Birmingham Law School is delighted to announce the publication of Sophie Boyron's book The Constitution of France: A Contextual Analysis. The book is published by Hart as part of its highly prestigious and successful "Constitutional Systems of the World" series.
The centrepiece of the book is the French Constitution of 1958, portrayed bas an innovative hybrid construct whose arrival brought the constitutional stability that had eluded France for centuries. But the creation of the 1958 Constitution was not an isolated act; it represents part of an evolutionary process which continues to this day. Even though it is codified, the constitution of the Fifth Republic has evolved so markedly that some commentators have dubbed the present institutional balance the 'Sixth Republic'. It is this dynamic of the constitution which this book seeks to explain. At the same time the book shows how the French constitution has not developed in isolation, but reflects to some extent the global movement of ideas, ideas which sometimes challenge the very foundations of the 1958 Constitution.
Sophie Boyron is a senior lecturer in law at the University of Birmingham. She is also, together with John Bell and Simon Whittaker, one of the authors of "Principles of French Law" (OUP). In 2011 Sophie gave evidence drawing on her research on the French constitution to the House of Commons Political and Constitutional Reform Committee as part of its inquiry on "Mapping the Path to Codifying—Or Not Codifying—the UK’s Constitution".
Learn more:
- The Constitution of France on the publisher's website