19/12/2023
The Legislative Procedure
The French legislative procedure is organized, in a very classic way, into three successive phases:
1. the phase of preparation of the bill by the Government;
2. the parliamentary phase of analysis, discussion and vote on the bill or proposed law;
3. the post-parliamentary phase, which normally leads to the promulgation of the law.
That being said, the logic of the 1958 Constitution, according to which “ the Government determines and conducts the policy of the nation ” has printed a rather particular aspect of the legislative procedure, because in such a system, it is important that the Government has the possibility of obtaining from Parliament the vote of the laws necessary for the implementation of its policy.
Also:
- By law, members of the National Assembly and the Senate have, like the Government, the right of legislative initiative. In practice, however, the largest part of French legislation comes from bills tabled by the Government, even if parliamentary initiative is known however, a certain revival since the constitutional revision of July 23, 2008.
- The two assemblies which make up the Parliament have, in principle, identical legislative powers: any bill or proposed law must therefore be examined successively in the two assemblies until the end of the year. until they agree on the wording of the text. But this competence must not risk leading to the text becoming bogged down in the event of persistent disagreement between the two assemblies. In such a case, the Government has the power to force the assemblies to seek a compromise and, if this search fails, to ask the National Assembly to rule definitively on the text.
- The Government has control of the procedure thanks to various techniques allowing it to group votes, to take responsibility for the vote on a text (before the National Assembly), to oppose inadmissibility to parliamentary amendments, etc.
- The current legislative procedure is finally the result of a long process of simplification whose constant aim has been to limit the occasions of parliamentary guerrilla warfare or repetitive ballots: this is how, for example, each assembly, at each reading, only pronounces once on the entire text and that been deleted, from 1871, the various deliberations relating, for the same reading, to the same text (taking into consideration the submission of the text; discussion of the general principles; discussion of the articles and amendments; vote on the whole), deliberations which, previously, each gave rise to a vote.
Drafting the bill
1. Each bill is prepared, in France, by the services of the ministry responsible for the subject dealt with: there is therefore no central service responsible for drafting the bills, a service to which the different ministries would in some way place orders. If the subject covered falls under the jurisdiction of several ministries, a lead ministry is designated.
2. When negotiations or arbitrations are necessary, interministerial meetings are convened at the headquarters of the Prime Minister, the secretariat of these meetings being provided by the General Secretariat of the Government (S.G.G.), the regulatory body of the normative activity of the Government which monitors the progress of the legislative process from the drafting of the preliminary bill to its promulgation.
3. When this preliminary draft has reached its final version, it is obligatorily transmitted to the Council of State, responsible for formulating an opinion on this text. The Council of State, legal advisor to the Government, verifies in particular the conformity with the Constitution of the project, the quality of its drafting and its proper insertion in the existing legal corpus. The opinion of the Council of State is only advisory in nature. Now it is generally made public.
4. Once this opinion has been given and any corrections have been made to the text, the bill is submitted to the Council of Ministers which deliberates on it and decides to place it on the Bureau of one of the assemblies, accompanied by #39;an impact study.
5. It must be emphasized that the preparation of a bill often requires consultation of numerous organizations, consultations which lengthen significantly sometimes very sensitive the process of drafting the project. In particular, texts of interest to overseas local authorities must have been submitted for the opinion of their deliberative assembly.
6. In comparison, the submission of a bill, parliamentary initiative, is very simple compared to that of a bill since none of the steps mentioned above is then necessary. This is why, in certain cases, the Government may find it advantageous (and above all faster) to support a proposed law that it favors rather than developing a project itself. Nevertheless, the president of an assembly may submit for opinion to the Council of State, before its examination in committee, a bill tabled by one of the members of this assembly, unless the latter opposes it.
