The French people hereby solemnly proclaim their dedication to the Rights of Man and the principle of national sovereignty as defined by the Declaration of 1789, reaffirmed and complemented by the Preamble to the 1946 Constitution.

By virtue of these principles and that of the free determination of peoples, the Republic offers to the Overseas Territories expressly desiring this to adhere to them new institutions based on the common ideal of liberty equality, and fraternity and conceived with a view to their democratic evolution.

(1) The Republic and the peoples of the Overseas Territories who, by free determination, adopt the present Constitution thereby institute a Community.

(2) The Community shall be based on the equality and solidarity of the peoples composing it.

(1) France is an indivisible, secular, democratic, and social Republic. It ensures the equality of all citizens before the law, without distinction as to origin, race, or religion. It respects all beliefs.

(2) The language of the Republic is French.

(3) The national emblem is the blue, white, and red tricolor flag.

(4) The national anthem is the "Marseillaise".

(5) The Motto of the Republic is "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity".

(6) Its principle is government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

(1) National sovereignty belongs to the people, who exercise it through their representatives and by means of referendums.

(2) No section of the people, nor any individual, may abrogate to themselves or to him or herself the exercise thereof.

(3) Suffrage may be direct or indirect under the terms stipulated by the Constitution. It shall always be universal, equal, and secret.

(4) All French citizens of both sexes who have attained their majority and enjoy civil and political rights may vote under the conditions determined by law.

Political parties and groups shall be instrumental in the exercise of the suffrage. They shall be freely formed and shall freely carry on their activities. They must respect the principles of national sovereignty and democracy.

(1) The President of the Republic shall see that the Constitution is observed. He shall ensure, by his arbitration, both the proper functioning of the governmental authorities and the continuity of the State.

(2) He shall be the guarantor of national independence, the integrity of the territory and observance of Community agreements, and of treaties.

The President of the Republic shall be elected for seven years by direct universal suffrage. The procedures implementing this Article shall be laid down in an organic act.

(1) The President of the Republic shall be elected by an absolute majority of the votes cast. If this is not obtained on the first ballot, there shall be a second ballot on the next Sunday but one. Only the two candidates who have won the greatest number of votes in the first ballot may stand in it, after taking into account, if applicable, any withdrawals of candidates who have received a higher vote.

(2) Voting shall begin at the formal summons of the Government.

(3) The election of the new President shall take place not less than twenty days and not more than thirty-five days before the expiry of the powers of the President in office.

(5) If one of the candidates dies or is otherwise prevented before the first ballot, the Constitutional Council shall pronounce the postponement of the election.

(6) Should one of the candidates heading the poll in the first ballot die or be otherwise prevented prior to any withdrawals, the Constitutional Council shall declare that the election procedure must be repeated in full; the same shall apply in the event of one of the candidates standing in the second ballot dying or being otherwise prevented.

(8) The Constitutional Council may extend the periods stipulated in the third and fifth paragraphs, provided that polling takes place not later than thirty-five days after the Constitutional Council's decision. If implementation of the provisions of this paragraph results in the postponement of the election to a date after the expiry of the powers of the President in office, the latter shall remain in office until the proclamation of his successor.

(1) The President of the Republic shall appoint the Prime Minister. He shall terminate that appointment when the latter tenders the resignation of the Government.

(2) On the proposal of the Prime Minister, he shall appoint the other members of the Government and terminate their appointments.

The President of the Republic shall preside over the Council of Ministers.

(1) The President of the Republic shall promulgate laws within fifteen days following the transmission to the Government of the said laws as finally adopted.

(2) He may, before expiry of this time limit, ask Parliament to reconsider a law or certain of its articles. This reconsideration may not be refused.

(1) The President of the Republic may, on the proposal of the Government during sessions, or on a joint motion of the two Assemblies published in the Official Journal, submit to a referendum any bill dealing with the organization of the governmental authorities, entailing approval of a Community agreement or providing for authority to ratify a treaty which, though not unconstitutional, would affect the functioning of existing institutions.

