French Constitutional Laws of 1875

Law upon the Organization of the Senate, February 24, 1875.
1. The Senate consists of three hundred members:

Two hundred and twenty-five elected by the departments and colonies, and seventy-five elected by the National Assembly.

2. The departments of the Seine and of the Nord elect each five senators.

The following departments elect for senators each: Seine-Inférieure, Pas-de-Calais, Gironde, Rhône, Finistère, Côtes-du-Nord.

The following departments elect three senators each: Loire-Inférieure, Saône-et-Loire, Ille-et-Vilaine, Seine-et-Oise, Isère, Puy-de-Dôme, Somme, Bouches-du-Rhône, Aisne, Loire, Manche, Maine-et-Loire, Morbihan, Dordogne, Haute-Garonne, Charente-Inférieure, Calvados, Sarthe, Hérault, Basses-Pyrénées, Gard, Aveyron, Vendée, Orne, Oise, Vosges, Allier.

All the other departments elect two senators each.

The following elect one senator each: the territory of Belfort, the three departments of Algeria, the four colonies: Martinique, Guadeloupe, Réunion and the French Indies.

3. No one can be senator unless he is a French citizen, forty years of age at least, and enjoying civil and political rights.

4. The senators of the departments and colonies are elected by an absolute majority and by scrutin de liste, by a college meeting at the capital of the department or colony and composed:

1st, of the deputies;

2d, of the general councillors;

3d, of the arrondissement councillors;

4th, of delegates elected, one by each municipal council, from among the voters of the commune.

In the French Indies the members of the colonial council or of the local councils are substituted for the general councillors, arrondissement councillors and delegates from the municipal councils.

They vote at the capital of each district.

5. The senators chosen by the Assembly are elected by scrutin de liste and by an absolute majority of votes.

6. The senators of the departments and colonies are elected for nine years and renewable by thirds every three years.

At the beginning of the first session the departments shall be divided into three series containing an equal number of senators each. It shall be determined by lot which series shall be renewed at the expiration of the first and second triennial periods.

7. The senators elected by the Assembly are irremovable.

Vacancies by death, by resignation, or for any other reason, shall, within the space of two months, be filled by the Senate itself.

8. The Senate has, concurrently with the Chamber of Deputies, the initiative and passing of laws. Money bills, however, must first be introduced in, and passed by the Chamber of Deputies.

9. The Senate may be constituted a Court of Justice to judge either the President of the Republic or the Ministers, and to take cognizance of attacks made upon the safety of the State.

10. Elections to the Senate shall take place one month before the time fixed by the National Assembly for its own dissolution. The Senate shall organize and enter upon its duties the same day that the National Assembly is dissolved.

11. The present law shall be promulgated only after the passage of the law on the public powers.

Law upon the Organization of the Public Powers, February 25, 1875.
1. The legislative power is exercised by two assemblies: the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.

The Chamber of Deputies is elected by universal suffrage, under the conditions determined by the electoral law.

The composition, the method of election, and the powers of the Senate shall be regulated by a special law.

2. The President of the Republic is chosen by an absolute majority of votes of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies united in the National Assembly.

He is elected for seven years. He is re-eligible.

3. The President of the Republic has the initiative of the laws, concurrently with the members of the two Chambers.

He promulgates the laws when they have been voted by the two Chambers; he looks after and secures their execution.

He has the right of pardon; amnesty can be granted by law only.

He disposes of the armed force.

He appoints to all civil and military positions.

He presides over national festivals; envoys and ambassadors of foreign powers are accredited to him.

Every act of the President of the Republic must be countersigned by a minister.

4. As vacancies occur on and after the promulgation of the present law, the President of the Republic appoints, in the Council of Ministers, the Councillors of State in ordinary service.

The Councillors of State thus chosen may be dismissed only be decree rendered in the Council of Ministers.

The Councillors of State chosen by virtue of the law of May 24, 1872, cannot, before the expiration of their powers, be dismissed except in the manner determined by that law. After the dissolution of the National Assembly, revocation may be pronounced only by the resolution of the Senate.

5. The President of the Republic may, with the advice of the Senate, dissolve the Chamber of Deputies before the legal expiration of its term.

In that case the electoral colleges are summoned for new elections within the space of three months.

6. The Ministers are jointly and severally responsible to the Chambers for the general policy of the government, and individually for their personal acts.

The President of the Republic is responsible in case of high treason only.

7. In case of vacancy by death or for any other reason, the two Chambers assembled together proceed at once to the election of a new President.

In the meantime the Council of Ministers is invested with the executive power.

8. The Chambers shall have the right by separate resolutions, taken in each by an absolute majority of votes, either upon their own initiative or upon the request of the President of the Republic, to declare a revision of the Constitutional Laws necessary.

After each of the two Chambers shall have come to this decision they shall meet together in National Assembly to proceed with the revision.

The acts effecting revision of the constitutional laws, in whole or in part, must be by an absolute majority of the members composing the National Assembly.

During the continuance, however, of the powers conferred by the law of November 20, 1873, upon Marshal de MacMahon, this revision can take place only upon the initiative of the President of the Republic.

