French Parliament


The French Parliament is the bicameral legislature of the French Republic, consisting of the Senate and the National Assembly. Each assembly conducts legislative sessions at a separate location in Paris: the Luxembourg Palace for the Senate and the Palais Bourbon for the National Assembly.
Each house has its own regulations and rules of procedure. However, they may occasionally meet as a single house, the French Congress, convened at the Palace of Versailles, to revise and amend the Constitution of France.

Organization and powers

Parliament meets for a single, nine-month session each year. Under special circumstances the President can call an additional session. While parliamentary power has been diminished since the Fourth Republic, the National Assembly can still cause a government to fall if an absolute majority of the legislators votes a motion of no confidence. As a result, the government normally is from the same political party as the Assembly and must be supported by a majority there to prevent a vote of no-confidence.
However, the President appoints the Prime Minister and the ministers and is under no constitutional, mandatory obligation to make those appointments from the ranks of the parliamentary majority party; this is a safe-guard specifically introduced by the founder of the Fifth Republic, Charles De Gaulle, to prevent the disarray and horse-trading caused by the Third and Fourth Republics parliamentary regimes; in practice the prime minister and ministers do come from the majority although President Sarkozy did appoint Socialist ministers or secretary of state-level junior ministers to his government. Rare periods during which the President is not from the same political party as the Prime Minister are usually known as cohabitation. The President rather than the prime minister heads the Cabinet of Ministers.
The government has a strong influence in shaping the agenda of Parliament. The government also can link its term to a legislative text which it proposes, and unless a motion of censure is introduced and passed, the text is considered adopted without a vote. However, this procedure has been limited by the 2008 constitutional amendment. Legislative initiative rests with the National Assembly.
Legislators enjoy parliamentary immunity. Both assemblies have committees that write reports on a variety of topics. If necessary, they can establish parliamentary enquiry commissions with broad investigative power. However, the latter possibility is almost never exercised, since the majority can reject a proposition by the opposition to create an investigation commission. Also, such a commission may only be created if it does not interfere with a judiciary investigation, meaning that in order to cancel its creation, one just needs to press charges on the topic concerned by the investigation commission. Since 2008, the opposition may impose the creation of an investigation commission once a year, even against the wishes of the majority. However, they still can't lead investigations if there is a judiciary case going on already.

History

The French Parliament, as a legislative body, should not be confused with the various parlements of the Ancien Régime in France, which were courts of justice and tribunals with certain political functions varying from province to province and as to whether the local law was written and Roman, or customary common law.
The word "Parliament", in the modern meaning of the term, appeared in France in the 19th century, at the time of the constitutional monarchy of 1830–1848. It is never mentioned in any constitutional text until the Constitution of the 4th Republic in 1948. Before that time reference was made to "les Chambres" or to each assembly, whatever its name, but never to a generic term as in Britain. Its form - unicameral, bicameral, or multicameral - and its functions have taken different forms throughout the different political regimes and according to the various French constitutions:
DateConstitutionUpper chamberLower chamberOther chamberJoint sittingSingle chamber
1791French Constitution of 1791Assemblée Nationale
1793French Constitution of 1793Corps législatif
1795-1799Constitution of the Year IIIConseil des AnciensConseil des Cinq-Cents
1799-1802Constitution of the Year VIIISénat conservateurCorps législatifTribunat
1802-1804Constitution of the Year XSénat conservateurCorps législatifTribunat
1804-1814Constitution of the Year XIISénat conservateurCorps législatifTribunat
1814-1815Charter of 1814Chamber of PeersChambre des députés des départements
1815Additional Act to the Constitutions of the EmpireChamber of PeersChamber of Representatives
1830-1848Charter of 1830Chamber of PeersChamber of Deputies
1848-1852French Constitution of 1848Assemblée Nationale
1852-1870French Constitution of 1852SénatCorps législatif
1871-1875Assemblée Nationale
1875-1940French Constitutional Laws of 1875SénatChamber of DeputiesAssemblée Nationale
1940-1944French Constitutional Law of 1940
1944-1946Provisional Government of the French RepublicAssemblée Nationale
1946-1958French Constitution of 1946Conseil de la RépubliqueAssemblée NationaleParliament
since 1958French Constitution of 1958SénatAssemblée NationaleParlement réuni en Congrès