(2) When the referendum decides in favor of the bill, the President of the Republic shall promulgate it within the time limit stipulated in the preceding article.

(1) The President of the Republic may, after consultation with the Prime Minister and the Presidents of the Assemblies, pronounce the dissolution of the National Assembly. A General election shall take place not less than twenty days and not more than forty days after the dissolution.

(2) The National Assembly shall meet ipso jure on the second Thursday following its election. If this meeting takes place outside the periods provided for ordinary sessions, a session shall ipso jure be held for a fifteen-day period.

(3) No further dissolution may take place within a year following this election.

(1) The President of the Republic shall sign the ordinances and orders decided upon in the Council of Ministers.

(2) He shall make appointments to the civil and military posts of the State.

(3) Conseillers d'Etat, the Grand Chancelier de la Legion d'Honneur, Ambassadors and envoys extraordinary, Conseillers Maitres of the Cour des Comptes, Prefects, Government representatives in the Overseas Territories, General Officers, Recteurs d'academies and Directors of central administrations shall be appointed by the Council of Ministers.

(4) An organic act shall determine the other posts to be filled by decision of the Council of Ministers, together with the conditions under which the power of appointment of the President of the Republic may be delegated by him and exercised in his name.

The President of the Republic shall accredit Ambassadors and envoys extraordinary to foreign powers; foreign Ambassadors and envoys extraordinary shall be accredited to him.

The President of the Republic shall be commander-in-chief of the armed forces. He shall preside over the Higher National Defence councils and committees.

(1) When the institutions of the Republic, the independence of the nation, the integrity of its territory, or the fulfillment of its international commitments are under grave and immediate threat and when the proper functioning of the constitutional governmental authorities is interrupted, the President of the Republic shall take the measures demanded by these circumstances after official consultation with the Prime Minister, the Presidents of the Assemblies, and the Constitutional Council.

(2) He shall inform the nation of these measures by a message.

(3) These measures must be prompted by a will to ensure within the shortest possible time that the constitutional governmental authorities have the means of fulfilling their duties. The Constitutional Council shall be consulted with regard to such measures.

(4) Parliament shall meet ipso jure.

(5) The National Assembly may not be dissolved during the exercise of emergency powers.

The President of the Republic shall have the right of pardon.

(1) The President of the Republic shall communicate with the two parliamentary Assemblies by means of messages, of which he shall order a reading and which shall not give rise to any debate.

(2) Between sessions, Parliament shall be convened especially for this purpose.

(1) The Government shall determine and conduct the policy of the nation.

(2) It shall have at its disposal the administration and the armed forces.

(2) He may delegate certain of his powers to Ministers.

(4) On an exceptional basis, he may deputize for him as chairman of a meeting of the Council of Ministers by explicit delegation and for a specific agenda.

The official decisions of the Prime Minister shall be countersigned, where appropriate, by the ministers responsible for their implementation.

(1) Membership of the Government shall be incompatible with the exercise of any Parliamentary mandate, with the holding of any representational office at national level in a trade organization, and with any public employment or professional activity.

(2) An organic act shall determine the conditions under which the holders of such mandates, offices, or employment shall be replaced.

(1) Parliament shall consist of the National Assembly and the Senate.

(2) Deputies of the National Assembly shall be elected by direct suffrage.

(3) The Senate shall be elected by indirect suffrage. It shall ensure the representation of the territorial entities of the Republic. French nationals living outside France shall be represented in the Senate.

(1) An organic act shall determine the term for which each Assembly is elected, the number of its members, their emoluments, the conditions of eligibility and ineligibility and the offices incompatible with membership of the Assemblies.

(2) It shall likewise lay down the conditions governing the election, in the event of a vacancy, of persons to replace deputies or senators whose seats have been vacated until new general or partial elections are held for the Assembly concerned.

(1) No member of Parliament may be prosecuted or subjected to inquiry, arrest, detention, or trial on account of opinions expressed or votes cast in the course of his or her duties.

