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According to Article 24 of the Constitution, Parliament shall comprise the National Assembly and the Senate. The National Assembly was first created in 1789 and has sat at the Palais Bourbon for two centuries. The second chamber — which has not always existed in the various successive constitutions since 1791 — sits at the Palais du Luxembourg. The two assemblies differ by their political role and by their legislative role. The two assemblies do not have the same electoral body: direct universal suffrage for the National Assembly, corresponding to some 40 million registered voters ; universal suffrage, but indirect, for the Senate, whose electoral college comprises approximately 150,000 persons. THE PALAIS BOURBON
It was on 18 September 1795 that the Palais Bourbon was assigned to a political assembly (the Council of the Five Hundred) and on 21 January 1798 the first sittings hall was inaugurated there. Since then, the mansion and the assemblies it has housed under various names (Legislative Body, Chamber of Deputies, National Assembly), have shared a common history. But the history of the mansion goes back as early as the first part of the 18th century. Princely mansion The Palais Bourbon was built from 1722 to 1728 for Duchess de Bourbon, daughter of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan, on a plot bought by her in 1720. With its style reminiscent of the Grand Trianon in Versailles, the mansion was considered in the 18th century as ‘the city’s greatest embellishment, second only to the royal houses.’ After the death of Duchess de Bourbon, the mansion was purchased by Louis XV who sold it in 1764 to Prince de Condé. The latter carried out layout and enlargement work here, which was finished in 1788, but a year later he fled the Revolution and was not to return to France until twenty-five years later. First Republican assembly The mansion was confiscated in 1791 and declared national property. In 1794 it housed the future École polytechnique before being assigned in 1795 to the Council of the Five Hundred. The architects Gisors and Lecomte were tasked with building here a hemicycle-shaped chamber which was used, unaltered, until 1829. Of this first chamber, only the President’s desk and the speaker’s rostrum remain. In 1806 the decision was taken to add, on the Pont de la Concorde side of the building, a twelve-column peristyle atop a flight of thirty steps, which mirrors the Eglise de la Madelaine on the other side of the Seine. From the Restoration to our days At the time of the Restoration, Prince de Condé wanted to get his property back. But he was forced to rent it for use as the Chamber of Deputies until the State became the definitive owner in 1827. For five years—the inauguration was to take place on 21 November 1832—the architect Jules de Joly directed the transformations which were to give the building its present appearance. Among these transformations, mention can be made of the creation of three salons alongside the chamber and the building of the library. The decoration of the ceilings of the latter, as well as that of one of the salons, was entrusted to Eugène Delacroix. Work undertaken in the XXth century has for the most part affected only the internal layout, either to free up additional work space (conversion of the attics), or to meet modern-day requirements (installation of an electricity plant; creation of meeting rooms, of car parks, and of an audiovisual control room; and wiring work…). The National Assembly employs some 3,000 people who work at the Palais Bourbon and also in three other parliamentary office blocks close by. - The two assemblies have a different renewal rhythm. The Senate is a permanent assembly which cannot be dissolved: its members, now elected for six years, are renewed by half every three years. The deputy’s mandate, which is normally for five years, can be interrupted by the dissolution of the National Assembly; on five occasions, since 1958, the President of the Republic has used the power of dissolution granted to him by Article 12 of the Constitution, in 1962, 1968, 1981, 1988, and 1997. The lifespan of an assembly is called a ‘term’, in other words the period between the time it is constituted and the time it ceases to exist, either by expiry of the mandate of its members or by dissolution. - Owing to its election method, which makes it the direct expression of popular sovereignty, the National Assembly forms the linchpin of what is called the majority regime: through legislative elections, voters choose the political party of the team which, under the authority of the Prime Minister, will form the Government whose action will therefore be supported by the majority of deputies. - The National Assembly may raise an issue of the Government’s responsibility according to procedures in the Constitution to be examined later. An instrument becomes law only after having been successively considered by each assembly—this