Priorytetowe pytania prawne francuskich sądów o zgodność z konstytucją
Applications by French courts for a priority preliminary ruling on the issue of constitutionality

Summary/Abstract: One of the fundamental changes in the French Constitution of 1958, adopted in 2008, was to extendthe powers of the Constitutional Council to include the examination of the conformity of laws withthe Constitution — under the procedure of ex post review — on the initiative of citizens (questionprejudicielle de constitutionnalité, QPC). Although the possibility of submitting to a constitutionalcourt an allegation of unconstitutionality of a statutory provision during the pending litigation facessignifi cant constraints, in the light of the current model of the constitutionality review of statutes inFrance this change is a breakthrough, and the road to it was not so easy. The review of constitutionalityof statutory provisions pursuant to Article 61-1 of the Constitution of 1958 has been widelyused. There is an increase of importance of administrative and common courts as well as the supremecourt authorities (Conseil d’Etat and Court of Cassation), which are responsible for an initial assessmentof the application on the constitutionality of the legal provision and, then, the issuance of thedecision — from which there are no appeal — to proceed further with QPC.

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