Constitutional law of 2 November 1945
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Constitutional law of 2 November 1945 | ||
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Overview | ||
Original title | Loi constitutionnelle portant organisation provisoire des pouvoirs publics | |
Jurisdiction | Executive head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic | |
[[s:fr:Loi constitutionnelle du 2 novembre 1945|Loi constitutionnelle portant organisation provisoire des pouvoirs publics]] at French Wikisource |
The French constitutional Law of 2 November 1945 was an interim, transitional constitutional law that set a legal basis for government in France under the Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF) for one year until a new constitution was approved.
The law was adopted by popular referendum as part of the 1945 French legislative election on 21 October 1945. Results were promulgated on 3 November 1945. The law provided a provisional constitutional structure for republican government in France [fr] which had been re-established in Metropolitan France in June 1944 under the aegis of the Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF) led by General Charles de Gaulle. It lasted for a year, until the Assembly drafted a new constitution which became the foundation for the new, Fourth Republic in October 1946.
Background
Third Republic
In the latter part of the nineteenth century and first part of the twentieth, France was a republic that was governed by the
World War II and Vichy
During World War II, France was invaded by Nazi Germany in 1940.[1] Defeat was imminent, and France's military situation was dire. Paul Reynaud resigned as prime minister, rather than sign an armistice with Germany, and was replaced by Marshal Philippe Pétain, a hero of World War I. Shortly thereafter, Pétain signed the Armistice of 22 June 1940. Under terms of the armistice, France was carved up into two sectors, the north and west under direct German military occupation, and the south and east under the control of the nominally independent but repressive rump state under Marshall Philippe Pétain known as the Vichy regime.[1]
On 10 July 1940 the National Assembly, comprising both the Senate and Chamber of Deputies, met in joint session in the spa town of Vichy and
Liberation and Provisional Government
The
Establishment of the Provisional Government marked the official restoration and re-establishment of a provisional French Republic, assuring continuity with the defunct
By May 1945, France was liberated, Germany was defeated,
Election and referendum
Legislative elections were organized by the GPRF and set for 21 October 1945 with two goals: to elect a parliament, and to hold a referendum to decide on a constitutional order for the country. The referendum asked voters about whether France should return to the
The voters overwhelmingly chose to empower the newly elected Assembly as a
Scope
The constitutional law of 1945 remained in effect for a year, until the assembly drafted and passed the new Constitution of 27 October 1946, establishing the Fourth Republic.
See also
- The Bayeux speeches
- Constitutionalism
- Constitution of France
- Constitutions of France
- Fifth Republic (France)
- French Committee of National Liberation
- French Community
- French Constitutional Council
- French Fourth Republic
- French law
- French Union
- Government of France
- Politics of France
References
- Notes
- ^ Given full constituent powers in the law of 10 July 1940, Pétain never promulgated a new constitution. A draft was written in 1941 and signed by Pétain in 1944 but it was never submitted or ratified.[4]
- ^ The French Constitutional Law of 1940 would later be annulled in August 1944.[13]
- French State" (État français).
- ^ Earlier bodies formed by de Gaulle during the war to provide some level of governing or coordinating control and political direction to the Free French forces and to rally support included the Empire Defense Council, the French National Committee, the French Committee of National Liberation, and the Provisional Consultative Assembly.
- ^ a b Women's suffrage was introduced by the French Committee of National Liberation in the Ordinance of 21 April 1944 [fr], and reconfirmed by the GPRF on 5 October 1944.[11]
- Citations
- ^ a b Umbreit 1991, p. 311.
- ^ Knapp 2007, p. 2.
- ^ Maury 2004.
- ^ Beigbeder 2006, p. 140.
- ^ JORF 1940, 168.
- ^ Badsey 1990.
- ^ Clark 2008, p. 3.
- ^ Muracciole 2009, p. 36.
- ^ Wieviorka 2008, p. 300.
- ^ Kershaw 2018, p. 42.
- ^ a b Singh 2022, p. 47.
- ^ Caramani 2017, p. 303.
- ^ Legifrance 1944.
Works cited
- Badsey, Stephen (1990). Normandy 1944: Allied Landings and Breakout. Oxford: ISBN 978-0-85045-921-0.
- Beigbeder, Yves (29 August 2006). Judging War Crimes and Torture: French Justice and International Criminal Tribunals and Commissions (1940-2005). Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff/Brill. p. 140. OCLC 1058436580.
- Caramani, Daniele (13 February 2017). Elections in Western Europe 1815-1996. Springer. OCLC 1085235961.
- Clark, Lloyd (2008). Crossing the Rhine: Breaking into Nazi Germany, 1944 and 1945 – The Greatest Airborne Battles in History. New York, NY: Atlantic Monthly Press. OCLC 223915610.
- "Constitutional act no. 2, defining the authority of the chief of the French state". Journal Officiel de la République française. 11 July 1940. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015.
- Knapp, Andre (27 June 2007). "Introduction". In Knapp, Andrew (ed.). The Uncertain Foundation: France at the Liberation 1944-47. Springer. p. 2. OCLC 1047640323.
- "Ordonnance du 9 août 1944 relative au rétablissement de la légalité républicaine sur le territoire continental – Version consolidée au 10 août 1944" [Law of 9 August 1944 Concerning the reestablishment of the legally constituted Republic on the mainland – consolidated version of 10 August 1944]. gouv.fr. Legifrance. 9 August 1944. Archived from the original on 16 July 2009.
- Maury, Jean-Pierre (2004). "Loi constitutionnelle du 10 Juillet 1940" [Constitutional law of 10 July 1940]. Mjp.univ-perp.fr. Archived from the original on 23 July 2001.
- Muracciole, Jean-François (2009). Les Français libres [The Free French]. Histoires D'aujourd'hui (in French). Paris: Tallandier. OCLC 7350216963.
- Kershaw, Angela (20 July 2018). Translating War: Literature and Memory in France and Britain from the 1940s to the 1960s. Springer. pp. 42–. OCLC 1045629669.
On 3 June 1944 the CFLN became the Gouvernement provisoire de la République française (GPRF), the Provisional Government of the French Republic, and was recalled to Paris at the end of August 1944.
- Singh, Ram Ayodhya (22 January 2022). Women and other Marginalized Section in the Politics of Developing Countries. New Delhi: K.K. Publications. OCLC 897793530.
- Umbreit, Hans (1991) [1st pub. OCLC 464127303.
- Wieviorka, Olivier (2008). Normandy: The Landings to the Liberation of Paris. Harvard University Press. OCLC 1166488535.
Further reading
- Cartier, Emmanuel (2004). La transition constitutionnelle en France (1940-1945): la reconstruction révolutionnaire d'un ordre juridique républicain [The constitutional transition in France (1940-1945): the revolutionary reconstruction of a republican legal order] (doctoral thesis). Bibliothèque constitutionnelle et de science politique, 126. OCLC 63222190.
- Cartier, Emmanuel (27 June 2007). "The Liberation and the Institutional Question in France". In Knapp, Andrew (ed.). The Uncertain Foundation: France at the Liberation 1944-47. Springer. pp. 27–. OCLC 1047640323.