Page - 253 - in Austrian Law Journal, Volume 2/2015

ALJ 2/2015 Constance Grewe 253 B. The slow emergence of diversity in the French Constitution Initially, that is from the revolution on, the French Constitution relied on the direct and vertical relation between the ‘Republic’ and the citizens. Orders, privileges and corporations had been suppressed; the decentralized entities and the citizens were ordered to be equal and were gov- erned by a uniform legal regime. Still nowadays the Republic is qualified as ‘indivisible’ that is considered to be opposite to any normative power at the local level. The Constitutional Council has been inspired several times by the republican indivisibility. The most famous example is the Corsican people’s case13 where the Council derived from the indivisi- bility of the Republic the indivisibility of the French people. As no other people can exist within the French one, it becomes also impossible to recognize national or cultural minorities. Therefore there is no question to ratify the European framework agreement on minorities. Likewise the French language as official language hinders the use of regional or minority lan- guages in the citizens’ relations with administrative or judicial offices. This has been stated in the Polynesia case,14 and has prevented the French ratification of the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages. In this latter application15 the Constitutional Council having declared the unconstitutionality of the Charter, the government refused to modify the Constitution even though, in 2008, a new Art 75 (1) had been added declaring the regional languages part of the French cultural heritage. This provision might have served to overcome the objections of the Constitutional Court but as the political power still was opposed to the ratification, this did not happen. In his campaign for the presidential elections in 2012, François Hollande promised eventually the ratification. Rather than relying on Art 75 (1) of the Constitution,16 he aimed at the adoption of a constitutional amendment.17 The corresponding draft was voted in the National Assembly in January 2014 and since this moment it is waiting for its reading in the Senate. In any case, the present political majority would be unable to gather the 2/3s majority required for constitutional amendments. This way, it is unfortunately likely that the Charter will fall again into its long sleep of ‘Sleeping Beauty.’ Although the Constitutional judge is strongly supervising the respect of these traditional princi- ples, there have been increasing statutes derogating more or less from this doctrine, especially concerning the decentralized entities. Thus the three biggest cities, Paris, Lyon and Marseille, are no more governed by the same regime as the other municipalities but have a special status. The Constitution has partly acknowledged this evolution by evoking the overseas populations within the French people (Art 72 (3)), the possibility for territories to experiment specific laws (Art 72 (4) and Art 74 (1)) or by defining a special electoral body for the vote on the independence of New Caledonia (Art 77). 13 CC 9. 5. 1991, 91-290 DC, Peuple corse. The decisions of the Conseil constitutionnel in French and in English are available at http://www.conseil-constitutionnel.fr (10. 6. 2015). 14 CC 9. 4. 1996, 96-973 DC, Autonomie de la Polynésie française. 15 CC 15. 6. 1999, 99-412 DC, Charte des langues régionales et minoritaires. 16 Against this legal basis: CC 20. 5. 2011, 2011-130 QPC: Art 75 (1) does not institute a right or a liberty the violation thereof could be declared in a preliminary referral of constitutionality before the CC. 17 Report before the National Assembly by Urvoas, No 1703, 14. 1. 2014.