How a law is made
This page sets out the course of a bill from lodging to promulgation, and what is published at each stage.
| Stage | What happens | What is published |
|---|---|---|
| Lodging | The bill is lodged together with its assessment | The bill and the assessment, together |
| Examination of the assessment | The committee examines whether the assessment is complete | A finding of incompleteness, with reasons. No vote may then be taken. |
| First reading | General debate in plenary sitting | The record of the sitting and the votes |
| Public comment | Sixty days, open to any person, with no interest required | Every comment, and the answer of the committee to each substantiated objection |
| Consultation | The communes and regions affected are consulted | What each territory said, and the answer to any objection |
| Committee stage | Article by article, in the committee of the field | Amendments, votes and the reasons of the committee |
| Second reading and final vote | In plenary sitting | The record and the votes |
| Preventive review | Obligatory for organic laws, rules of procedure and texts restricting a right of Title III. Otherwise on referral within fifteen days. | The decision of the Constitutional Chamber, with reasons and dissents |
| Promulgation | By the Presiding Officer | The text as promulgated, and the consolidated Constitution where it amends one |
Organic law
An organic law requires three fifths of the members of the Assembly and compulsory referral to the Constitutional Chamber. The effect of an organic law altering an entrenched matter is delayed until after the first ordinary election following promulgation, and it reaches no justice, judge or member of the Judicial Council in office.
The delay separates the majority that adopts such a law from the composition of the bodies it alters.
Commenting on a bill
Say what the bill would do and what should change. A comment may be lodged at any communal office, by letter, or through the public information system, free of charge, in any language of record, and may be spoken to a clerk who writes it down.
The committee publishes the comments received together with its answer to each substantiated objection. The organic law on the drawing of lots received 1,412 comments, each substantiated objection answered.
Public sittings
Sittings of the Assembly are public and transmitted, and votes are recorded. Committees sit in public, and a committee may require the attendance of any member of an executive committee, any officer of the administration, of a planning body, of a federation or of a public establishment, and any person holding a delegated public function.