What does constitutional law institutionalize?
Political power by organizing, framing, and stabilizing its exercise.
Which bodies does constitutional law primarily address?
The President, Government, Parliament, and Constitutional Council.
What does public law mainly govern?
Relations between public persons and private individuals and state organization.
What does private law mainly govern?
Relations between private persons.
What does constitutional law mainly concern?
Political organization, sovereignty, the Constitution, and relations between powers.
What does administrative law mainly concern?
The administration and public services.
What is political power?
The power that organizes and directs a collective.
What is an institution?
A human action or organization that exists beyond its creator or officeholder.
What does constitutional supremacy mean in legal hierarchy?
The Constitution is the highest norm and lower norms must comply with it.
Which article assigns the legislative function to Parliament in the 1958 Constitution?
Article 24 assigns the legislative function to Parliament.
What is positive law?
Legal rules actually in force in a legal order at a given time.
What is natural law?
Principles of justice based on human nature or universal values superior to positive law.
Who conceived law as a hierarchy of legal norms with the Constitution at the top?
Hans Kelsen.
What does a norm of empowerment do?
It grants an institution the legal competence necessary to act.
Which texts are included in the constitutional block?
The 1958 Constitution, 1789 Declaration, 1946 Preamble, and 2004 Environmental Charter.
What is the difference between constitutionality and legitimacy?
Constitutionality checks compliance with constitutional rules; legitimacy checks political and social acceptability.
What is constitutional doctrine?
The body of studies and reflections by jurists and academics interpreting constitutional law.
When was constitutional law teaching organized at Paris Faculty of Law?
On 22 August 1834.
What did constitutional law seek during the nineteenth century?
To become an autonomous legal discipline by studying and interpreting constitutional rules.
What did constitutional scholars study from the 1950s?
Political practices, electoral behavior, political parties, and regime functioning.
What was the significance of the Constitutional Council’s decision on 16 July 1971?
It gave constitutional value to the 1958 Constitution's Preamble and expanded constitutional review.
When did the Constitutional Council’s expanded role mechanism enter into force?
In 2010.
What did the 2008 constitutional revision create regarding constitutional review?
The Question prioritaire de constitutionnalité mechanism.
What does the ancient Greek concept Politeia describe?
How a city is politically organized and how power operates within it.
How did Aristotle classify political regimes?
By the number of rulers and whether they pursued general or private interest.
Into what two categories did Roman law distinguish law?
Public law and private law.
What modern distinction did Roman law contribute to?
Between an institution and the person exercising authority.
Which work by Cicero reflects on the existence of a mixed regime?
De Republica, written from 54 BC.
What does ancient natural law concern?
Human nature and the natural organization of the city.
What does modern natural law emphasize?
Individual liberty, equality, and consent.
According to Aristotle, into what can monarchy degenerate?
Tyranny.
What are three ways to understand political liberty?
Security by sovereign power, participation in the general will, and protection against power abuses.
Which thinkers see political society as based on a social contract?
Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau.
What natural rights does Locke identify that the state must respect?
Life, liberty, and property.
What event in 1688 led to the Bill of Rights of 1689?
The English Revolution of 1688.
What did the Bill of Rights of 1689 do?
It strengthened Parliament and limited royal authority.
What major document resulted from the American Revolution of 1776?
The Constitution of 1787.
How is the Constitution of 1787 described?
As the first major modern written federal Constitution.
Which principles did the French Revolution of 1789 affirm?
Liberty, equality, sovereignty, and limitation of power.
What does the separation of powers organize in institutions?
Power checks power and political authority is moderated.
Which author linked political liberty to moderate government and separation of powers?
Montesquieu in De l’esprit des lois.
Which three institutions form the English balance of powers according to Montesquieu?
The monarchy, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons.
What is civil society defined as?
An autonomous sphere distinct from the state protecting liberties.
Who distinguished ancient liberty from modern liberty in 1819?
Benjamin Constant.
In which work did Benjamin Constant compare ancient and modern liberty?
De la liberté des Anciens comparée à celle des Modernes.
What did liberty primarily consist of for the Ancients?
Direct participation in the city's political life.
What did liberty primarily consist of for the Moderns?
