French Constitutional Law of 1940
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| French Constitutional Law of 1940 | |
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| Original title | (in French) Loi constitutionnelle du 10 juillet 1940 |
| Ratified | 10 July 1940 |
French Constitutional Law of 1940, are the bills that were voted into law on 10 July 1940 by the National Assembly, which comprised both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies during the French Third Republic. The law established the regime of Vichy France. 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 law gave all the government powers to Philippe Pétain, and further authorized him to take all necessary measures to write a new constitution.[1] Pétain interpreted this as de facto suspending the French Constitutional Laws of 1875 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.[2]
The ordonnance of 9 August 1944 was an ordonnance promulgated by the Provisional Government of the French Republic after D-Day asserting the nullity of the Constitutional Law of 1940 and other classes of law passed later by Vichy. The Constitution of 1940 was not repealed or annulled but rather declared void ab initio.
References
- ^ Text of the French Constitutional Law of 1940
- ^ "Constitutional act no. 2, defining the authority of the chief of the French state". Journal Officiel de la République française. July 11, 1940.
Bibliography
- Derfler, Leslie (1966). The Third French Republic, 1870-1940. France: Van Nostrand. ISBN 0-89874-480-6.
- Paxton, Robert (1975). Vichy France. United States: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-39300-794-4.