Academically the French law are private and public legal systems. The former is called droit prive and the latter is called droit public. The French legalities and legislations are different from the traditional criminal, civil and common laws. The French private law refers to relationships between various organisations, different individuals, the civil, commercial, employment laws among others. Public law of France consists of specific criminal, administrative laws. The first time the French legal system had become defined was in the aftermath of the most significant of French revolutions. In 2005, the European Commission recognised the initiatives of the European Court of Justice regarding importance of France’s legal system being influential and not subjected completely to EU laws. The country has a dual court system as well as administrative courts. The impact of the international and foreign laws on the country’s legal system has been a subject of interpretations, debates as well amendments. The Cour de Cassation is termed as the guardian of the law in France. The body takes steps and carries out policies to protect and regulate the French domestic and national laws from too much influence or effect of the international laws.
The American, the French, the English and all the countries of the world have their own perspectives on the international law and how the international legalities impact the way the world politics function. The current state of affairs, the different political and legal cultures are all driven and influenced by the present international laws which govern almost everything, including the human rights. The impact of international legal system ensures that different countries interact with each other, maintain diplomatic relations, manage their own domestic legalities. The significance of the international law is enhanced when the countries make important amendments in order to try and align with the international scenario. This is not always the case. For instance while internationally human rights are gaining rapidly increasing importance, sections of human rights like same sex marriage rights are legally curtailed in the French society.
The French legal system emerged with the code civil 1804 which applied civil law to the country and ensured the establishment of the private laws as well. The French public laws consist of principles which govern the various parameters set by the public authorities. The Constitutional law, administrative law, criminal law and human rights law are all vital components of the French Public Law system. Constitutionally, the country’s constitution regulates the governmental operations and relations. Basic rights are provided legally to every citizen, making sure the human rights of the country are aligned to the international legal mandate as well with the French principles of ‘LiberteEqualiteFraternite’. The French constitution ensures stability of the country’s governance. It incorporates the basic and fundamental human rights and the principles and goals of the government. The 1946 Declaration of the rights of man and citizen have further emphasised on the importance of the maintenance of the constitutional elements. The French republic has a unitary constitution.
In order to be internationally viable and updated according to the current situations, several amendments have been made. Amendments or provisions are initiatives taken to make the constitution increasingly in favour of the country’s principles of human rights. In 1958, the Article 1 has been amended to ensure decentralisation of the constitution. The Article 72 was newly updated to include specifics regarding the communities, governmental departments and jurisdiction of regions.
When amended, an important change has been made by the government. The Article initially had the terms like ensuring equality without distinction. One of the parameters of distinction mentioned was race which recently the country decided to revise. The term race was denounced and on June 27, all deputies and committees unanimously agreed to have the word removed. In 1946, the word race was added because of the historical context of the World War II. The country always steadfastly stand by its principles of liberty, equality and fraternity since the French Revolution, and the war temperament coupled with the Nazi attitude towards Jews and certain other races made the country denounce the racial discrimination. France till the recent times refuses to maintain statistics of ethnicity, race, culture and other identities associated with the origin of the citizen. The country accepts its own citizens as French irrespective of any ground including race. Hence the race word used to exist in the constitution.
The French politicians, in the recent times and context, started discussing about the removal of the word race. The former French president Hollande refused to accept that race should be a word or a distinction. Race as a word or category is often used to denote certain people, and this often leads to biased situations and categorisation. France wanted to stand by its ideals on human rights by removing the word race. On the day of the vote, French MPs voted to replace the word race with the word sex. Hollande’s argument was that there should be nothing called race in any republic. The French government’s habits of not keeping ethnicity and racial records have been established to prevent racism and prevent prevalence of the racial concept.