Security in private enjoyment.
What does modern liberty require regarding personal freedoms?
Personal and private freedoms.
What must the state avoid in modern liberty?
Excessive intervention in private areas.
Which three bodies does Montesquieu say balance English political power?
The monarchy, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons.
What is civil society in relation to the state?
An autonomous sphere distinct from the state.
What does civil society's autonomy protect?
Individual, collective, and economic liberties.
What liberty did Benjamin Constant associate with the Ancients?
Direct participation in civic political life.
What liberty did Benjamin Constant associate with the Moderns?
Security in private enjoyments and protection of the private sphere.
What does horizontal limitation do to state powers?
Separates and balances state powers.
How does vertical limitation restrict the state?
Through rights and freedoms guaranteed to individuals.
What does Article 16 of the 1789 Declaration say about societies without guaranteed rights or separation of powers?
They have no Constitution.
What is a modern Constitution?
The set of fundamental rules organizing the state and political power.
From which Latin verb does constitutio derive?
Constituo.
What does the Latin verb constituo mean?
To establish, arrange, organize, or institute.
What did pontifical constitutions designate in religious contexts?
Normative acts or decisions of the pope.
How does Emer de Vattel define the Constitution?
As the fundamental regulation determining public authority exercise.
What fundamental laws included rules on succession under the French Ancien Régime?
Rules notably associated with Salic law.
How do Thomas Paine and Sieyès view the Constitution?
As preceding government and organizing national powers.
Which authors present the Constitution as preceding constituted government?
Thomas Paine and Sieyès.
What does the institutionalist approach study in political and legal conceptions?
It studies institutions and the political balances between them.
What does the normativist approach study regarding the Constitution?
It studies the Constitution as a superior set of legal norms.
What is a legal norm?
A rule prescribing human behavior by determining what must or must not be done.
How does Michel Troper distinguish the idealist legal conception of the Constitution?
As a solemn binding text.
How does Michel Troper define the realist conception of the Constitution?
As the actual organization of political power and its power relations.
Which author is associated with the normativist conception dominating contemporary constitutional law?
Hans Kelsen.
What dimension does contemporary constitutional law retain besides the normativist conception?
The Constitution's political dimension.
What distinguishes a written Constitution from an unwritten Constitution?
A written Constitution groups rules in texts; an unwritten one relies on conventions and other unwritten rules.
What supplements France's Constitution of 4 October 1958?
Other constitutional texts and principles grouped under the bloc de constitutionnalité.
How does a flexible Constitution differ in amendment procedure from a rigid Constitution?
A flexible Constitution uses ordinary legislative procedures; a rigid one requires special, more demanding procedures.
How does the formal approach define constitutional rules?
By their adoption, amendment, or repeal procedure.
How does the material approach define constitutional rules?
By their content concerning public powers and institutional competences.
What distinction does Carl Schmitt make regarding constitutional laws?
He distinguishes constitutional laws adopted through the constitutional procedure from the true Constitution concerning the state's fundamental political existence.
According to Carl Schmitt, what does the true Constitution concern?
The fundamental political existence of the state, including sovereignty and its political form.
What does a total revision of the Constitution do?
It modifies the entire existing Constitution while maintaining continuity.
What does constituent power create after a fundamental rupture?
A new Constitution.
What are the general steps of constitutional revision?
Initiative, elaboration and adoption, then ratification.
Who shares the initiative for constitutional revision under Article 89 of the French Constitution?
The President of the Republic on the Prime Minister's proposal and members of Parliament.
What must the National Assembly and Senate do before ratification of a constitutional revision in France?
Adopt an identical revision text.
How is a French constitutional revision normally ratified?
By referendum.
What alternative ratification method exists for executive-initiated constitutional revisions in France?
Submission to Parliament sitting in Congress requiring three-fifths of votes cast.
Test your knowledge with 45 questions on Foundations of Constitutional Law.
1. Regarding the purpose and scope of constitutional law, which statements are correct?
2. Concerning the principal field of constitutional law, tick the correct statements:
Review the complete course in the study sheet for Foundations of Constitutional Law.
See study sheet →Import your course and AI generates flashcards in 30 seconds.
Flashcard generator