French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
public law
Public law is the part of law that governs relations between legal persons and a government, between different institutions within a state, between different branches of governments, as well as relationships between persons that are of direct ...
at the University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne. Cohendet studies the constitutional and institutional structure of French politics, and she has also written on potential democratic reforms to the French political system.
Education and professional positions
Cohendet graduated in 1991 from the Jean Moulin University Lyon 3 with a doctorate in political science. She wrote her doctoral dissertation on the period between 1986 and 1988 when the President of France faced an antagonistic majority in the French Parliament, with a particular focus on the unprecedented strain that this situation put on French political and legal institutions. Cohendet's thesis was called ''L'épreuve de la cohabitation : mars 1986–mai 1988'', and was supervised by Pierre Vialle. It was successful in the public law
agrégation
In France, the ''agrégation'' () is a competitive examination for civil service in the French public education system. Candidates for the examination, or ''agrégatifs'', become ''agrégés'' once they are admitted to the position of ''professe ...
of 1992.
In September 1992, Cohendet was appointed to the faculty of Jean Moulin University Lyon 3. She was subsequently a professor at
Lumière University Lyon 2
Lumière University Lyon 2 (french: Université Lumière Lyon 2) is one of the three universities that comprise the current University of Lyon, having splintered from an older university of the same name, and is primarily based on two campuses in ...
Cohendet developed her thesis into a book on the same topic, published in 2003 and entitled ''La cohabitation, leçons d'une expérience''. She has also written books on constitutional law, the nature of the French presidency, and the research methods used in the study of public law.
In 2015, Cohendet was a member of the Claude Bartolone commission on the future of institutions in the
French National Assembly
The National Assembly (french: link=no, italics=set, Assemblée nationale; ) is the lower house of the bicameral French Parliament under the Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are known a ...
, which was tasked with evaluating the political institutions of the French Fifth Republic and suggesting possible political or constitutional modifications to them.
Cohendet was a co-author, with
Dominique Bourg
Dominique Bourg (born 11 August 1953 in Tavaux; ) is a French philosopher. Since 2006, he is professor at the Faculty of Geosciences and Environment of the University of Lausanne (Switzerland).Fr), Loïc Blondiaux ( Fr) and Jean-Michel Fourniau, of a 2017 report for the Nicolas Hulot Foundation for Nature and Man called ''Osons le Big Bang démocratique'', which outlines how a constituent assembly could be created in France. She also co-authored, with Jérôme Lang ( Fr), Jean-François Laslier ( Fr), Frédéric Sawicki ( Fr), and Thierry Pech ( Fr) a 2017 report for the think tank Terra Nova that recommended that France adopt a
mixed electoral system
A mixed electoral system or mixed-member electoral system combines methods of majoritarian representation, majoritarian and proportional representation (PR). The majoritarian component is usually first-past-the-post voting (FPTP/SMP), whereas the ...
in which at least a quarter of deputies to the federal assembly are elected through proportional representation. A 2018 report co-authored by Cohendet for Terra Nova proposed a citizens' initiative referendum in which one hundred randomly chosen citizens would receive, summarize, and distribute information about public referendums.
Cohendet's work has been cited, or she has been interviewed, in media outlets including France 24, France Culture, and '' Le Monde''.
Selected works
*''La cohabitation, leçons d'une expérience'', P.U.F., Recherches politiques collection (2003)
*''Méthodes de travail en droit public'', Montchrestien (1994, reprinted in 1995 and 1998)
*''Le Président de la République'', Dalloz, Connaissance du droit collection (2002)
*''Droit constitutionnel'', L.G.D.J., collected works (2013)