The Girondin constitutional project, presented to the
French National Convention
The National Convention (french: link=no, Convention nationale) was the parliament of the Kingdom of France for one day and the French First Republic for the rest of its existence during the French Revolution, following the two-year National ...
on 15 and 16 February 1793 by
Nicolas de Caritat, formerly the
Marquis de Condorcet
Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis of Condorcet (; 17 September 1743 – 29 March 1794), known as Nicolas de Condorcet, was a French philosopher and mathematician. His ideas, including support for a liberal economy, free and equal pu ...
, is composed of three parts:
* An ''Exposition of the Principles and Motives of the Constitutional Scheme'', approx. 80 pages
* A ''Draft Declaration of the Natural, Civil, and Political Rights of Man'', in 33 articles
* A ''Draft French Constitution'', in 13 titles
The work was signed by the eight members of the Convention's Constitution Committee: Condorcet,
Gensonné,
Barrère,
Barbaroux,
Paine
Paine may refer to:
Geography
* Paine, Chile
*Paine College, a defunct Historically Black college in Augusta, Georgia
*Paine Field, an airport in Everett, Washington, United States
*Paine Lake, a lake in Minnesota
* Paine River, a waterstream loca ...
,
Pétion,
Vergniaud
Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud (; 31 May 1753 – 31 October 1793) was a French lawyer and statesman, a figure of the French Revolution. A deputy to the Assembly from Bordeaux, Vergniaud was an eloquent orator. He was a supporter of Jacques Pierr ...
and
Sieyès.
Principles and motives
In the exposition of the principles and motives behind the constitutional scheme that he reads before the National Convention, Condorcet begins, as a true mathematician, by a description of the "problem to solve":
''To give to a territory of twenty-seven thousand square leagues, inhabited by twenty-five million individuals, a constitution which, being founded solely on the principles of reason and justice, insures to citizens the fullest enjoyment of their rights; to combine the parts of this constitution, so that the necessity of obedience to the laws, the submission of individual wills to the general will, allow the subsistence in all their extent, of the sovereignty of the people, equality among citizens, and the exercise of natural liberty, such is the problem that we had to solve.''
Are subsequently exposed, in this order:
* the philosophical justifications for the abolition of
monarchy
A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state for life or until abdication. The political legitimacy and authority of the monarch may vary from restricted and largely symbolic (constitutional monarchy) ...
;
* the motives to prefer the unity and indivisibility of the republic to the establishment of a
confederal
A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a union of sovereign groups or states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...
or
federal
Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to:
Politics
General
*Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies
*Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...
order;
* an argumentation in favour of a constitution authorizing the representatives to make only laws that are submitted 1) to the limits of a constitutional law they cannot change; 2) to the direct censorship of the people, who remains the sole depository of
sovereignty
Sovereignty is the defining authority within individual consciousness, social construct, or territory. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within the state, as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the perso ...
;
* primary assemblies: their functions (elections, petitions, censorship of laws, approving/rejecting the summoning of a national convention, or a constitution draft, or a proposition emanating from the
legislative body
A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers of government.
Laws enacted by legislatures are usually known as p ...
), their relation with the assembly of national representation;
* the reasons to prefer, for the delegation of the people's powers, a unique principle of action to multiple and independent principles of action kept in balance by their concurrence;
* the reasons to prefer a
unicameral
Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one.
Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multic ...
constitution, the means to protect oneself against the dangers of laws adopted hastily;
* The reasons to prefer a small
executive
Executive ( exe., exec., execu.) may refer to:
Role or title
* Executive, a senior management role in an organization
** Chief executive officer (CEO), one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (executives) or administrators
** Executive dire ...
council to a single individual; the composition, the renewal and the functioning of the council; its subordination to the legislative power which nevertheless cannot dismiss its members;
* the independence of the public
treasury
A treasury is either
*A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry.
*A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or in p ...
vis-à-vis the executive council; the account juries;
* the administrative division of the territory into large
commune
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to:
Administrative-territorial entities
* Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township
** Communes of ...
s;
* the administration of the
department
Department may refer to:
* Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility
Government and military
*Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
s; the subordination of the administrator to the executive council; their surveillance by the legislative body;
* the administration of justice; the trial by
juries
A jury is a sworn body of people (jurors) convened to hear evidence and render an impartial verdict (a finding of fact on a question) officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment.
Juries developed in England durin ...
in civil affairs, only after the failure of
arbitration
Arbitration is a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) that resolves disputes outside the judiciary courts. The dispute will be decided by one or more persons (the 'arbitrators', 'arbiters' or 'arbitral tribunal'), which renders the ' ...
;
* the institution of a national jury for judging functionaries in cases of offence against the liberty of the people or the safety of the State.