(2) No member of Parliament may, during parliamentary sessions, be prosecuted or arrested for a felony or misdemeanor without the authority of the Assembly of which he or she is a member, except in cases of flagrante delicto.

(3) When Parliament is not in session, no member of Parliament may be arrested without the authority of the bureau of the Assembly of which he or she is a member, except in the case of flagrante delicto, authorized prosecution, or final sentence.

(4) The detention or prosecution of a member of Parliament shall be suspended if the Assembly of which he or she is a member so demands.

(1) All mandatory instructions shall be null and void.

(2) The right to vote of the members of Parliament shall be personal.

(3) An organic act may, exceptionally, authorize the delegation of a vote. In this case, no member may be delegated to cast more than one vote.

(1) Parliament shall convene ipso jure in two ordinary sessions per year.

(2) The first session shall begin on 2 April and last for thirty days.

(3) The second session shall open on 2 October and last for not more than ninety days.

(4) If 2 October or 2 April is a public holiday, the session shall open on the first working day thereafter.

(1) Parliament shall convene in extraordinary session, at the request of the Prime Minister or of a majority of the members of the National Assembly, to consider a specific agenda.

(2) When an extraordinary session is held at the request of the members of the National Assembly, the closure order shall take effect as soon as Parliament has exhausted the agenda for which it was convened and at the latest twelve days from the opening date of the session.

(3) Only the Prime Minister may request a further session before the end of the month following the closure order.

Apart from cases in which Parliament meets ipso jure, extraordinary sessions shall be opened and closed by order of the President of the Republic.

(1) The members of the Government shall have access to the two Assemblies. They shall be heard when they so request.

(2) They may call for the assistance of government commissioners.

The President of the National Assembly shall be elected for the duration of the legislature. The President of the Senate shall be elected after each partial renewal.

(1) The meetings of the two Assemblies shall be public. A full report of the debates shall be published in the Official Journal.

(2) Each Assembly may sit in secret committee at the request of the Prime Minister or of one tenth of its members.

(1) All legislation shall be passed by Parliament.

(2) Legislation shall establish the rules concerning:

A declaration of war must be authorized by Parliament.

(1) Martial law shall be declared in a meeting of the Council of Ministers.

(2) Parliament alone may authorize its extension beyond twelve days.

(1) Matters other than those that fall within the sphere of legislation shall be determined by regulation.

(2) Legislation concerning these matters may be amended by orders issued after consultation with the Conseil d'Etat. Any such legislative texts introduced after this Constitution has entered into force shall be amended by order only if the Constitutional Council has pronounced that the matters they deal with fall within the field subject to regulation as defined in the preceding paragraph.

(1) The Government may, in order to carry out its program, ask Parliament to authorize it, for a limited period, to take by ordinance measures normally within the legislative sphere.

(2) Ordinances shall be enacted in meetings of the Council of Ministers after consultation with the Conseil d'Etat. They shall come into force upon their publication, but shall become null and void if the bill for their ratification is not submitted to Parliament before the date set by the enabling act.

(3) Upon expiry of the period referred to in the first paragraph of this article, the ordinances may be amended only by act of Parliament in respect of those matters which are within the legislative domain.

(1) The Prime Minister and the members of Parliament have concurrent rights to initiate legislation.

(2) Government bills shall be discussed in the Council of Ministers after consultation with the Conseil d'Etat and shall be tabled in one of the two Assemblies. Finance bills shall be submitted first to the National Assembly.

Private members' bills and amendments shall be inadmissible if their adoption would have the effect of reducing public revenue or of creating or increasing an item of public expenditure.

(2) In the event of disagreement between the Government and the President of the Assembly concerned, the Constitutional Council, at the request of either party, shall rule within eight days.

(1) In the first Assembly to which it is referred, a government bill shall be discussed on the basis of the text put forward by the Government.

(2) An Assembly which has before it a bill passed by the other Assembly shall deliberate on the text transmitted to it.

(1) Government and private members' bills shall, at the request of the Government or of the Assembly considering them, be referred for examination to committees specially appointed for this purpose.

