Has France under the Fifth Republic become an Etat de Droit?

Résumé du document

In recent years, there has been an increasing world-wide interest in the study of "Etat de droit", which translates in English as "Rule of Law". The idea was formulated by the Austrian jurist Hans Kelsen in the thirties.
In this essay, I shall use the French phrase: "Etat de Droit", because it appears in my main question. Indeed the aim of this paper is to consider the following question: "Has France under the Fifth Republic become an Etat de Droit?"
My discussion is divided into four parts:
-The first part examines the definition and the characteristics of "Etat de droit" which is conceived by Hans Kelsen.
-The second analyses the failures of the Fourth Republic and these failures were overcome by the Fifth Republic in 1958.
-The third part deals with the limits and criticisms of the Fifth Republic.
-In the last part, I consider whether the Fifth Republic meets the definition and the characteristics of "Etat de droit". This allows me to answer the question: "Has France under the Fifth Republic become an Etat de Droit?"

Extraits

[...] - Hans Kelsen's criteria of legal positivism did not exist under the Fourth Republic. Indeed, it existed only after 1958 with the birth of the Constitutional Council, a body which is ensured the proper conduct of presidential elections (Vincent, Wright 1999, Pierre, Avril 1994, 28-30). It is also supervised the election of deputies and senators in disputed cases, ensured the proper conduct of referenda. Institutional Acts, before their promulgation, and the rules of procedure of the parliamentary assemblies, before their entry into force, had to be referred to the Constitutional Council, which ruled on their conformity with the Constitution. [...]

[...] Some decisions taken under the Fourth Republic were constructive. These include women's suffrage, the adoption of the Rome Treaty, the end of colonial rule in Indochina, agreements concerning NATO and the rebuilding of the country after the Second World War Failures of the Fourth Republic - Under the Fourth Republic, the power of the President was weak in comparison with the Fifth Republic. The voting was proportional, and consequently many political parties held office simultaneously and this promoted crises because no decision was reached and negotiations were often blocked (Dorothy, Pickles 1960, 22-24). [...]

[...] In this framework, each rule or law draws its legitimacy from superior norms (Hans, Kelsen 1973, 123-4). According to Hans Kelsen (1973, 124) the unity and the legitimacy of these norms are guaranteed by the fact that each norm is determined by a higher one, and this regressus is concluded by the highest, and most essential norm which, being the supreme reason for the validity of the whole legal order, constitutes its unity. The hierarchical structure of the legal order of a state is roughly as follows (Hans, Kelsen, 24-34): 1. [...]

[...] Routledge pp.217-239. - Pickles, Dorothy The Fifth French Republic. London : Methuen. - Rials, Stephan Textes Constitutionnels français. Paris: Presse universitaire de France. - Siegfried, André De la IVe à la Ve République : au jour le jour. Paris : B. Grasset. Journal article - Lovecy, Jill “Comparative politics and the Fifth French Republic: la fin de l'exception française” in European Journal of Political Research 21: 394-408. [...]

[...] Thus, the change of the constitution is made more difficult than the change of ordinary laws especially with regard to written constitutions, more than constitutions based on customary law as in the United Kingdom (Hans, Kelsen 1973, 125) Below the Constitution, there are general norms which regulate the government statutes and customary laws which are formulated mainly by the courts but also by the administrative authorities Next come substantive and laws; 4. Decisions of the law-applying organs according to general norms; 5. Ordinances (regulations); 6. The sources of law; 7. The creation and application of law; 8. And finally, there are individual norms created on the basis of general norms. This legal hierarchy is biding both for the individual citizen and for the state as well. [...]