Conseil Constitutionnel on the European Constitutional Treaty英文文献.pdfVIP

The Barroso Drama: How the Form Was Brought to Matter 293 Case Note France Conseil Constitutionnel on the European Constitutional Treaty. Decision of 19 November 2004, 2004–505 DC.1 Guy Carcassonne* Introduction The only real surprise of the recent decision of the French Conseil constitutionnel [constitutional Council] concerning the compatibility between the European and the French Constitutions was the timing of it. According to Article 54 of the French Constitution, a treaty may be submitted2 for constitutional review at any time before ratification. In this instance, Jacques Chirac acted with unusual prompt- ness, submitting his request on the very day the Treaty was signed, 29 October 2004. The Conseil itself reacted with equal speed, issuing its decision exactly three weeks later on 19 November 2004. Behind both courses of action lay the shadow of political concern related to the Socialist Party referendum on the European Constitution. By moving so swiftly, the President effectively pre-empted and discouraged other challenges. This was very useful. In his letter, he only requested the Conseil to scrutinise the compatibility of the two texts, leaving the Conseil free to deter- mine its own approach to the question. If opponents of the European Constitu- tion, for instance, among socialists or communists, had taken the initiative, they most certainly would have called into question many specific articles of the Euro- pean Constitution, compelling the Conseil to traverse some delicate and disputed territory in coming to its decision. But thanks to the President’s astute move, the judges were able to select only those issues they thought necessary to underline, which probably spared many pointless discussio