(2) Government and private members' bills for which such a request has not been made shall be referred to one of the standing committees, the number of which shall be limited to six in each Assembly.

(1) Members of Parliament and the Government shall have the right of amendment.

(2) After the opening of the debate, the Government may object to any amendment being considered which has not previously been submitted to committee.

(3) If the Government so requests, the Assembly concerned shall decide, in a single vote, on all or part of the text under discussion, retaining only the amendments proposed or accepted by the Government.

(1) If, owing to disagreement between the two Assemblies, it has proved impossible to adopt a government or private member's bill after two readings by each Assembly, or, if the Government has declared the matter urgent, after a single reading by each of them, the Prime Minister shall have the right to call for a meeting of a joint committee composed of an equal number of members of each Assembly, to propose a text on the matters still under discussion.

(2) The text drafted by the joint committee may be submitted by the Government to the two Assemblies for approval. No amendment shall be admissible except by agreement with the Government.

(3) If the joint committee fails to agree on a common text, or if this text is not adopted under the conditions set forth in the preceding paragraph, the Government may, after a further reading by the National Assembly and Senate, ask the National Assembly to make a final decision. In this event, the National Assembly may return either to the text drafted by the joint committee, or to the last text passed by itself, modified, if applicable, by one or more of the amendments adopted by the Senate.

(1) Acts defined under the Constitution as organic shall be passed and amended as follows:

(2) A government or private member's bill shall be submitted for discussion and to a vote in the first Assembly in which it has been tabled not less than fifteen days after that tabling.

(4) Organic acts relating to the Senate must be passed in the same wording by the two Assemblies.

(5) Organic acts may be promulgated only after the Constitutional Council has declared them constitutional.

(1) Parliament shall pass finance bills under the conditions stipulated by an organic act.

(3) Should Parliament fail to reach a decision within seventy days, the provisions of the bill may be brought into force by ordinance.

(4) Should the finance bill establishing the revenue and expenditure of a fiscal year not be tabled in time for its promulgation before the beginning of that fiscal year, the Government shall, on an emergency basis, ask Parliament for authority to collect taxes and shall make available by order the funds needed to provide for services already approved.

(5) The time limits stipulated in this article shall be suspended when Parliament is not sitting.

(6) The Cour des Comptes shall assist Parliament and the Government in supervising the implementation of the finance acts.

(1) The discussion of bills tabled by the Government and of private members' bills agreed to by it shall have priority on the agendas of the Assemblies in the order decided by the Government.

(2) One meeting per week shall be reserved in priority for members' questions and the Government's replies.

(1) The Prime Minister, after deliberation by the Council of Ministers, may commit the Goverment's responsibility before the National Assembly with regard to its program or, should the occasion arise, to a statement of general policy.

(2) The National Assembly may challenge the responsibility of the Government by passing a motion of censure. Such a motion shall be admissible only if signed by at least one tenth of the members of the National Assembly. The vote may not take place until forty-eight hours after the motion has been tabled; the only votes counted shall be those in favor of the motion of censure, which may be adopted only by a majority of the membership of the Assembly. Should the motion of censure be rejected, its signatories may not introduce another such motion in the course of the same session, except in the case provided for in the following paragraph.

(3) The Prime Minister may, after deliberation by the Council of Ministers, commit the Government's responsibility to the National Assembly on the passing of a bill. In this case, the text shall be regarded as carried unless a motion of censure, tabled within the succeeding twenty-four hours, is passed under the conditions laid down in the previous paragraph.

(4) The Prime Minister may ask the Senate to approve a general policy statement.

If the National Assembly adopts a motion of censure, or rejects the Government's program or a general policy statement by the latter, the Prime Minister must tender the Government's resignation to the President of the Republic.

(1) The President of the Republic shall negotiate and ratify treaties.

(2) He shall be informed of all negotiations leading to the conclusion of an international agreement not subject to ratification.

(1) Peace treaties, commercial treaties and treaties, or agreements relating to international organization, or implying a financial commitment on the part of the State, or modifying provisions of a legislative nature, or relating to the status of persons, or entailing a cession, exchange or ad junction of territory, may be ratified or approved only by act of Parliament.

