Is France playing the game of the European conventional human rights system ? After reminding us that France agreed quite late the European guarantee of human rights protection, this paper endeavours to give a reply to this question by opting for a double analysis axis. The first axis deals with the government’s exterior legal policy, choosing for every case whether to approve absolutely the protocols to the European Human Rights Convention. The second axis deals with the judicial policy of (...)  lire suite

Since the past two years, the European Union has initiated a ‘constitutionalisation’ process. It began during the Laeken European Council, and was continued by the reunion of a Convention and an inter-governmental conference, that ended in failure in Brussels in December 2003. During this whole period, France, which favoured this process, played a particular role. Though it was as present as any Member State, France has sometimes been influent, as it stood political and legal positions, (...)  lire suite

At first reluctant towards an enlargement whom it believed would compromise the strengthening of the Union, France gradually rallied to an approach assuming the compatibility of those two goals. France had three priorities which happened to be satisfied to various degrees : an institutional reform prior to enlargement, a limited adjustment of the CAP, a limitation of budget expenditure after accession. These difficult negotiations among the Fifteen revealed the failure for the Franco-German (...)  lire suite

Judicial cooperation in criminal matters within the European Union has considerably increased since the Maastricht Treaty. Updating the legal instruments introduced with the Amsterdam Treaty consisted in adding to the « convention », which requires mandatory ratification, the « decision » and, above all, the « framework decision », which is close to the « EU directive ». At the end of 2001, following the events of September 11th, negotiations and cooperation on legal matters were (...)  lire suite

Is France playing the game of the European conventional human rights system ? After reminding us that France agreed quite late the European guarantee of human rights protection, this paper endeavours to give a reply to this question by opting for a double analysis axis. The first axis deals with the government’s exterior legal policy, choosing for every case whether to approve absolutely the protocols to the European Human Rights Convention. The second axis deals with the judicial policy of (...)  lire suite

In June 2004 the political context seemed adequate to make the European elections an important political event in France and in Europe. They took place just after the widening of the European Union with the addition of ten new states, while fierce public debates were going on about the Turkish application and the Constitution project drafted by the European Convention. In France, the creation of regional constituencies was decided in 2003 to improve citizens’ interest for this ballot. (...)  lire suite

The paper looks into the participation of France in the European Convention 2002- 2003 and the Intergovernmental conference of 2003-2004. It examines how French proposals have been taken up into the treaty signed in Rome on 29 October 2004. It also examines briefly the debate which started in France in the perspective of ratifying the Constitution for Europe, as well as the decision made by the Constitutional Council on November 19th, 2004
Summary AFRI-2005   lire suite

The campaign for the presidential election in France during the spring of 2002 was characterised by the candidates’ silence on the theme of Europe. How can we account for this silence when 2002 was equally the year when the euro became Europe’s legal currency ? It was also the year when the European Convention sessions began. Admittedly, this silence has been now more or less discarded because of a second ballot with one unexpected candidate. Then, far from betraying the absence of Europe (...)  lire suite

In December 2001 in Laeken, State and government leaders from the States members of the European Union have summoned a « Convention on Europe’s future », and have designated Frenchman Valéry Giscard d’Estaing at its head. The aim of the essay is to analyse the powers of this new President, and to draw conclusions concerning the functioning of the Constitution. Valéry Giscard d’Estaing’s wilful attitude, combined with the possibilities of manoeuvre offered by the function’s novelty, has (...)  lire suite

Community construction is both included in the international system and singled out because of its attempt to devise an autonomous juridical system. There is also the fact that it belongs to a logic of « process » that confers its constructions an irreversible quality, which makes them be considered « established ». Because of its unilateral dynamics and its very technical aspect, this method has maintained diffidence in the public opinion towards integration and community institutions. Thus (...)  lire suite