9. The seat of the Executive Power and of the two Chambers is at Versailles.

Law upon the Relation of the Public Powers, July 16, 1875.
1. The Senate and the Chamber of Deputies shall assemble each year the second Tuesday of January, unless convened earlier by the President of the Republic.

The two Chambers continue in session at least five months each year. The sessions of each begin and end at the same time.

On the Sunday following the opening of the session, public prayers shall be addressed to God in the churches and temples, to invoke His aid in the labors of the Chambers.

2. The President of the Republic pronounces the closure of the session. He may convene the Chambers in extra session. He must convene them if, during the recess, an absolute majority of the members of each Chamber request it.

The President may adjourn the Chambers. The adjournment, however, must not exceed one month, nor take place more than twice in the same session.

3. One month at least before the legal expiration of the powers of the President of the Republic, the Chambers must be called together in National Assembly and proceed to the election of a new president.

In default of a summons, this meeting shall take place, as of right the fifteenth day before the expiration of those powers.

In case of the death or resignation of the President of the Republic, the two Chambers shall reassemble immediately, as of right.

In case the Chamber of Deputies, in consequence of Article 5 of the law of February 25, 1875, is dissolved at the time when the presidency of the Republic becomes vacant, the electoral colleges shall be convened at once, and the Senate shall reassemble as of right.

4. Every meeting of either of the two Chambers which shall be held at the time other than the common session of both is illegal and void, except the case provided for in the preceding article, and that when the Senate meets as a court of justice; and in this last case, judicial duties alone shall be performed.

5. The sittings of the Senate and of the Chamber of Deputies are public.

Nevertheless each Chamber may meet in secret session, upon the request of a fixed number of its members, determined by the rules.

It decides by absolute majority whether the sitting shall be resumed in public upon the same subject.

6. The President of the Republic communicates with the Chambers by messages, which are read from the tribune by a Minister.

The Ministers have entrance to both Chambers, and must be heard when they request it. They may be represented, for the discussion of a specific bill, by commissioners designated by decree of the President of the Republic.

7. The President of the Republic promulgates the laws within the month following the transmission to the Government of the law finally passed. He must promulgate, within three days, laws whose promulgation shall have been declared urgent by an express vote in each Chamber.

Within the time fixed for promulgation the President of the Republic may, by message with reasons assigned, request of the two Chambers a new discussion, which cannot be refused.

8. The President of the Republic negotiates and ratifies treaties. He communicates them to the Chambers as soon as the interests and safety of the State permit.

Treaties of peace, and of commerce, treaties which involve the finances of the State, those relating to the persons and property of French citizens in foreign countries, shall become definite only after having been voted by the two Chambers.

No cession, no exchange, no annexation of territory shall take place except by virtue of a law.

9. The President of the Republic cannot declare war except by the previous assent of the two Chambers.

10. Each Chamber is the judge of the eligibility of its members, and of the legality of their election; it alone can receive their resignation.

11. The bureau of each Chamber is elected each year for the entire session, and for every extra session which may be held before the ordinary session of the following year.

When the two Chambers meet together as a National Assembly, their bureau consists of the President, Vice-Presidents and Secretaries of the Senate.

12. The President of the Republic may be impeached by the Chamber of Deputies only, and tried by the Senate only.

The Ministers may be impeached by the Chamber of Deputies for offences committed in the performance of their duties. In this case they are tried by the Senate.

The Senate may be constituted a Court of Justice, by a decree of the President of the Republic, issued in the Council of Ministers, to try all persons accused of attempts upon the safety of the State.

If procedure is begun by the ordinary courts, the decree convening the Senate may be issued any time before the granting of a discharge.

A law shall determine the method of procedure for the accusation, trial and judgment.

13. No member of either Chamber shall be prosecuted or held responsible on account of any opinions expressed or votes cast by him in the performance of his duties.

14. No member of either Chamber shall, during the session, be prosecuted or arrested for any offence or misdemeanor, except on the authority of the Chamber of which he is a member, unless he be caught in the very act.

The detention or prosecution of a member of either Chamber is suspended for the session, and for its entire term, if it demands it.

Amendment upon the Seat of Government, June 21, 1879.
Article 9 of the constitutional law of February 25, 1875, is repealed.

Amendments of 1884, August 14, 1884.
1. Paragraph 2 of Article 5 of the constitutional law of February 25, 1875, on the Organization of the Public Powers, is amended as follows:

"In that case the electoral colleges meet for new elections within two months, and the Chambers within the ten days following the close of the elections."

2. To Paragraph 3 of Article 8 of the same law of February 25, 1875, is added the following:

"The Republican form of the Government cannot be made the subject of a proposed revision.

"Members of families that have reigned in France are ineligible to the presidency of the Republic."

3. Articles 1 to 7 of the constitutional law of February 24, 1875, on the Organization of the Senate, shall no longer have a constitutional character.

4. Paragraph 3 of Article 1 of the constitutional law of July 16, 1875, on the Relation of the Public Powers, is repealed.