TITLE V. OF THE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE EXECUTIVE POWER AND THE LEGISLATIVE POWER
Article 71
The National Assembly holds the legislative power. It alone votes the law. The law establishes the rules concerning:
- citizenship, the civic rights and the fundamental guarantees granted to the citizens for the exercise of the public liberties;
nationality, the state and the capacity of persons, the matrimonial regimes, inheritance and gifts; the procedure according to which customs will be established and harmonized with the fundamental principles of the Constitution; the determination of crimes and misdemeanors as well as the penalties which are applicable to them, the penal procedure, and amnesty; the organization of judicial and administrative tribunals and the procedure to be followed before these Jurisdictions; the Statute of the magistrates, of the ministerial officers and of the auxiliaries of Justice; the General Statute of the Public Function; the Statute of the Prefectoral Corps; the Statute of the Diplomatic Corps; the Statute of the personnel of the Local Collectivities; the Statute of the Military Function; the Statute of personnel of the National Police; the bases, rate and modalities of collection of taxes of all kinds; the regime of the issuance of currency; the electoral regime of the National Assembly and of the Local Assemblies; the creation of categories of Public Establishments; the state of siege and the state of urgency.
The law determines the fundamental principles:
- of the general organization of the Administration;
of Education and of Scientific Research; of the organization of the National Defense; of the regime of property, property rights, and civil and commercial obligations; of the right to work, of the syndical right and of the Social Institutions; of the alienation and of the management of the domain of the State; of the transfer of enterprises of the public sector to the private sector; of mutual insurance companies and savings; of the protection of the environment; of the organization of production; of the Statute of the Political Parties; of the regime of transport and of telecommunications.
The Laws of Finance determine the revenues and expenditures of the State. The program laws establish the objectives of the economic and social action of the State. The organic laws are those which have for their object the direction of the different Institutions, structures and systems specified or qualified as such by the Constitution. The laws to which the Constitution confers the character of organic laws are voted and modified within the following conditions:
The bill or the proposal is only presented to the deliberation and to the vote of the National Assembly at the expiration of a time period of fifteen days after its deposit.
The text can only be adopted by the National Assembly with the majority of 2/3 of its members. The organic laws can only be promulgated after the declaration by the Constitutional Council of their conformity with the Constitution.
Article 72
The matters other than those which are of the domain of the law belong to the regulatory domain. The texts of legislative form intervening in these matters before the entry into force of this Constitution, can be modified by decree taken after the advice of the Constitutional Council.
Article 73
The declaration of war is authorized by the National Assembly.
Article 74
The state of siege is decreed in the Council of Ministers. The National Assembly then meets of right if it is not in session.
The extension of the state of siege beyond fifteen days can only be authorized by the National Assembly, by the simple majority of the Deputies.
Article 75
The President of the Republic can, for the execution of his program, demand of the National Assembly, the authorization to take by ordinance, for a limited time, the measures which are normally of the domain of the law. The ordinances are taken in the Council of Ministers after the possible advice of the Constitutional Council. They enter into force on their publication but, become lapsed if the bill of law of ratification is not deposited before the Parliament prior to the date established by the enabling law. After the expiration of the time limit mentioned in the first paragraph of this article, the ordinances can only be further modified by the law in their provisions which are of the legislative domain.
Article 76
The proposals and amendments which are not of the domain of the law are irreceivable. The irreceivability is declared by the President of the National Assembly. In the case of dispute, the Constitutional Council, seized by the President of the Republic, or by one-quarter at least of the Deputies, decides in a time period of fifteen days counting from its seizing.
Article 77
The laws can, before their promulgation, be deferred to the Constitutional Council by the President of the National Assembly or by one-tenth at least of the Deputies or by the parliamentary groups. The associations of the defense of the Rights of Man legally constituted can equally defer to the Constitutional Council the laws concerning the public freedoms. The Constitutional Council decides in a time period of fifteen days counting from its seizing.
Article 78
The Deputies have the right of amendment. The proposals and amendments deposited by the members of the National Assembly are not receivable when their adoption would have as a consequence either a reduction of the public resources, or the creation or aggravation of a public debt, unless they would be accompanied by a proposal of augmentation of receipts or of equivalent economies.
Article 79
The National Assembly votes the bill of the Law of Finance within the conditions determined by law.
Article 80
The National Assembly is seized with the bill of the Law of Finance from the opening of the October session. The bill of the Law of Finance must provide the receipts necessary for the integral covering of expenses. The National Assembly votes the balanced budget. If the National Assembly has not decided within a time period of seventy days, the bill of law can be put into force by ordinance. The President of the Republic seizes, for the ratification, the National Assembly convoked in extraordinary session, within a time limit of fifteen days. If the National Assembly has not voted the budget by the end of this extraordinary session, the budget is definitively established by ordinance. If the bill of the Law of Finance has not been deposited in a timely way to be promulgated before the beginning of the exercise, the President of the Republic demands of the National Assembly by urgency, the authorization to repeat the budget of the previous year by provisional twelfths.
Article 81
The National Assembly regulates the accounts of the Nation according to the modalities specified by the Law of Finance. The bill of the law of regulation must be deposited with the Bureau of the National Assembly one year at the latest after the execution of the budget.
Article 82
The means of information of the National Assembly concerning the governmental action are the oral question, the written question, and the commission of inquiry. During the term of the ordinary session, one meeting per month is reserved by priority to the questions of the Deputies and to the responses of the President of the Republic. The President of the Republic can delegate to the Head of Government and to the ministers the power to respond to the questions of the Deputies. In the circumstance, the National Assembly can take a resolution to make recommendations to the Government.
Article 83
The members of the Government have access to the commissions of the National Assembly. They are heard at the demand of the commissions. They can be assisted by the commissioners of the Government.
