France is the champion of standards.
Countless, these texts organize the lives of citizens and businesses, whether they are decrees, laws, ordinances or treaties.
They come into force upon publication in the Official Journal.
But among this myriad of texts, some stand out for their political or simply symbolic importance.
To mark their pre-eminence, an age-old practice, dating back to the ancient times of the Merovingian dynasty, consists of physically sealing them with the press.
These texts thus receive the “great seal of France”, of which the Minister of Justice, also Keeper of the Seals, is the precious guarantor.
To discover
Find the sealing ceremony for the entry of the right to abortion into the Constitution
So it was this Friday, with the ceremony of sealing voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG) in the Constitution, Place Vendôme in Paris.
The inclusion of abortion in the supreme norm was approved on Monday March 5 during a meeting of Parliament in Congress in Versailles.
It is now “a freedom guaranteed” constitutionally.
Since 1958 and the advent of the Fifth Republic, 15 major texts have been officially “sealed”.
This procedure is strictly symbolic insofar as their entry into force always depends on their more immaterial publication in the Official Journal.
Among them, most of them include constitutional revisions, but also some simple laws, such as that abolishing the death penalty.
Return to these “great texts” marked not with a hot iron, but with wax, in the green species, this Friday.
The Constitution of the Fifth Republic in 1958
Under the Fifth Republic, the Constitution was the first text to be sealed, on October 6, 1958, two days after its promulgation.
What could be more natural since it is the direct expression of the constituent power, the top of the hierarchy of norms which orders all the other texts which result directly from it.
In 1946, the Constitution of the Fourth Republic had also received the “great seal of France”: a mark of its pre-eminence, it was the only norm sealed until 1958.
Since then, the practice has been democratized: the main reason is the multiplication of constitutional revisions, but not only because simple laws also had the right to this medieval practice.
However, this first sealing ceremony remains unique in that the wax used was red in color.
Since then, it has successively been yellow then green.
The election of the President of the Republic by universal suffrage in 1962
Another great constitutional upheaval marked in wax was the election of the President of the Republic by direct universal suffrage.
It was also marked by the direct anointing of the people since this new voting method was the subject of a referendum on October 28, 1962.
Also read: 50 years of direct universal suffrage, and France is still an exception
The legal controversy which surrounded this reform came from General de Gaulle's use of Article 11 of the Constitution (which regulates referendum laws, without parliamentary filter) and not the classic Article 89 (which regulates constitutional revisions, which require a first vote by both Assemblies).
As if to end this controversy, this revision of the Constitution was solemnly sealed on November 6, 1958.
The abolition of the death penalty in 1986
A first text of purely legislative, and not constitutional, value was sealed on December 15, 1964. This law, which modified the provisions of the Civil Code relating to guardianship and emancipation, “recast the entire law on the incapacity of minors” , specifies a Senate report.
Also read: Death of Badinter: the long road to the abolition of capital punishment
A second legislative text to be sealed was the famous law abolishing the death penalty brought by the Minister of Justice Robert Badinter.
It was promulgated on October 9, 1981, but received its wax seal five years later, in 1986, from the hands of the same Minister of Justice, who left office that same year.
Purely symbolic reaffirmation... In 2007, however, the abolition of the death penalty entered the Constitution following a revision.
The formula
“No one may be sentenced to the death penalty”
replaced
“No one may be arbitrarily detained
”.
The abolition of 1981 was sealed a second time.
The aftermath of Maastricht in 1992
Europe also had the right to its seal.
The constitutional law of June 25, 1992 introducing a new title in the Constitution, entitled “European Communities and the European Union” followed directly on the signing of the Treaty of Maastricht on February 7, 1992, following a referendum tight.
The Constitutional Council had given its approval to this international convention on the condition that the Constitution was revised.
It received its yellow seal on October 20, 1992.
The following year, another revision of the Constitution (July 27, 1993) establishing the Court of Justice of the Republic, responsible for judging the criminal responsibility of members of the Government, was also sealed on January 5, 1994. The same day, Another constitutional revision was sealed, that of November 25, 1993 relating to international agreements on the right to asylum.
Referendum, parliament and social security in 1996
On December 17, 1996, two more constitutional revisions were sealed.
The first, promulgated on August 4, 1995, concerned in particular the extension of the scope of the referendum, the functioning of the two Assemblies and parliamentary inviolability.
The second, on February 22, 1996, established the Social Security financing laws.
The autonomy of New Caledonia in 1998
The agreement signed in Nouméa on May 5, 1998, which determines the distribution of powers between New Caledonian officials and the State, was a turning point for New Caledonia.
It also included the holding of three referendums on independence.
It was followed by a constitutional revision, on July 20, 1998, which established in the Constitution a title XIII entitled
“Transitional provisions relating to New Caledonia”
, where articles 76 and 77 are included, which consecrate broad autonomy to the territory. overseas, particularly in matters of legislative nature, and recognition of citizenship specific to the Pacific archipelago.
This revision was sealed on September 21, 1998. This was the last time a yellow wax was used.
Gender parity in electoral mandates in 2002
Since April 21, 1944, voters of any sex have been eligible.
But the constitutional revision of July 8, 1999 marked a turning point in French political life by establishing the possibility of quotas for women during elections.
Article 3 of the Constitution provides that
“the law promotes equal access for women and men to electoral mandates and elective functions”
.
But paragraph 2 specifies
“that political parties and groups contribute to the implementation of this principle under the conditions determined by law”
.
This form of positive discrimination, foreign to the traditional French conception of equality, therefore had to be concretely organized by the legislator.
The constitutional revision was sealed on March 8, 2002, for the first time with green wax.
Two laws, passed in 2000 and 2007, then clarified this system.
Decentralization in 2004
Jean-Pierre Raffarin wanted to “build a republic of proximity, unitary and decentralized”.
Thus he initiated Act II of decentralization, after that of 1983 initiated by François Mitterrand.
This second moment of strengthening the skills of local authorities was the subject of a constitutional revision, on March 28, 2003, which notably established the “decentralized organization of the Republic” from article 1.
Read also Decentralization: local elected officials await proof of political will
Experimental approaches, special status of certain communities, direct local democracy... various innovations gave substance to this deepening of decentralization which was solemnly sealed on October 27, 2004.
A broad revision of the Constitution in 2008
A large-scale constitutional revision was requested by Nicolas Sarkozy and narrowly passed by Congress thanks to the vote of socialist Jack Lang on July 23, 2008. This law authorizes the President of the Republic to speak before Parliament and limits his consecutive terms of two.
It also enshrines the independence and freedom of the press in the Constitution and provides that former ministers automatically regain their parliamentary seats.
It finally opens the way to the shared initiative referendum (RIP) between citizens and Parliament, and to indirect referral to the Constitutional Council by citizens within the framework of the priority question of constitutionality (QPC), an unprecedented form of constitutionality control. a posteriori.
Its sealing took place on October 1, 2008.
Since this date and until this Friday for the consecration of the “freedom guaranteed to women to have recourse to abortion”, the 300 kg press built for Cambacérès, Minister of Justice during the “100 Days” in 1815, had no longer been used.