Unité et sûreté de l’Etat devant le juge judiciaire

Texte issu des actes du colloque international "De l\u27unité de l\u27Etat", organisé les 9 & 10 octobre 2008 par le Centre Bodin (Recherche juridique et politique) de l\u27Université d\u27Angers. Voir aussi : Lemaire, Félicien (dir.). De l\u27Unité de l\u27Etat. Paris : Cujas, 2010. 247 p. (Actes et études) ISBN 978-2-254-10507-

L'article 55 dans la jurisprudence du Conseil constitutionnel

By recognizing to the treaties and agreements ratified or approved a "superior authority on the laws", the 1958 Constitution has solemnly affirmed the primacy of international norms on the internal legal order. But in the absence of any precision as to the judicial organ in charge of insuring this principle, it was the constitutional judge to decide. The key decision "Interruption volontaire de grossesse" of the 15th January 1975, where this organ declined its competence is the cornerstone of a stable jurisprudence according to which ordinary tribunals are implicitly but incontestably charged with what has been named the "control of conventionality". However, if for the Constitutional Council, the article 55 does not create a condition of the conformity of laws to international treaties, it does lay a principle of hierarchy, which may be enforced within the framework of constitutionality control Thus, the analysis of article 55 of the Constitution reveals that the prescriptions there contained are aggregated in a double normative content, which leads, under the impetus of the constitutional jurisprudence, to double jurisdictional competence : the Constitutional Council, judge of constitutionality, is in charge of the direct constitutionality prescriptions contained in the article 55 while the ordinary judge, judge of conventionality, insures the enforcement of the indirect conventionality prescriptions implied by this article. The study, which aims to give a complete balance sheet of article 55 of the Constitution in the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Council, will in a first time focus the theoretical issue of jurisdiction, and in a second time, the judicial enforcement of this provision at the Constitutional Council