Paper's abstract

Marie-Anne Cohendet, Arbitration by the French Président de la République
Arbitration by the President of the nation is usually either missing from the constitutions or interpretated as it ought to be as a neutral, moderating power. It is the case in France like in modern contemporary democracies (I). Under the French Ve République, the Constitution states that the President is an arbitrator and gives him arbitration’s powers. But our presidents have had such an extensive « interpretation » of this arbitration that they « changed » it into a directing power. They have manipulated this notion into making it a façade of arbitrary. This split between norm and fact is all the more an issue that it utterly destroys the balance of our institutions and generates misuse of power that could become serious, since national policy is led by a man more powerful than the President f the United States but virtually uncontainable. Thus the notion of presidential arbitration has been created by the doctrine in order to restrain presidential powers, but in France more than anywhere, presidents to extend their power, to such a degree that it negates what is the very essence of arbitration, have usually used it. It is doubtful that it were a very useful of efficient notion for guaranteeing democracy.

Key Words : presidential arbitration, constitutions, democracies, arbitrary
t. 52, 2009 : p. 15-56

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