(2) They shall take effect only after having been ratified or approved.

(3) No cession, exchange, or adjunction of territory shall be valid without the consent of the populations concerned.

If, upon the demand of the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister or the President of one or other Assembly or sixty deputies or sixty senators, the Constitutional Council has ruled that an international agreement contains a clause contrary to the Constitution, the ratification or approval of this agreement shall not be authorized until the Constitution has been revised.

Duly ratified or approved treaties or agreements shall, upon their publication, override laws, subject, for each agreement or treaty, to its application by the other party.

(1) The Constitutional Council shall consist of nine members, whose term of office shall last nine years and shall not be renewable. One third of the membership of the Constitutional Council shall be renewed every three years. Three of its members shall be appointed by the President of the Republic, three by the President of the National Assembly, three by the President of the Senate.

(2) In addition to the nine members provided for above, former Presidents of the Republic shall be ex officio life members of the Constitutional Council.

(3) The President shall be appointed by the President of the Republic. He shall have the casting vote in the event of a tie.

The office of member of the Constitutional Council shall be incompatible with that of minister or member of Parliament. Other incompatibilities shall be determined by an organic act.

(1) The Constitutional Council shall ensure the regularity of the election of the President of the Republic.

(2) It shall examine complaints and proclaim the results of the vote.

The Constitutional Council shall rule, in the case of a dispute, on the regularity of elections of deputies and senators.

The Constitutional Council shall ensure the regularity of referendums and proclaim the results thereof.

(1) Organic acts, before their promulgation, and standing orders of the parliamentary Assemblies, before their implementation, must be submitted to the Constitutional Council which shall rule on their constitutionality.

(2) To the same end, acts of Parliament may, before their promulgation, be submitted to the Constitutional Council by the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, the President of the National Assembly, the President of the Senate, sixty deputies or sixty senators.

(3) In the cases provided for by the two preceding paragraphs, the Constitutional Council must rule within one month. However, at the Government's request, this period shall be reduced to eight days if a matter is urgent.

(4) In these same cases, referral to the Constitutional Council shall suspend the time limit for promulgation.

(1) A provision declared unconstitutional may not be promulgated or implemented.

(2) The decisions of the Constitutional Council shall not be subject to appeal to any jurisdiction. They shall be binding on the governmental authorities and on all administrative and jurisdictional authorities.

An organic act shall determine the organizational and operational rules of the Constitutional Council, the procedure to be followed before it, and in particular the periods of time allowed for referring disputes to it.

(1) The President of the Republic shall be the guarantor of the independence of the Judiciary.

(2) He shall be assisted by the Conseil Superieur de la Magistrature.

(3) An organic act shall determine the status of members of the Judiciary.

(4) Judges may not be removed from office.

(1) The Conseil Superieur de la Magistrature shall be presided over by the President of the Republic. The Minister of Justice shall be its ex officio Vice-President. He may deputize for the President of the Republic.

(2) The Conseil Superieur shall, in addition, comprise nine members appointed by the President of the Republic under the terms laid down by an organic act.

(3) The Conseil Superieur shall make proposals for appointments of Judges of the Cour de Cassation and of Presiding Judges of the Courts of Appeal. It shall give its opinion, under the conditions stipulated by the organic act, on the proposals of the Minister of Justice relative to appointments of other judges. It shall be consulted on questions of pardon under conditions determined by an organic act.

(4) The Conseil Superieur shall act as the disciplinary council for judges. In such cases, it shall be presided over by the Presiding Judge of the Cour de Cassation.

(1) No one may be arbitrarily detained.

(2) The Judiciary, guardian of individual liberty, shall enforce this principle under the conditions stipulated by legislation.

(1) A High Court of Justice shall be instituted.

(2) It shall be composed of members elected in equal number by the National Assembly and the Senate from within their ranks after each general or partial election to these Assemblies. It shall elect its President from among its members.

(3) An organic law shall determine the composition of the High Court, its operating rules and the procedure to be f