* the revision of rulings, their possible
cassation attributed to censors;
* the abolition of
death penalty
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
for all offences involving private individuals;
* the same political rights to all men aged 21 and above, born in France or settled in France at least since one year; philosophical justifications; eligibility to all public places to citizens aged 25 and above;
* the
electoral method inspired by the academic works on the "probability of majority decisions" done by Condorcet himself;
[''Essay on the Application of Analysis to the Probability of Majority Decisions'']
online
; see in Wikipedia: Condorcet method
A Condorcet method (; ) is an election method that elects the candidate who wins a majority of the vote in every head-to-head election against each of the other candidates, that is, a candidate preferred by more voters than any others, whenever ...
and Condorcet's paradox
The Condorcet paradox (also known as the voting paradox or the paradox of voting) in social choice theory is a situation noted by the Marquis de Condorcet in the late 18th century, in which collective preferences can be cyclic, even if the prefer ...
two-turn preferential elections, at fixed dates, the first turn to form the list of candidates to be presented and who are definitively elected during the second turn;
* exterior relations and war;
* the revision of the constitution by way of a national convention independent from the legislative body;
* philosophical conclusion on the objectives of the constitution; summary of the principles and motives of its authors;
Declaration of rights
The first article declares the
natural
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are p ...
,
civil
Civil may refer to:
*Civic virtue, or civility
*Civil action, or lawsuit
* Civil affairs
*Civil and political rights
*Civil disobedience
*Civil engineering
*Civil (journalism), a platform for independent journalism
*Civilian, someone not a membe ...
, and
political rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...
of men which are
liberty
Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom.
In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...
,
equality
Equality may refer to:
Society
* Political equality, in which all members of a society are of equal standing
** Consociationalism, in which an ethnically, religiously, or linguistically divided state functions by cooperation of each group's elite ...
,
safety
Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to risk management, the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk.
Meanings
There are ...
,
property
Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...
,
social security
Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specificall ...
, and
resistance to oppression.
Articles 2 to 9 treat of liberty and equality and define these two terms.
Articles 10 to 22 treat of safety and property.
Article 23 declares a right to elementary instruction.
Article 24 treat of public relief.
Articles 25 to 30 treat of social security.
Articles 31 and 32 treat of resistance to oppression.
Article 33, the last one, declares the right of the people to review, reform and modify the constitution.
Constitution
Territory
The territory of the French Republic keeps the preexisting 85 departments. The departments themselves are divided into large communes, which are in turn divided into municipal sections and primary assemblies.
Citizenship
The quality of citizen is granted to men 21 years old and older, following an uninterrupted residence of one year on French soil, counting from the day of their inscription on the civic table of a primary assembly. All public offices are open to citizens aged 25 years old and older.
In addition to the right to vote, citizens enjoy the right to petition, and the right to censure acts emanating from their representatives.
Administration
Each department is managed by an administrative council of 18 members, of which two form the directoire. The communes are led by a municipality administration made up of 12 members and a mayor, who chairs the administration. Communes including more than one section contain agencies subordinated to the municipality. Half of the members of the departments' administrative bodies are renewed every two years, three months after the date of the legislative elections. The mode of the municipal elections is not a constitutional law.
Electoral system
The citizens exert their right to vote in primary assemblies including between 450 and 900 members. Each primary assembly elects a bureau responsible for the citizenship registry, for summoning primary assemblies when the constitution prescribes it, and for examining ballot papers.
The elections comprise two polls: a first one used to prepare the list of candidates being presented, and a second one used for the election of the candidates on the list drawn up by the first election.
At the time of the first poll, voters receive from the bureau a ballot paper showing their name. On it they write (or have someone write for them in case of illiteracy) as many names as there are offices to elect, and drop their bulletin at the office. The list of presentation is formed from the names that received the most votes, and their number is triple that of the offices needing to be renewed. An equal number of substitutes is added from among those who obtained the most votes after the candidates. The candidates and substitutes have 15 days to desist, after which the list, sorted by the number of votes and without the remaining substitutes, becomes final.
At the time of the second poll, the voters receive a bulletin with two columns, one named "First Column of Election", the other "Additional Column", each one being divided into as many boxes as there are candidates to elect.
If a candidate receives a majority of the votes on the first column, he is immediately elected. If not, the votes of the two columns are added and those who obtain the majority in this way are elected. The others are elected by a plurality of the votes if not all offices have already been filled.
Executive
The executive would be made up of a council of eight members: seven ministers and a secretary. Legislation, war, foreign affairs, the navy, and public contributions would each have their own minister. A sixth minister would be responsible for agriculture, trade and manufactures and a seventh for aids, works, public buildings, and the arts. The presidency of the council would pass from one minister to another every fifteen days.
