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Even after the failure to re-establish the monarchy the majority of the National Assembly hoped to prevent the permanent establishment of the Republic. But the provisional organization of the government could not continue forever, nor could the Assembly, elected to meet the national crisis of 1871, expect much longer to remain in power. The constitutional laws were finally enacted in 1875, and the elections of 1876 proved that the people of France were ready to support republican institutions.

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

PIERRE, EUGÈNE. Organisation des pouvoirs publics. Recueil des lois constitutionnelles et organiques de la république française. (Paris, 1902.) The best collection of laws bearing on the present organization of the French government.

DUGUIT, LÉON ET MONNIER, HENRY. Les constitutions et les principales lois politiques de la France depuis 1789. (2d ed., Paris, 1908.) A convenient collection of documents, with a good historical introduction.

HÉLIE, FAUSTIN-ADOLPHE. Les constitutions de la France. (Paris, 1880.) Contains texts of the French constitutions, with complementary laws and historical commentary; invaluable for the study of French constitutional history.

ANDERSON, FRANK MALOY. The Constitutions and Other Select Documents Illustrative of the History of France: 1789–1901. (Minneapolis, 1904.) An excellent collection of constitutional texts in English translation.

BODLEY, JOHN EDWARD COURTENAY. France. (New York, 1898. 2 vols.) An excellent account of the structure and operation of the French government.

ESMEIN, A. Éléments de droit constitutionnel français et comparé. (4th ed., Paris, 1906.) A standard work.

DUGUIT, LÉON. Droit constitutionnel. (Paris, 1907.) An excellent work which will easily bear comparison with that of Esmein. COUBERTIN, PIERRE DE. The Evolution of France under the Third Republic. Translated from the French. (New York [1897].)

PIERRE, EUGÈNE. Traité de droit politique, électoral et parlementaire.

(2d ed., Paris, 1902. Supplément, Paris, 1906.) A valuable work; it has not entirely superseded POUDRA, JULES ET PIERRE, EUGÈNE,

Traité pratique de droit parlementaire. (4° tirage, Paris [1885].)
Supplément de 1879-80. (Paris [1880].)

BERTHÉLEMY, H.

Paris, 1906.)

Traité élémentaire de droit administratif. (4th ed.,

One of the best one-volume treatises.

HAURIOU, MAURICE. Précis de droit administratif et de droit public général. (6th ed., Paris, 1906.)

DUCROCO, TH. Cours de droit administratif et de législation française des finances. (7th ed., Paris, 1897-1905. 7 vols.) The standard comprehensive work on French administrative law.

LAFERRIÈRE, E. Traité de la jurisdiction administrative et des recours contentieux. (2d ed., Paris, 1896. 2 vols.)

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW ON THE ORGANIZATION OF THE PUBLIC POWERS

(February 25, 1875)

ARTICLE I. The legislative power shall be exercised by two assemblies: the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.

The Chamber of Deputies shall be elected by universal suffrage, under the conditions determined by the electoral law.2

The composition, the method of election, and the powers of the Senate shall be regulated by a special law.3

ART. 2. The President of the Republic shall be chosen by an absolute majority of votes of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies united in National Assembly.

He shall be elected for seven years. He is re-eligible.

ART. 3. The President of the Republic shall have the initiative of laws, concurrently with the members of the two chambers. He shall promulgate the laws when they have been voted by the two chambers; he shall look after and secure their execution.

"See laws of November 30, 1875; June 16, 1885, and February 13, 1889, pp. 302, 316, 318.

See constitutional law of February 24, 1875, and laws of August 2, 1875, and December 9, 1884, pp. 288, 295, 310.

He shall have the right of pardon; amnesty may only be granted by law.

He shall dispose of the armed force.

He shall appoint to all civil and military positions.

He shall preside over state functions; envoys and ambassadors of foreign powers shall be accredited to him.

Every act of the President of the Republic shall be countersigned by a minister.

ART. 4. As vacancies occur on and after the promulgation of the present law, the President of the Republic shall appoint, in the Council of Ministers, the councilors of state in regular service.

The councilors of state thus chosen may be dismissed only by decree rendered in the Council of Ministers.