There are several perspectives and interpretations of this concept of removing the word race. Several French politicians including another former French president Sarkozy supported the American perspective. The Americans felt that removing the word race does not remove races or the related issues like racial discrimination. For many, race describes different cultural identities. Race, in sociological terms, is a social construct within the society. HuffPost France observed that the ages old habit of not using the word race actually proves that there is a concept of race, and France simply uses the term to rebuke its existence within the republic. The Amendment had been supported, however, by several organisations like the Bipartisan Commission, political parties like LRM and several others. In justification of the move, the Commission claimed that when race was used in the Constitution, it was simply used for indicating that all races are equal and racism and racial prejudice were to be rejected thoroughly. In the present context, mentioning race might cause miscommunication, and its removal might reinforce the fact that races and racial identities should not exist.
Yet, several deputies have been against the amendment, claiming that it did not really deny the presence of races, cultural identities, ethnicity as well as issues like racial discrimination. According to the naysayers, removal of a word in actuality can have negative consequences, Racial discrimination, if not constitutionally and legally prevented, can multiply alarmingly and the race related issues can create problems from the context of international human rights. Fights against racial discrimination can weaken also if one of the most powerful countries decide to remove the word race. They also feel that replacing race with the word sex can create different problems.
The world always looked up to France as the leader of the world when it comes to fight for equality, fraternity, liberty and republic. Historically the country revolutionised the concept of freedom, independence, democracy, good governance and basic fundamental human rights as well as the right to vote. Internationally several initiatives were influenced by the country’s policies, practices, belief and values. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, was adopted by the UN in the capital city Paris in 1948. France was one of the influential countries who recognised the need for universal human rights.One of the human rights that France has internationally opted for is the fight for anti-racism. The UN has taken on the drive to eliminate and counter racism and racial discrimination.
Countries like Australia and the United States, who were mostly against the French amendment, are hotbeds of different cultures, ethnic identities, races and other elements. Historically both the countries had original inhabitants and aboriginals, tribes and races of people before the coming of the settler population. Throughout the last 100 years, different races, cultures and people have settled down in the two countries, making them their home. The divide between the majority and the several minorities have brought political, economic and socio-cultural implications and consequences. Racial discrimination against various races was very much prevalent. In the US, apartheid denied minorities like the Native Americans, the Latinos and the Blacks their basic human rights while in Australia, the aboriginalsand minorities of races discrimination. In the aftermath of the Second World War, the two countries vowed to eliminate the racial prejudices and discriminatory practices. However the deeply rooted issues were difficult to break through. Today, the US and Australia are still fighting against the age old system of racial discrimination. For the two countries, mention of the word race is important so that they can keep statistics of the racial components of the population. This helps the countries to regulate and establish laws to ensure equality to all. Both the countries find it lofty to not to mention the word race. From the perspectives of the countries, especially America, denial of the word race does nothing but create more problems for racial minorities in the major countries.
French perspective however sticks to the fact that removal of the word race perhaps will help in ending racial discrimination. The implication of the French amendment on the international human rights, and on the prevention of racial divide, has consequences positively and negatively. Positively, countries with different races now will feel pressurised to recognise merging of races into one identity, that is the identity of the countries. This perhaps will bring equal opportunities and more liberty internationally.Negatively, sin the name of lack of the word, different races might lose their political, legal and social protection. There may be more denial of equal rights and opportunities because of racial identities.
Conclusion
Public International Law or PIL have two major principles, based on which it is put into practice- sovereignty and non-intervention. The sources of the PIL are international conventions, customs and different international interpretations of politics and laws. In the context of human rights internationally, the contemporary humanitarian international law has been established on the different codes and principles like regulation of human rights legalities of the countries and their international diplomacy. The Human rights concept was a joint venture of countries including the US and France. The US does not want deny the presence of the concept and existence of race while France has decided to believe that all races are combinations of different people with equal human rights.Political thinker Kosekenniemi feels that international law can be used politically and professionally to intervene internationally without interfering with sovereignty of any country. International laws can be influenced by countries to change their perspectives but the country may not always change according to the international law. For instance many countries still deny laws of same sex marriages despite growing international movement.
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