Fundamental laws of the French kingdom (lois fondamentales)

Abstract

From the medieval age to the Great French Revolution in 1789, France did not have a written constitution. Instead, constitutional law consisted of only a few provisions which were called fundamental laws of the kingdom. The peculiarity of fundamental laws in relation to some other unwritten constitutions (e.g. the English system) was in their absolute unchangeability because of which even the king could not change them. However, the fundamental laws never had a more important role in the protection of the rights and freedoms of royal subjects. Furthermore, they therefore could not reduce the dissatisfaction of the commoners, which, in the end, was indeed the main reason for the occurrence of the French Revolution.

Keywords

• French Constitution
• constitutional history
• customary constitution
• constitutional custom
• French monarchy