is the shuttle—and, normally, passed by them in the same terms. The Constitution however sets forth in several points the specific nature of the National Assembly: - Article 39, paragraph 2, lays down that social security finance bills shall be presented first to the National Assembly. - Article 45, paragraph 4, lays down that in cases where, despite the implementation of a conciliation procedure in the form of a joint committee composed of an equal number of members from each assembly, the two assemblies do not succeed in adopting a common text, the National Assembly may be asked to make a final decision. However, in two fields, this right to have the final say cannot apply: first, as regards institutional Acts relating to the Senate which must be passed in identical terms by the two assemblies (Article 46, paragraph 4, of the Constitution); second, as regards Acts amending the Constitution, Article 89, paragraph 2, lays down that ‘A government or a Member’s bill to amend the Constitution shall be passed by the two assemblies in identical terms.’ The parliamentary mandate has two main characteristics: - Deputies have a nationwide mandate. This was already affirmed in the first French Constitution (3 September 1791): ‘Representatives appointed in the departments shall not be representatives of a specific department but of the Nation as a whole, and cannot be given a specific mandate.’ This means that the disappearance of the constituency did not affect the mandate, as seen in 1871, and also in 1962 after the proclamation of the independence of Algeria. - They are independent. ‘Any binding instruction shall be void’ (Article 27, paragraph 1, of the Constitution). This ban of a legal nature does not prevent deputies from making commitments to their voters, nor respecting voting instructions imposed by their political group. But these commitments and instructions have only a political scope. A provision of the Rules of Procedure strengthens the independence of the mandate: ‘No group which binds its members shall be formed in the National Assembly (…) for the purpose of representing private, local or occupational interests (Article 23, paragraph 1). The Rules of Procedure and precedents form the two main sources of parliamentary law. The Rules of Procedure of an assembly are aimed at organising its internal operation, the procedures followed in its deliberations and discipline as regards its members. The Rules of Procedure and the amendments made thereto are adopted in the form of a motion for a resolution. These may be tabled by one or several deputies. Such motions for a resolution are frequently submitted to the Assembly by its President himself, who, most often, has obtained the agreement of the political group chairmen on the text he is tabling. Drafted by the Committee tasked with Rules of Procedure questions (the Legislation Committee), or by a special committee, the motion for a resolution is then the subject of deliberations at the Assembly, before being submitted to the Constitutional Council. The constituents of 1958 indeed strove to establish the primacy of the Constitution over the Rules of Procedure. They did so in two ways. The first consisted in constitutionalising, therefore protecting against over frequent amendments, part of the traditional matters for regulation. The following have therefore become part of the constitutional field: the number of standing legislative committees, shuttle procedures, fixing of the agenda… At the time of their adoption, and for each of their amendments, the Rules of Procedure are now previously referred to the Constitutional Council which rules on their conformity with the Constitution, according to Article 61, paragraph 1, of the Constitution. ‘Rules of Procedure and amendments thereto adopted by either assembly are transmitted to the Constitutional Council by the President of the Assembly’ (Article 17, last paragraph, of the institutional ordinance no. 58-1067 of 7 November 1958 on the Constitutional Council). If the Constitutional Council declares a provision of the Rules of Procedure is contrary to the Constitution, this provision cannot be implemented (Article 23, last paragraph of the above-mentioned institutional ordinance). It can also accompany its decisions with clarifications concerning the procedures according to which such or such a provision must be implemented. Therefore the case law of the Constitutional Council contributes significantly to the formation of parliamentary law.
These compensate for the over
general nature of written rules. Precedents result from the deliberations of
the Assembly or from the decisions taken by some of its bodies, and aim to
clarify the implementing procedures of rules, interpret them, complete them,
amend them or derogate from them. Parliamentary tradition has always made
written law and non-written norms (precedents, ‘Chamber’ tradition, case law
of the internal bodies, …) co-exist.
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