The evolution of the body of constitutional jurisdiction in the French Republic has gone through a difficult path: from the activity of the Conservative Senate in accordance with the norms of the French Constitution of 1795 to the currently active Constitutional Council, the provisions of which are contained in the Constitution of 1958.

Moreover. If we comment on the legal status of the Constitutional Council, we can observe significant transformations here as well. From the very beginning, the Constitutional Council had to carry out only preliminary constitutional control (a priori), that is, checking laws for compliance with the norms of the Constitution before they are promulgated. After the judicial reform of 2008, namely with the adoption of the Law of July 23, 2008, a posteriori control was introduced. The most important thing in the context of this reform is the introduction of the priority question of constitutionality (QPC) procedure, the essence of which boils down to the fact that any person participating in the legal process has the right to declare before the court that the legislative provision violates the rights and freedom guaranteed by the Constitution.

The purpose of this article is to study the specifics of the implementation of the priority issue of constitutionality in the French Republic, to analyze the regulatory framework that provides for this procedure, as well as to identify the advantages and disadvantages of this phenomenon.

It was concluded that despite the expansion of the competence of the Constitutional Council and the possibility for the French to complain about the norms of the law, access to the proceedings is still limited for citizens, because a person cannot directly apply to the Constitutional Council. This procedure is complicated by two so-called “filters”: first, the judge of the first instance (le juge a quo) considers the issue of submitting the application to the Council of State or the Court of Cassation, and the latter already decide finally whether the application should be forwarded to the Constitutional Council of the French Republic for consideration.

Bibliography

Authored books

1. Granger Marc-Antoine, Fiches de Contentieux constitutionnel. Rappels de cours et exercices corriges (Ellipses 2023) (in French).

Edited books

2. Guide pratique sur la question prioritaire de constitutionnalité (Conseil national des barreaux, 2023) <https://www.cnb.avocat.fr/sites/default/files/documents/cnb_guide_ question-prioritaire-constitutionnalite.pdf> 8 (accessed: 27.06.2023) (in French).

Journal articles

3. Quirico O, ‘Le contrôle de constitutionnalité français dans le contexte européen et international: Une question de priorités’ [2010] 3 (1) European Journal of Legal Studies 90 (in French).

Websites

 4. Rullier B, ‘Les decisions du Conseil Constitutionnel qui ont fait l’actualite’ (Démocratie, 06.04.2023) <https://www.jean-jaures.org/publication/les-decisions-du-conseilconstitu tionnel-qui-ont-fait-lactualite> (accessed: 27.06.2023) (in French).