Title IV. Of the Relations Between the Legislative Power and the Executive Power
Article 56
The law is voted by the Parliament.
Article 57
[The following] are of the domain of the law:
- the fundamental rights and duties of persons[,] notably the regime of public freedoms, the safeguarding of the individual freedoms, and the constraints imposed by the national defense [on] citizens on their person and their assets;
nationality, the status and the capacity of the persons, marriage, divorce, and inheritance; the conditions of settlement [établissement] of persons and the status of aliens; the determination of crimes and misdemeanors as well as the sentences that are applicable to them, the criminal [pénale] procedure, amnesty, the creation and the organization of the jurisdictions, [and] the status of the magistrates; the civil procedure and the ways [voies] of execution; the customs regime, the regime of emission of money, the regime of the banks, of credit, and of insurance; the electoral regime and the territorial division of the country; the regime of property, of real rights, and of civil and commercial obligations; the general regime of water, of mines, and of hydro-carbons, of fishing and of the merchant marine, of the fauna, of the flora, and of the environment; the protection and the safeguarding of the cultural and historical patrimony; the general rules related to education and health; the general rules related to the syndical right, to the right to work, and to social security; the general organization of the administration; the free administration of the local collectivities, of their competences, and of their resources; the tax base, the rates and the modalities of recovery of the taxes of all natures; the creation of categories of public establishments; the fundamental guaranties granted to the civil and the military functionaries as well as the general status of the Public Function; the nationalizations of enterprises and the transfers of property from the public sector to the private sector; [and] the general rules of the organization of the National Defense.
The laws of finance determine the resources and the charges of the State in the conditions and under the reservations [réserves] specified by an organic law.
The laws and the programs determine the objectives of the economic and social action of the State.
The provisions of this Article may be specified [précisées] and completed by an organic law.
Article 58
The declaration of war is authorized by the Parliament.
Article 59
The matters other than those that are the domain of the law belong [relèvent] to the regulatory power.
The texts of legislative form intervening in these matters can be modified by decree, if the Constitutional Council declares that they have a regulatory character by virtue of the preceding paragraph.
Article 60
After the agreement of the President of the Republic, the Government can, for the execution of its program, demand of the Parliament the authorization of taking by ordinance, for a limited period, the measures that are normally of the domain of the law.
These ordinances are taken in the Council of Ministers and require the approval of the President of the Republic[,] who signs them.
They enter into force as soon as they are published, but they become lapsed if the Bill of the law of ratification is not deposited before [devant] the Parliament before [avant] the date established by the enabling law.
At the expiration of the time mentioned in the first paragraph of this Article, the ordinances cannot be modified[,] except by the law[,] in the matters that are of the legislative domain.
The enabling law lapses if the National Assembly is dissolved.
Article 61
The initiative of the laws belongs concurrently to the Government and to the members of Parliament.
The Bills of law are debated in the Council of Ministers and deposited with the Bureau of one of the two Assemblies. The Bills of the Law of Finance are first submitted to the National Assembly.
Article 62
The Government and the members of the Parliament have the right of amendment.
The proposals or amendments deposited by the members of Parliament are not receivable when their adoption would have as consequence either the reduction of the public revenues or the creation or the aggravation of a public charge, unless they should be accompanied by a proposal of augmentation of revenues or of equivalent economies.
They can be declared not receivable when they affect a matter that belongs to the regulatory power by virtue of Article 59 or are contrary to a delegation granted by virtue of Article 60 of this Constitution.
If the Parliament disregards [passe outre] the non-receivability raised by the Government by virtue of one of the two preceding paragraphs, the President of the Republic can refer [the matter] to the Constitutional Council[,] which decides within a time period of eight (8) days.
Article 63
The discussion of the Bills of law focuses, before the first Assembly referred to [the matter], on the text presented by the Government.
An Assembly referred to [the matter] of a text voted on by the other Assembly deliberates on the text that is transmitted to it.
Article 64
The Bills and proposals of laws, at the demand of the Government or of the Assembly to which they are referred, are sent for examination to commissions especially established for this purpose.
The Bills and proposals for which such a demand has not been made are sent to one of the permanent commissions whose number is limited to five (5) in each Assembly.
Article 65
After the opening of the debate, the Government can oppose the examination of any amendment that has not previously been submitted to the Commission.
If the Government demands it, the Assembly referred to [the matter] decides with a single vote on all or part of the text in discussion retaining only the amendments proposed or accepted by it.
Article 66
Any Bill or proposal is examined successively by the two Assemblies with [a] view to the adoption of an identical text.
In the case of a disagreement and when the Government has declared urgency, the Bill can be submitted after one sole reading by each of the two Assemblies to a joint commission [commission paritaire] charged with proposing a text concerning the provisions remaining in discussion.
This text can be submitted in the same way to the two Assemblies for adoption. In this case no amendments are further [plus] receivable.
If the joint commission is not able to propose a common text or if this text is not adopted by the two Assemblies, the Government can, after a new reading by the two chambers, demand [that] the National Assembly decide definitively.
