Abstract EN:

The existence of untapped provisions shows that the Constitution has only been partially implemented. This situation leads to the gap between the structure of the constitutional text and the resulting institutional practice. While this gap is often interpreted as a defect of the Constitution and has thus served as an argument in the past to revise or change it, this study aims to demonstrate that it is linked to the very idea of the Constitution. Like a garland of light that is uniform at rest and alternates different lights when in active mode, the Constitution is unique, but inherently has many virtualities. Depending on the constitutional provisions "withdrawn" with non-use, the practice will reflect one virtuality and not another. Thus, in order to understand the contours of institutional practice under the Fifth Republic, which is far from reflecting what the constitutional text provides for, this reflection focuses directly on the origins of non-use.The factors of non-use are divided into two categories according to whether they are intrinsic or extrinsic to the constitutional text. Non-use results from the Constitution itself on the one hand, and from its interpretation on the other. The causes of the intrinsic failure of the constitutional text are due to the imperfections of the constitutional provisions - incompleteness and implementation requirements - as well as to some of their paralysing relationships, namely competition and contradiction. As for the non-use related to the interpretation of the constitutional text, it results on the one hand from the interpretation of the Constitutional Council and on the other hand from that of the governors. The interpretation of the constitutional court constitutes a factor of non-use when it is neutralizing or limiting, while that of the rulers leads to the abandonment of certain provisions insofar as it is determined by the balance of power between the public authorities marked by the majority fact and presidentialism.