The New Powers of the French Judge in the Matter of the Constitutional Review of Laws

Since March 1, 2010, administrative and judiciary judges are essential actors of the new process of a posteriori constitutional review. The ordinary judge is in the heart of a device based on a filtering system towards the Constitutional Council, which preserves the monopoly on the constitutional review of laws. He has to judge of the transmission of the question of the constitutionality of the law to the Constitutional Council. Thus, he has a decisive power and even if the criteria which must guide its decision are fixed by the organic law he has a real margin of appreciation, which raises the question of the use of these new powers. Moreover, the question of constitutionality having priority on that of conformity of the law with international treaties, the ordinary judge is temporarily deprived of the power to exercise the conventionality review, which raises the problem of the relationship between the two controls.