Priorytetowe pytania prawne francuskich sądów o zgodność z konstytucją

One of the fundamental changes in the French Constitution of 1958, adopted in 2008, was to extend the powers of the Constitutional Council to include the examination of the conformity of laws with the Constitution — under the procedure of ex post review — on the initiative of citizens (question prejudicielle de constitutionnalité, QPC). Although the possibility of submitting to a constitutional court an allegation of unconstitutionality of a statutory provision during the pending litigation faces signifi cant constraints, in the light of the current model of the constitutionality review of statutes in France this change is a breakthrough, and the road to it was not so easy. The review of constitutionality of statutory provisions pursuant to Article 61-1 of the Constitution of 1958 has been widely used. There is an increase of importance of administrative and common courts as well as the supreme court authorities (Conseil d’Etat and Court of Cassation), which are responsible for an initial assessment of the application on the constitutionality of the legal provision and, then, the issuance of the decision — from which there are no appeal — to proceed further with QPC.