This article analyzes Article 49, paragraph 3, of the French Constitution of 4 October 1958, a mechanism that allows the government to commit its responsibility for the adoption of a bill unless a motion of censure is passed. The study explains the legal logic of this procedure, its relationship to confidence and censure, and its role in the balance between government and parliament under the Fifth Republic. It also reviews the political uses of the provision in legislative practice and the constitutional debates surrounding its effects on parliamentary deliberation. The article highlights both the efficiency and the democratic tensions associated with this instrument.
Jacques Barde (Sun,) studied this question.