The council would be renewed by half every year and its members were to be elected for two years. Each member of the council was to be elected by a separate poll.
The legislative body would have been able to put the members of the council on trial.
Three commissaries to the national treasury were to be elected for three years using the same electoral mode as that used to elect the members of the executive council.
Legislative
The legislative body was to be unicameral and renewed during elections held on the first Sunday of May of each year. There was to be one representative per fifty thousand souls and substitutes in equal numbers. The representatives who did not sit at the end of one month would be replaced by a substitute. The representatives would have exercised the functions of president and secretaries of the legislative assembly for one month maximum.
The constitutional law would have provided for a distinction, using several examples, between the legislative acts that would be
law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
s and those that would be
decree
A decree is a legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state (such as the president of a republic or a monarch), according to certain procedures (usually established in a constitution). It has the force of law. The particular term used for ...
s, and also describe in detail the law making process.
A bureau of 13 representatives was to be formed each month to report on all bills and decrees. The members of the bureau would only have been allowed to be elected once during the same legislature.
Judicial
Civil and criminal justice are merged into a uniform code of law for the whole republic.
There is at least one Justice of the Peace per commune, elected for one year and rendering justice without fees by conciliation of the parties. In each department there is a civil jury composed of a director, a public rapporteur, a national commissary, and juries. The civil-jury table for a department is made up twice a year by the election of one jury for every 100 citizens registered on the citizenship tables of the primary assemblies.
In criminal affairs, capital punishment is abolished for private offences. All citizens have the right to be judged by a court made up of juries. The defendants go before a first jury responsible for declaring whether there are grounds for a lawsuit and if so, a second jury made of at least 12 jurors determines the verdict of the case.
Judicial censors are elected every two years and are charged with breaking the rulings rendered by infringement of the law.
A national jury renders verdicts on crimes of
high treason
Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...
determined by the
penal code
A criminal code (or penal code) is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that might ...
.
Military
Citizens in a position to bear arms constitute the military force of the Republic. The executive council appoints generals via commission, for the time of a campaign, and in the event of war only. Citizens of the communes appoint the commanders of the national guard.
Convention
The constitution may be modified by the national convention, convened by the legislative body every twenty years. The convention can also be proposed by any citizen or the legislative body if the majority of the citizens judges it to be necessary and approves of it by a vote in primary assemblies. The members of the legislature cannot be elected to the convention, which cannot sit more than one year. The constitution project must be accepted by the people.
Contributions
The people, by themselves or through their representatives, consent to public contributions, which are deliberated upon annually by the legislative body and cannot continue beyond one year without an explicit renewal. The share of the product of industry or work which each citizen needs to subsist is not taxable. Departments and communes can establish particular public contributions only with the authorization of the legislative body. The accounts of the expenditure are made public.
Foreign relations
The French Republic may make war by arms only "for the preservation of its liberty, the conservation of its territory and the defence of its allies". War can be decreed only by the legislative body, with the means of a signed poll, whose moment is fixed three days in advance and after "having heard the Executive Council on the state of the Republic".
Timeline of French constitutions
Notes
References
* Nicolas de Caritat.
Plan de Constitution présenté à la Convention nationale les 15 et 16 février 1793, l'an II de la République (Constitution girondine), in ''Digithèque de matériaux juridiques et politiques'' by
Jean-Pierre Maury, online since 1998 (Université de Perpignan)
* Nicolas de Caritat. "Exposition des principes et des motifs du plan de constitution" in
Arthur O'Connor and
François Arago
Dominique François Jean Arago ( ca, Domènec Francesc Joan Aragó), known simply as François Arago (; Catalan: ''Francesc Aragó'', ; 26 February 17862 October 1853), was a French mathematician, physicist, astronomer, freemason, supporter of t ...
. ''Oeuvres de Condorcet'', Paris: Firmin Didot frères, 1847 (tome 12, pp. 335–415)
online
*
Elisabeth Badinter
Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to:
People
* Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name)
* Elizabeth (biblical figure), mother of John the Baptist
Ships
* HMS ''Elizabeth'', several ships
* ''Elisabeth'' (sch ...
and
Robert Badinter
Robert Badinter (; born 30 March 1928) is a French lawyer, politician and author who enacted the abolition of the death penalty in France in 1981, while serving as Minister of Justice under François Mitterrand. He has also served in high-leve ...
(1988). ''Condorcet. (1743–1794). Un intellectuel en politique'', Paris: Fayard, 658 p. ()
{{Constitutions of France
1793 events of the French Revolution
Constitutions of France
Legal history of France