The French Constitutional Law of 1940 is a set of bills that were voted into law on 10 July 1940 by the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

, which comprised both the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

and the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...

during the

French Third Republic The French Third Republic (french: Troisième République, sometimes written as ) was the system of government adopted in France from 4 September 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed during the Franco-Prussian War, until 10 July 1940 ...

. The law established the regime of

Vichy France Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its ter ...

. It passed with 569 votes to 80, with 20 abstentions. The group of 80 parliamentarians who voted against it are known as

the Vichy 80 The Eighty (''Les Quatre-Vingts'') were a group of elected French parliamentarians who, on 10 July 1940, voted against the constitutional change that effectively dissolved the Third Republic and established the authoritarian regime of Philippe P� ...

. The law gave all the government powers to

Philippe Pétain Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Pétain (24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), commonly known as Philippe Pétain (, ) or Marshal Pétain (french: Maréchal Pétain), was a French general who attained the position of Marshal of France at the end of World ...

, and further authorized him to take all necessary measures to write a new constitution. Text of the French Constitutional Law of 1940 Pétain interpreted this as de facto suspending the

French Constitutional Laws of 1875 The Constitutional Laws of 1875 were the laws passed in France by the National Assembly between February and July 1875 which established the Third French Republic. The constitution laws could be roughly divided into three laws: * The Act of 24 ...

which established the Third Republic, even though the law did not explicitly suspend it, but only granted him the power to write a new constitution. The next day, by Act No 2, Pétain defined his powers and abrogated all the laws of the Third Republic that were incompatible with them. Although given full constituent powers by the law, Pétain never promulgated a new constitution. A draft was written in 1941 and signed by Pétain in 1944, but it was never submitted or ratified. The

Ordinance of 9 August 1944 The Ordinance of 9 August 1944 was a constitutional law enacted by the Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF) during the Liberation of France which re-established republican rule of law in mainland France after four years of oc ...

was an ordinance promulgated by the

Provisional Government of the French Republic The Provisional Government of the French Republic (PGFR; french: Gouvernement provisoire de la République française (''GPRF'')) was the provisional government of Free France between 3 June 1944 and 27 October 1946, following the liberation ...

after

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...

asserting the nullity of the Constitutional Law of 1940 and other classes of law passed later by Vichy. The Constitution of 1940 was not

repeal A repeal (O.F. ''rapel'', modern ''rappel'', from ''rapeler'', ''rappeler'', revoke, ''re'' and ''appeler'', appeal) is the removal or reversal of a law. There are two basic types of repeal; a repeal with a re-enactment is used to replace the law ...

ed or annulled but rather declared void ''ab initio''.

Application

On the basis of this act, Marshal Pétain progressively instituted a new regime through a dozen constitutional acts issued between 1940 and 1942. However, a new Constitution was never declared. In

positive law Positive laws ( la, links=no, ius positum) are human-made laws that oblige or specify an action. Positive law also describes the establishment of specific rights for an individual or group. Etymologically, the name derives from the verb ''to posit ...

, although these acts put a ''

de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...

'' end to the Third Republic, the act of July 10, 1940, as well as all the constitutional acts taken in its application, were declared null and void in 1944, as the regime had never lawfully existed.

Timeline of French constitutions

References

Bibliography

* * {{Authority control 1940 in France 1940 documents Constitutions of France French Third Republic Vichy France Legal history of France July 1940 events