The parliamentary phase
A - Typical diagram of the examination of a text by an assembly
1 - Before the public session
a - Choice of the assembly on whose desk the bill is deposited
The Government is free to make this choice except for certain texts for which the Constitution itself determines the Assembly for submission: finance bills and social security financing bills (submission to the National Assembly) and bills having as their main purpose the organization of local authorities and bills relating to the bodies of representatives of French people established outside France (deposited in the Senate). In practice, the deposits tend to be distributed approximately equally, depending on the periods and the importance of the texts, between the two assemblies.
Of course, when it comes to a bill, it is submitted to the Bureau of the assembly of which its author is a member.
b - Sending the text to a committee
Depending on its subject, the project or proposal is entrusted for examination to one of the permanent commissions that each assembly has (eight for the National Assembly and seven for the Senate), the others being able to be referred to for notice. There is also the possibility of setting up a special commission, either if the Government requests it or if a problem of competence appears between the different permanent commissions, but this possibility is rarely used in practice.
c - Appointment of a rapporteur
The commission appoints a rapporteur from among its members for each text. There is therefore no position of rapporteur responsible for reporting all the texts submitted to the committee. However, the Finance Committee has a “general rapporteur” who summarizes, during the examination of the finance law, the conclusions of the special rapporteurs each responsible for examining the appropriations of the different ministerial departments ; this function also exists within the Social Affairs Committee.
d - Functions of the rapporteur
Within the committees of French assemblies, the rapporteur plays a much more active and determining role than in many other parliaments, where he is limited, essentially, to reporting the decisions of his committee. In France, the rapporteur guides and informs the decisions of his committee which, in most cases, relies on his opinions and approves his proposed amendments.
To prepare his work, the rapporteur carries out, alone or in committee, all the necessary hearings and, following this work, prepares a draft report and, if necessary, proposals for action. amendments. He is assisted, for this work, by officials assigned to the secretariat of the commission to which he belongs.
e - Examination of the report and amendments
A first meeting of the commission must be held at least two weeks before the discussion of the text in plenary session, unless an exception is granted by the Conference of Presidents.
The committee sets a deadline for the submission of amendments in committee, with the exception of texts for which the Constitution has provided that the text discussed in session would be that presented by the Government: draft constitutional revisions, draft finance law and social security financing bills.
Amendments can be tabled by the rapporteur, by any senator, individually or on behalf of a group, whether or not they are a member of the committee, and by the Government.
After voting on these amendments, the committee adopts the report of its rapporteur, which reflects the discussions in committee and presents the text proposed by the committee and the opinions of the groups. It adopts, where appropriate, its text, which is the subject of a separate publication.
Just before the discussion of the text in plenary session, or during it, on the occasion of a suspension of session, the committee generally holds a new meeting allowing it to decide on the amendments tabled on the commission's text for discussion in session. However, it happens that the Government only presents its amendments at the very last moment, there being no time limit imposed on it in this matter, so that the committee does not always have the time to do so. become aware of them before their discussion in plenary session.
2 - The progress of the plenary session
a - Setting the agenda
The agenda is set by the Senate (first paragraph of article 48 of the Constitution) on the basis of the conclusions of the Conference of Presidents, which brings together, in addition to the minister responsible for relations with Parliament, the president and the vice-presidents of the assembly, the presidents of the standing (and, where applicable, special) committees, the president of the European Affairs Committee, the general rapporteurs of the finance and social affairs committees and the presidents of the political groups.
Subject to the priority inclusion on the agenda, at the request of the Government, of finance bills, social security financing bills, texts transmitted by the other assembly for six weeks at least, projects relating to states of crisis and requests for authorization referred to in Article 35 of the Constitution, the weeks of sessions are distributed according to the rhythm of two government weeks/two senatorial weeks, the first, of control, the second, of initiative. In addition, one sitting day per month – in principle during senatorial initiative weeks – is reserved for an agenda set at the initiative of opposition and minority groups.
b - The structure of the discussion
General, open discussion, regarding a bill, by the minister then the rapporteur, during which everyone presents their opinion on the text. This general discussion is generally limited in its overall duration and organized in such a way as to distribute the overall duration of the discussion between the groups, in proportion to their numbers.
