The French text is no exception to the rule

The Constitution of the Fifth Republic will celebrate tomorrow its fifty years. Still young, in a half century of existence, the basic law has been shedding all taboos. Those who thought that it could not be approached with extreme caution must now do not return: "should affect to the laws as the shaking hand", ordered Montesquieu. "Must be a basic law more accessible, more modern," him today counter compulsive advocates of the review. After the Act, the Constitution, in turn, proliferates. The last five years have marked a true turning point. It is only the number of revisions which is impressive 24 in 50 years and their acceleration over the past 15 years 5 between 1958 and 1992, 19 since that date, but the content even reforms that transferred. None of the debates that cross society does now escape the constitutional legislator. Nothing is more prohibited. The most recent examples are the introduction of the Charter of the environment and more recently the parliamentary debate about the constitutional revision of July. Some see as a sign of vitality of the fundamental standard, others on the contrary, the mark of his inevitable commoditization. The risk is great. It is healthy that the constitutional text reflects the challenges of modern society, how, on the other hand, "believe in the sanctity of a Constitution if the change every six months, small end by small end" written law Professor François Luchaire. Where to place the cursor between adaptability and stability

It would be pointless to consider a Constitution in its principles. All modern fundamental texts evolve: the US Constitution has been amended on several occasions but has managed to preserve its general economy, as the British and German systems. all are moving, history works. The French text is no exception to the rule. Until 1958, the France changed Constitution as of Republic and the coup was discussed.

The plan by General de Gaulle and set to music by Michel Debré was going to change everything. Because it did not dispose between parliamentary and presidential system, it would allow institutions to know stability previously unknown in France. But at the cost of adaptation permanent. Besides reforms techniques (such as for example the revision of 1995 introducing the single parliamentary session), the Constitution has been amended three times for modernising the organisation of public authorities. This is the case, for a part of the revised Constitution of 1962 on the election of the President of the Republic by universal suffrage and 1974 on referral to the Constitutional Council by 60 deputies or 60 senators. More revisions (about one third) are those induced by the community and international law. Recently appeared, and this is the novelty, those on the organisation of society: 1st equity review (1999), environmental Charter (2005), prohibition of the death penalty (2007) and re-parity and regional languages in July 2008.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg: between 1958 and 2000, there were 364 proposals of constitutional laws. Ideas abound. The discussion on the revised constitutional some wanted introduce the balanced budget into the basic text. What would have been its effectiveness to the international financial crisis which destabilizes the admission of the Government accounts of the State Some argue that this is (as in the regional languages or parity) to a restrictive jurisprudence of the Constitutional Council. Nevertheless, under the guise of modernity, legislative proliferation, this gangrene of the law, which sees multiply the texts on everything and anything would thus thus contaminated the Constitution. "Any subject 20 hours is potentially a Bill," indignant regularly law professor Guy Carcassonne. Will he do now, also, an article of the Constitution "When changing the text to trivialize, it is exploited by the rulers who call for its revision as soon as a political problem." "Having lost much of their power of action on the political, economic and social reality, leaders have taken refuge in the legal reform", analysis, another law professor, Philippe Ségur.

What is the function of the Constitution It is time to clear the question while again, the Veil Committee should reflect on a revision of the preamble to the Constitution to introduce potentially positive discrimination criteria. But the review, this time, may take some time. At a minimum, should be fully consensual. The last senatorial elections gave 20 seats more to the left. With this new quota, the constitutional reform of July 2008, given the opposition of the Socialist Party, have never been adopted. Pushed and shoved, politicians, right, left, could now find some plans with the Basic Law of the Fifth Republic.