Volume 11 of the European part of
Constitutions of the World
deals with French constitutional history from its beginnings in the late 18th century up to the middle of the 19th century. Its covers a range stretching from the revolutionary 'Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen' (Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen, 1789) in its different variations, the 'Constitution of the French Republic' (Constitution de l'an I, III; 1791, 1793), up to the restorative Charte Constitutionelle of 1814 and the liberal constitutions of 1830 and 1848.
This volume represents a valuable addition to the book edition of
Constitutions of the World from the late 18th Century to the Middle of the 19th Century
, owing to the exemplary role of French constitutional history for many European countries (including Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Poland) as well as a number of Latin American and African countries in the second half of the 19th century.
Thus the constitution of 1793, for example, paved the way for the separation of powers. Despite the fact that it was never applied, it constituted a first proposal for direct democracy, building on the foundations of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of August 26th 1789, with its property rights, right to resist and (male) franchise.
The restorative Charte Constitutionelle of 1814 also served as an example for the moderate liberal movement in the first half of the 19th century, by guaranteeing central basic rights such as equality before the law, and individual freedom of speech, the press and religion.
The editors of this volume,
Stéphane Caporal
(Universityé Jean Monnet, St. Étienne),
Jörg Luther
(Universityà degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale, Alessandria) and
Olivier Vernier
(Universityé de Nice Sophia-Antipolis, Nice) have reconstructed the authentic constitutional texts using the original documents, which are scattered amongst numerous archives and libraries. The volume contains a short introduction, a main section with the edited constitutional documents of France (18 documents), Corsica (1) and Monaco (4), a commentary, and an index in English and French. Thus all the previously scattered, and in many cases unknown, constitutions from the early phase of modern French constitutionalism are available here for the first time as reliable and authentic texts.