Part I

French government ordinances are part of the logic of streamlined parliamentarism. Since 1984, the number of ordinances has increased annually, with a few exceptions. Today, they account for nearly the same proportion as laws, but they cannot be used in matters expressly reserved for finance laws, organic laws, and, of course, constitutional laws.

The Constitutional Council of France has ruled that the Government must indicate “the purpose of the measures proposed to be taken” and added in the Privatization decision that the “areas” of intervention must be specified. If certain conditions are not met by the Government or Parliament, the ordinance lapses.

The new paragraph introduced into Article 38 of the Constitution by the latest revision law abolished implicit ratification and established that ordinances can only be ratified expressly. Ordinances that are not expressly ratified remain administrative acts.

The two existing types of ordinances do not offer all guarantees, but they are indispensable, at least in two essential areas: codification and the transposition of European directives.

In any case, the architects of the “law factory” highly value ordinances.

Keywords: ordinance, Constitutional Council, government, bill