Cornell International Law Journal Volume 45 Article 1 Issue 2 Spring 2012 The rB akes that Failed: Constitutional Restriction of International Agreements in France Gerald L. Neuman Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/cilj Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Neuman, Gerald L. (2012) "The rB akes that Failed: Constitutional Restriction of International Agreements in France," Cornell International Law Journal: Vol. 45: Iss. 2, Article 1. Available at: http://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/cilj/vol45/iss2/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Scholarship@Cornell Law: A Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Cornell International Law Journal by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Cornell Law: A Digital Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. The Brakes that Failed: Constitutional Restriction of International Agreements in France Gerald L. Neumant Can constitutions successfully constrain the exercise of the treaty power? This article examines the French Constitution of 1958 as a case study. The founders of the Fifth Republic drafted provisions intended to protect national sovereignty, as the Gaullists understood that concept, against inroads resulting from internationalagreements. Looking back fifty years later, it is clear that those protective efforts did not succeed. The sequence of events by which the constraints were loosened or evaded may representone nation's particularhis- tory, but they illustrate the limited capacity of constitutional restrictions to control international commitments in the long term. I. The Constitution of the Fifth Republic.................... 259 II. Constitutional Restrictions-In Theory ................... 263 A. Article 55 and Treaty Enforcement ....................