Article 67
The laws to which the Constitution confers the character of organic laws are voted on and modified in the following conditions:
The Bill or proposal is only submitted to the deliberation and to the vote of the first Assembly referred to [the matter] at the expiration of a time period of fifteen (15) days after its deposit.
The procedure of Article 66 is applicable. However, lacking an agreement between the two Assemblies, the text may only be adopted by the National Assembly in [a] last reading with an absolute majority of its members.
The organic laws concerning the Senate must be voted in the same terms by the two Assemblies.
The organic laws may only be promulgated after declaration by the Constitutional Council of their conformity with the Constitution.
Article 68
The Parliament votes the Bill of the Law of Finance.
The Parliament is referred to [the matter] of the Bill of the Law of Finance at the latest on the first Monday of the month of November.
If the National Assembly has not decided in [a] first reading in a time period of forty five (45) days after the deposit of the Bill, the Government refers [the matter] to the Senate which must decide in a time period of fifteen (15) days. It then proceeds within the conditions specified in Article 66 of this Constitution.
If the Parliament has not voted on the budget in a time period of sixty days (60) days, or if it did not vote it in balanced form, the Government returns [renvoie] the Bill of the Law of Finance within fifteen (15) days to the National Assembly.
The National Assembly must decide within eight (8) days. If the budget is not approved at the expiration of this time period, the President of the Republic establishes it of office[,] by ordinance[,] based on the revenues from the preceding year.
The Parliament controls the execution of the budget of the State and [the] annexed budgets. A statement [état] of expenses will be provided to the Parliament at the end of each six months [semestre] for the previous six months. The definitive accounts of a fiscal year [exercise] are deposited during the course of the budgetary session of the following year and approved by a law.
The Court of Accounts [Cour des Comptes] is the superior Institution, independent [and] responsible for [chargée de] the control of the public finances.
Its organization and its functioning as well as the status of its members will be established by an organic law.
Article 69
The agenda of the Assemblies includes, by priority and in the order determined by the Government, the discussion of the Bills and proposals of law accepted by it.
One sitting per week is reserved by priority for the questions of the members of the Parliament and for the responses of the Government.
Article 70
The President of the Republic promulgates the laws in a time period of eight (8) days at the earliest and thirty (30) days at the latest following the transmission to him [of the laws] made by the Parliament.
The President of the Republic can, during this time period, send back the Bill or the proposal of law for a second reading. If the National Assembly decides on adoption by the majority of its members, the law is promulgated and published within the time period specified in the preceding paragraph.
Article 71
The state of siege and the state of urgency are decreed by the President of the Republic, for a maximum duration of thirty (30) days.
This duration can be extended by the Parliament.
It meets of plain right if it is not in session.
The law defines the exceptional powers granted to the President of the Republic by the declarations of state of siege and of state of urgency.
Article 72
The Government is held to furnish to the Parliament, in the forms specified by the law, all the explanations that have been demanded of it[,] of its management and of its acts.
Article 73
The Prime Minister makes[,] once per year, during the course of the November session, a report to the National Assembly concerning the activity of the Government during the past year and presents [expose] the general outlines of his program for the coming year.
Article 74
The Prime Minister is, severally [solidairement] with his Ministers, responsible before the National Assembly. The commencement of the political responsibility results from the question of confidence or from the motion of censure.
The Prime Minister, after deliberation of the Council of Ministers, engages [engage] before the National Assembly the responsibility of the Government on his program and eventually on a declaration of general policy.
The National Assembly engages [met en cause] the responsibility of the Government by the vote of a motion of censure.
A motion of censure deposited by a Deputy must expressly bear the title and the signature of its author. Such a motion is only receivable if it is signed by at least one-third (1/3) of the members of the National Assembly.
The vote can only take place forty-eight (48) hours after the deposit of the question of confidence or of the motion of censure.
Article 75
The vote of no confidence or the adoption of a motion of censure results in [entraîne] the immediate resignation of the Government. These [such a vote or motion] may only be acquired [with] the majority of the Deputies composing the National Assembly, [and] only the votes of no confidence or the votes favorable to the motion of censure are counted.
The resigned Government continues to manage the current affaires until the nomination, by the President of the Republic, of a new Prime Minister and of a new Government.
If a motion of censure is rejected, its signatories cannot propose a new one during the course of the same session, except in the case specified in the following paragraph.
The Prime Minister, after deliberation of the Council of Ministers, engages the responsibility of the Government before the National Assembly on the vote of a text. In this case, this text is considered adopted, except if a motion of censure, deposited in the following twenty-four hours, is voted within the conditions specified in the first paragraph of this Article.
The Prime Minister has the faculty to demand to the Senate for the approval of a declaration of general policy.
Article 76
The cloture of the ordinary or the extraordinary sessions is by right delayed in order to permit, the case arising, the application of the provisions of Article 75 of this Constitution.
Article 77
If, in an interval of less than thirty-six (36) months, two changes of Government have intervened following a vote of no confidence or of a motion of censure, the President of the Republic can, after the opinion of the President of the National Assembly, pronounce the dissolution of it.
In this case, it will proceed to new elections in a time period of forty (40) days at most. The new National Assembly meets of plain right three (3) weeks after its election.
