In France, the Constitution is the most important norm, the supreme norm to which all others must conform. But the Constitution is also the text with which the people of a State equip themselves with a founding pact containing everything they hold dear and which aims to guarantee ” The pursuit of happiness “ (the preamble to the Declaration of 1789). The interest of constitutionalisation therefore appears to be twofold.
First, incorporating a fundamental right into the Constitution gives it greater legal value and makes it more difficult to amend it than when it is guaranteed by law. Parliament, in fact, approves laws every day and the juridical rule of parallelism of forms is implacable: what a simple law has done, a simple law can undo.
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It should be remembered that in France the law is discussed and voted on by the two chambers of Parliament: the National Assembly and the Senate, but the National Assembly has the upper hand over the Senate as it can have the power last word during the discussion. The National Assembly is also the most politicized chamber and the one most subject to the power of the government since only it can overthrow it and only it can be dissolved.
These digressions are important to grasp a key point: the National Assembly has the rule of law and this Assembly is made up of political forces that change according to the elections.
Furthermore, this Assembly operates on the majority model, i.e., by its mode of election, it leads to the domination of a winning party which is able to impose its views on opposition parties, however virulent they may be. Majorities are made and broken within the National Assembly, which makes and breaks the laws. Our fundamental rights, thus guaranteed by law, are fragile in the face of political majorities, whose great volatility, moreover, is known in France, a people not dominated by a historical bipartisanship (as in Great Britain or the United States).