Examination of possible procedural motions: objection of inadmissibility and preliminary question, the adoption of which is equivalent to the rejection of the text, referral to the committee.
Discussion of the articles, article by article, and, for each of them, the amendments and sub-amendments relating to it, called from the furthest from the text under discussion to those which remain closest to it, the competing amendments being, with some exceptions, put for joint discussion. It is voted on successively on each amendment then on each article.
c - The vote on the whole
Only summary explanations of vote not exceeding 2 minutes per person are permitted, before the vote as a whole, unless otherwise decided by the Conference of Presidents. The vote takes place either by show of hands, by sitting and standing, or by ordinary public ballot, for certain cases provided for by the Rules of the Senate or at the request of a group president or the Government.
B - Shuttle and resolution of disagreements
Any text must be examined successively by the two assemblies until a common text is adopted. It is this referral from one assembly to another which is called “shuttle”. As the shuttle progresses, each assembly only has to decide on the provisions remaining under discussion, that is to say those which have not yet done so. subject to agreement. Any wording on which the two assemblies have reached agreement therefore no longer appears in the debates at the next reading, the discussion being limited to points of disagreement (so-called “funnel” principle).
Theoretically, the shuttle continues, until there is spontaneous agreement between the two assemblies on all the provisions of the project or proposal. There is nevertheless a mechanism allowing the Government to shorten the shuttle: after two readings in each assembly (or a single reading, if the Government has decided to initiate the accelerated procedure), the Government can call the meeting of #39;a conciliation commission, called the joint joint commission (it is made up of seven deputies and seven senators), responsible for proposing a text on the provisions remaining under discussion.
Two cases can then arise:
- if the joint commission develops a compromise and this compromise is approved by both assemblies, the text becomes final and is transmitted for promulgation;
- if the joint commission fails to develop a compromise or if this compromise is not ratified by the two assemblies, the Government may decide, after a new reading in each assembly, to ask the National Assembly to rule definitively. In this case, the National Assembly rules by simple majority but it can only either take up the text drawn up by the mixed commission, if one exists, or take up the last text voted by it, modified. if necessary by one or more of the amendments adopted by the Senate.
The Post-Parliamentary Phase
1 - Promulgation
The most normal case is that of the promulgation of the law by the President of the Republic within fifteen days following the transmission to the Government of the law definitively adopted. Within this period, however, two events may occur that could delay or prevent the promulgation of the law:
2 - New deliberation
The President of the Republic may ask Parliament for a new deliberation of the law or certain of its articles. This faculty, which is exercised by decree countersigned by the Prime Minister, has been implemented very rarely since 1958.
3 - Referral to the constitutional Council
The law passed by Parliament can be referred to the Constitutional Council by the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, the president of each of the assemblies, 60 deputies or 60 senators. Referral to the Constitutional Council suspends the promulgation until it has ruled, the provisions declared unconstitutional cannot be promulgated.
It happens that the President of the Republic refers the provisions declared contrary to the Constitution to Parliament so that it can purge them of their unconstitutionality before the promulgation of the final text (a fairly rare procedure, which then takes the route of new deliberation); most often, at the end of the Constitutional Council, the law is promulgated as it is, amputated of the provisions declared contrary to the Constitution, even if these provisions are subsequently represented, if their censorship results from a procedural reason.
Procedural provisions specific to certain ordinary laws
The development of certain ordinary laws, while respecting the general outline of the legislative procedure as just outlined, is governed by specific procedural provisions relating to the very object of the law. these laws. This is the case for the development of laws authorizing the ratification of an international commitment (article 47 of the Rules of the Senate) or the procedure for legislative authorization and ratification of orders provided for in article 38 of the Constitution.
- Laws authorizing the ratification or approval of an international agreement;
- Laws relating to ordinances of Article 38 of the Constitution: legislative authorization and ratification.
