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The Constitutional Council ((フランス語:Conseil Constitutionnel); (:kɔ̃sɛj kɔ̃stitysjɔˈnɛl)) is the highest constitutional authority in France. It was established by the ''Constitution of the Fifth Republic'' on 4 October 1958, and its duty is to ensure that the principles and rules of the constitution be upheld. Its main activity is to rule on whether proposed statutes conform with the Constitution, after they have been voted by Parliament and before they are signed into law by the President of the Republic (''a priori'' review); since 1 March 2010, individual citizens party to a trial or lawsuit can also ask for the Council to review whether the law applied in the case is constitutional. In 1971, the Council ruled that conformity with the Constitution entails conformity with two texts referred to by the preamble of that constitution: the ''Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen'' and the preamble of the constitution of the Fourth Republic, both of which list constitutional rights (e.g., freedom of speech). ==The Council and the enactment of legislation in France== :''This article refers extensively to individual articles in the Constitution of France. The reader should refer to the (official translation ) of the Constitution on the site of the French National Assembly. Another recommended reading is the (Constitutional Council overview ) on the Council web site.'' The Government of France consists of an executive branch (President of the Republic, Prime Minister, ministers, and their services and affiliated organizations), a legislative branch (both houses of Parliament), and a judicial branch. The judicial branch is, unlike for instance the federal judiciary of the United States under the Supreme Court, not organized into a single hierarchy (administrative courts fall under the Council of State, civil and criminal courts under the Court of Cassation), and some of its entities also have advisory functions. For historical reasons there has long been a hostility to having anything resembling a "Supreme Court"—that is, a powerful court able to quash legislation.〔James Beardsley, ''Constitutional Review in France'', The Supreme Court Review, Vol. 1975, (1975), (pp. 189–259 )〕〔Michael H. Davis, ''The Law/Politics Distinction, the French Conseil Constitutionnel, and the U. S. Supreme Court'', The American Journal of Comparative Law, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Winter, 1986), (pp. 45–92 )〕〔Denis Tallon, John N. Hazard, George A. Bermann, ''The Constitution and the Courts in France'', The American Journal of Comparative Law, Vol. 27, No. 4 (Autumn, 1979), (pp. 567–587 )〕 Whether the Council is a court is a subject of academic discussion,〔〔François Luchaire, « Le Conseil constitutionnel est-il une juridiction ? », ''Revue du droit public et de la science politique en France et à l'étranger (RDP)'', janvier-juin 1979 (volume 1), pp. 27–52〕 but some scholars consider it the supreme court of France.〔Marcel Waline, ''(The Constitutional Council of the French Republic )'', The American Journal of Comparative Law, Vol. 12, No. 4 (Autumn, 1963), pp. 483–493 lists reasons for the Council to be considered as a court: "If it be admitted that a judicial authority is characterized by the effect of ''res judicata'' attaching to its decisions, it must necessarily be concluded that the Constitutional Council is a court, and even the supreme court of the State"〕 The Constitution of the French Fifth Republic distinguishes two distinct kinds of legislation: statute law, which is normally voted upon by Parliament (except for ''ordonnances'') and government regulations, which are enacted by the Prime Minister and his government as decrees and other regulations (''arrêtés'').〔 Article 34 of the Constitution exhaustively lists the areas reserved for statute law: these include, for instance, criminal law. Any regulation issued by the executive in the areas constitutionally reserved for statute law is unconstitutional unless it has been authorized as secondary legislation by a statute. Any citizen with an interest in the case can obtain the cancellation of these regulations by the Council of State, on grounds that the executive has exceeded its authority. Furthermore, the Council of State can quash regulations on grounds that they violate existing statute law, constitutional rights or the "general principles of law".〔Lionel Neville Brown, John Bell, Jean-Michel Galabert, ''(French administrative law )'', 5 ed., 1998, Clarendon Press, ISBN 0-19-826555-7; see p. 220 for the general principles of Law.〕 In addition, new acts can be referred to the Constitutional Council by a petition just prior to being signed into law by the President of the Republic. The most common circumstance for this is that 60 opposition members of the National Assembly, or 60 opposition members of the Senate request such a review.〔 If the Prime Minister thinks that some clauses of existing statute law instead belong to the domain of regulations, he can also ask the Council to reclassify these clauses as regulations.〔Article 37 of the Constitution: "Provisions of statutory origin enacted in such matters may be amended by decree issued after consultation with the Council of State. Any such provisions passed after the coming into force of the Constitution shall be amended by decree only if the Constitutional Council has found that they are matters for regulation as defined in the foregoing paragraph."〕〔An example of such reclassification is decision (2008-210 L ) of 7 May 2008, with scholarly commentary in ''(Commentaire de la décision n° 2008-210 L du 7 mai 2008 – Nature juridique de dispositions du code de la route )'' ("Comments on decision 2008-210 L of 7 May 2008 – Juridical nature of provisions in the Road code") in ''Les Cahiers du Conseil constitutionnel, Cahier n° 25'' ("The Constitutional Council's notebooks"): the name of the administration with which certain administrative procedures should be filed is not the domain of statute law, but of regulation.〕 Traditionally, France refused to accept the idea that courts could quash legislation enacted by Parliament (though administrative courts could quash regulations produced by the executive). This goes back to the French revolutionary era: pre-revolutionary courts had often used their power not to register laws and thus prevent their application for political purposes, and had blocked reforms. French courts were then prohibited from making rulings of a general nature. Also, it seemed that if courts could quash legislation after it had been enacted and taken into account by citizens, it would introduce legal uncertainties: how could a citizen plan his or her actions according to what is legal or not if laws could ''a posteriori'' be found not to hold? Yet, in the late 20th century, courts, especially administrative courts, began applying the consequences of international treaties, including law of the European Union, as superior to national law. A 2009 reform, effective on 1 March 2010, enables parties to a lawsuit or trial to question the constitutionality of the law that is being applied to them. The procedure, known as ''question prioritaire de constitutionnalité'', is broadly as follows: the question is raised before the trial judge and, if it has merit, it is forwarded to the appropriate supreme court (Council of State if the referral comes from an administrative court, Cour de Cassation for other courts). The supreme court collects such referrals and submits them to the Constitutional Council. If the Constitutional Council rules a law to be unconstitutional, this law is struck down from the law books; this decision is valid for everybody and not only for the cases at hand.〔http://www.conseil-constitutionnel.fr/conseil-constitutionnel/root/bank_mm/anglais/en_ordinance_58_1067.pdf〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Constitutional Council (France)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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