09 March 2024
Enshrining Abortion Rights in the French Constitution
On International Women’s Day 2024, President Emmanuel Macron signed an amendment, that enshrines abortion rights in the French Constitution. Abortion is now a constitutionally “guaranteed freedom” for women in France: but constitutionally guaranteeing this freedom is also — if not even more — a call-out to the rest of the world. By constitutionalizing the right to abortion, French parliamentarians and government officials aimed to signal this commitment to the global community, with a particular emphasis on the United States. Continue reading >>
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17 May 2022
Das andere Erbe
Die Anschläge vom 11. September 2001 lösten eine neue Praxis und ein neues Interesse an Notstandsbefugnissen aus. Zweifellos waren die Vereinigten Staaten Vorreiter bei ihrer verstärkten Ausübung, aber Frankreich ist ein sehr interessantes Beispiel für die vielen Fragen und Herausforderungen, die die Normalisierung des Ausnahmezustands mit sich bringen. Denn Frankreich wird seit mehr als der Hälfte der Zeit, die seit den Anschlägen vom 13. November 2015 verstrichen ist, unter verschiedenen Ausnahmezuständen regiert. Continue reading >>
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17 May 2022
The other legacy
The 9/11 attacks triggered a new practice of and renewed interest in emergency powers. Without doubt, the United States were at the forefront of the enhanced exercise of such powers, but France is a very interesting example of the many issues and challenges raised by states of emergencies' normalization. France has been governed under a state of emergency for more than half of the time that has elapsed since the attacks of 13 November 2015. Continue reading >>
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23 December 2020
Can (Republican) Values be Defined by Law?
On 9 December 2020, the French government presented an important legislative proposal that seeks to reaffirm « republican principles ». The project is worth being examined in some detail, as it encapsulates many of the recurring tensions in the French legal and political debate over pluralism and vivre ensemble. This is a cause for concern not only because of the ways in which it recasts a number of rights and freedoms, but also because of the strongly axiological program it conveys – one that may further reinforce ongoing tendencies to interpret a number of republican values in manners that alienate minorities religious and otherwise. Continue reading >>
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26 March 2017
European parliamentary sovereignty on the shoulders of national parliamentary sovereignties: A Reply to Sébastien Platon
We are really grateful that the Verfassungsblog has been one of the very first forums engaging the discussion on the "Treaty on the democratization of the governance of the euro area" (T-Dem). While the proposal has emerged in the framework of the current French presidential campaign, and is now widely debated in this context, it has been primarily thought of as a contribution to the ongoing transnational conversation over the future of the European Union. As authors of the proposal, we first wish to thank our colleague Sébastien Platon for launching an interesting discussion about the T-Dem. Continue reading >>
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