The councilors of state chosen by virtue of the law of May 24, 1872, shall not, before the expiration of their powers, be dismissed except in the manner provided by that law. After the dissolution of the National Assembly, they may be dismissed only by resolution of the Senate.*

ART. 5. The President of the Republic may, with the advice of the Senate, dissolve the Chamber of Deputies before the legal expiration of its term.

1.

In that case the electoral colleges shall be summoned for new elections within the space of two months, and the Chamber within the ten days following the close of the elections."

ART. 6. The ministers shall be collectively responsible to the chambers for the general policy of the government, and individually for their personal acts.

The President of the Republic shall be responsible only in case of high treason.

ART. 7. In case of vacancy by death or for any other

By the law of May 24, 1872, councilors of state were elected by the National Assembly for a term of nine years. This clause therefore ceased to have any application after 1881.

As amended by Art. 1 of the constitutional law of August 14, 1884. See p. 294.

6 See Art. 12 of the constitutional law of July 16, 1875, p. 293.

reason, the two chambers assembled together shall proceed at once to the election of a new President.

In the meantime the Council of Ministers shall be vested with the executive power."

ART. 8. The chambers shall have the right by separate resolutions, taken in each by an absolute majority of votes, either upon their own initiative or upon the request of the President of the Republic, to declare a revision of the constitutional laws necessary.

After each of the two chambers shall have come to this decision, they shall meet together in National Assembly to proceed with the revision.

The acts effecting revision of the constitutional laws, in whole or in part, shall be passed by an absolute majority of the members composing the National Assembly.

During the continuance, however, of the powers conferred by the law of November 20, 1873, upon Marshal de MacMahon, this revision shall take place only upon the initiative of the President of the Republic. [The republican form of government shall not be made the subject of a proposed revision. Members of families that have reigned in France are ineligible to the presidency of the Republic.8]

ART. 9. The seat of the executive power and of the two chambers is at Versailles.9

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW ON THE ORGANIZATION OF THE SENATE 1

(February 24, 1875)

ARTICLE I. The Senate shall consist of three hundred members: two hundred and twenty-five elected by the departSee Art. 3 of the constitutional law of July 16, 1875, p. 291.

8 As amended by Art. 2 of the constitutional law of August 14. 1884. Repealed by constitutional law of June 21, 1879. See law of July 22, 1879, p. 309.

1 Arts. I to 7 of this law were deprived of their constitutional character by the constitutional law of August 14, 1884, and were repealed by law of December 9, 1884. See pp. 294, 310.

ments and colonies, and seventy-five elected by the National Assembly.

ART. 2. The departments of the Seine and of the Nord shall each elect five senators.**

The following departments shall elect four senators each: Seine-Inférieure, Pas-de-Calais, Gironde, Rhône, Finistère, Côtes-du-Nord.

The following departments shall elect three senators each: Loire-Inférieure, Saône-et-Loire, Ille-et-Vilaine, Seine-et-Oise, Isère, Puy-de-Dome, Somme, Bouches-du-Rhône, Aisne, Loire, Manche, Maine-et-Loire, Morbihan, Dordogne, Haute-Garonne, Charente-Inférieure, Calvados, Sarthe, Hérault, BassesPyrénées, Gard, Aveyron, Vendée, Orne, Oise, Vosges, Allier. All the other departments shall elect two senators each. The following shall elect one senator each: the territory of Belfort, the three departments of Algeria, the four colonies of Martinique, Guadeloupe, Réunion, and the French Indies. ART. 3. No one shall be a senator unless he is a French citizen at least forty years of age, and in the enjoyment of civil and political rights.

ART. 4. The senators of the departments and of the colonies shall be elected by an absolute majority and by scrutin de liste, by a college meeting at the capital of the department or colony and composed:

1) of the deputies;

2) of the general councilors;

3) of the arrondissement councilors;

4) of delegates elected, one by each municipal council, from among the voters of the commune.

In the French Indies the members of the colonial council or of the local councils are substituted for the general councilors, arrondissement councilors, and delegates from the municipal councils.

They shall vote at the seat of government of each district. ART. 5. The senators chosen by the Assembly shall be elected by scrutin de liste and by an absolute majority of votes.

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