Administrative foundations of French constitutionnal law

The distinguishing feature of the French constitutional law is the fact that it uses extensively the administrative law. The Constitutional Council acquire notions, tools and ways of thinking from administrative law, whereas constitutional rules make use of administrative institutions or constructs. Meanwhile, the Council of States has both formal and material constitutional abilities. Councillors of State are ubiquitous in rules redaction, notably about the laws, where they perform a constitutional pre-control. Finally, constitutional authors, instructed in administrative law, study the constitutional rulings with administrative litigation concepts. Thus, inquiring into the administrative foundations of constitutional laws involve reflecting on the existence of an administrative culture in this field. This culture comes from the singular history of French public law, which required a strong jurisprudence to compensate the constitutional unsteadiness of the 19th century. Also, it comes from the unusual buiding of the State and nation since absolute monarchy. French administrative law then appears especially like the first and primary source of constitutional law effectiveness until 1958. This permanence brings up questions about the relation between State and citizen, or liberalism and democracy, in an atypical French legal order.