The Conseil Constitutionnel confronted with comparative law and the theory of constitutional justice (or Louis Favoreu's untenable paradoxes)

Abstract

Louis Favoreu's scholarship has been enormously influential in the modern understandings of the nature of France's Conseil Constitutionnel. His prescriptive concept of the Conseil as a judicialized decision-making body independent of the political process represents the orthodoxy of contemporary French legal and political thought. However, many scholars in France consider his arguments and modes of analysis highly controversial, raising as many questions about the Conseil's institutional makeup and philosophical purpose as they answer. This essay examines shortcomings and contradictions in Favoreu's approach and urges revisions to his model of constitutional justice in light of the French experience. © 2007 Oxford University Press.