no authority superior to the law. [...]

[...] But if the law is so central, affirming that the law is the expression of the popular will also means posing a corollary to the principle of the "legicentrism », that of the indubitable and necessary national sovereignty. B. The principle of national sovereignty stemming from Article 6 It is the principle of national sovereignty, the second fundamental and innovative principle established by Article 6 of the 1791 Constitution. It is a corollary of the centrality of the law. In fact, affirming that the law is the highest hierarchical norm means posing the question of representation. [...]

[...] The fundamental and innovative principles affirmed by Article 6 of the Constitution of 1791 In providing that there is no authority in France superior to the law», Article 6 establishes two fundamental and highly democratic principles, which are the principle of legocentrism and the principle of national sovereignty A. « The law The reading and analysis of Article 6 of the Constitution of 1791, inspired by Article 6 of the Declaration of the Rights of Man, highlights the fundamental nature of the law, a theme omnipresent in this text, following the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. [...]

[...] It is therefore the law, again, that is central and preponderant, guiding the power under the Constitution of 1791. But such reasoning is not without consequences. Indeed, the intrinsic imbalance in this type of separation of powers can quickly arise in institutional functioning and lead to difficulties because the tasks devoted to the King are residual. This concept, as innovative as it is, as we will see in other Constitutions, may involve risks of ungovernability, as in the case of assembly regimes. [...]

[...] This is the first Constitution of France and the beginning of French constitutional evolution. Article aforementioned, is one of the keystones of the constitutional system put in place in 1791 and which makes the general will the pivot of the system of functioning of public authorities. The concept of general will was conceived by Jean Jacques Rousseau in his fundamental work 'Du contrat social', as the foundation of democratic society and had already been stated by Article 6 of the Declaration of the Rights of Man, according to which 'the law is the expression of the general will'. [...]