Ordinance of 9 August 1944

Ordinance of 9 August 1944
Provisional Government
  • Order of August 9, 1944 concerning the re-establishment of republican rule of law in mainland France
Territorial extentContinental France
Enacted byProvisional Government
Enacted9 August 1944
Repeals
French Constitutional Law of 1940
Summary
All constitutional laws of the Vichy regime declared void ab initio.
Status: In force

The Ordinance of 9 August 1944 was a constitutional law enacted by the Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF) during the Liberation of France which re-established republican rule of law in mainland France[1][2][3] after four years of occupation by Nazi Germany and control by the collaborationist Vichy regime.

Background

The refusal to consider the Vichy regime as a legally constituted authority was a constant in the Free France founded by Charles de Gaulle.[4] Already in his Brazzaville Manifesto of 27 October 1940, the general had proclaimed that there was no longer a French government, and that "the Vichy-based organization that claims to bear this name is unconstitutional and submits to the invader",[4][a] even as he published on the same day the first Ordinance of Free France establishing the Empire Defense Council,[2] which organized "the legal authority in all parts of the [colonial] Empire liberated from control of the enemy ... based on French legislation prior to 23 June 1940."[5][4][b]

Contents

Promulgated in Algiers by the GPRF led by General de Gaulle,[6] the ordinance expunged all trappings of legality from the Vichy regime, declaring all constitutional regulatory texts enacted by the regime of Pétain and Laval to be void ab initio,[c] beginning with the Constitutional Law of 10 July 1940. As a consequence, the GPRF did not have to explicitly proclaim the return of the Republic, as the latter had never legally been dissolved.[7] More generally, this ordinance organized the conditions for the transition from the norms in force under Vichy, to republican norms, in the historical context of the Liberation.[7]

Through the text of this ordinance Free France, embodied by the GPRF and led by General de Gaulle, retroactively constituted itself as the continuous and uninterrupted extension of the French Republic. It proclaimed the Vichy regime stripped of all right to present itself as the legal successor of the Third Republic.[7]

This ordinance thus ratified the definitive victory of the government in exile established by de Gaulle as early as 1940 with the Empire Defense Council, which disputed Vichy's claim to legitimate authority, with both parties then claiming sole right to represent France during the war.

Additionally, by explicitly linking France's mode of government to the Republic, the ordinance endorsed a republican vision of France that precluded any legitimacy for a modification of this form of government.

Although the ordinance declared that all Vichy laws were null and void, as reversing all Vichy decisions during the previous four years was impractical, it also stated that only those explicitly listed were invalid.[8]

Provisions of the ordinance

The order was promulgated pursuant to a 3 June 1943 order establishing the French Committee of National Liberation and another a year later which established the Provisional Government of the French Republic. Article 1 states that: "The form of government is and remains the Republic. Legally, it has never ceased to exist."[d] Hence, article 2 follows with, "Consequently, all constitutional, legislative or regulatory acts, as well as the decrees issued for their implementation, under whatever name, promulgated on the mainland territory after 16 June 1940 and until the restoration of the Provisional Government of the French Republic are nullified and made ineffective. This nullification must be expressly acknowledged."[e]

Article 3 lists the specific constitutional acts that were nullified as follows:

  • the French Constitutional Law of 1940
  • the constitutional acts of Vichy France
  • all acts falling under any of these categories:
    • that established special tribunals, except as specified in article 8
    • that imposed forced labor on behalf of the Nazis
    • relating to secret societies such as Freemasonry
    • Vichy anti-Jewish legislation
    • related to the executory formula in French courts, with the caveat that bearers of certified copies and extracts of documents bearing said formula prescribed by the 16 July 1940 decree will be able to have them carried out

Other canceled acts are mentioned in the ordinance's appendices.

Articles 6-9 organize the transition from the Vichy legal system. Article 6 organizes the entry into force of acts published in official non-Vichy French government journals. Conversely, article 7 governs the termination of Vichy legal acts, which, for acts not mentioned in article 2, must be expressly declared as still in force. This article describes the Vichy regime as "the de facto authority calling itself the 'government of the French State'" and rejects its legality. Article 9 provisionally validates administrative acts dated after 16 June 1940.

Article 10 dissolves all collaborationist organizations and parties, such as the milice. It places their assets under sequestration and punishes any attempt to maintain or reconstitute these organizations.

Article 11 states that the ordinance will be applied to the mainland territory upon its liberation, and that a special ordinance will be issued for the departments of Bas-Rhin, Haut-Rhin and Moselle, which was done on 15 September 1944.[9][10] Five additional ordinances followed with the last of them passing on 2 November 1945.[11]

In an explanatory memorandum, the ordinance states: "This is the ordinance restoring republican legality on the mainland territory, that is to say in metropolitan France, with the exception of Corsica where the legislative situation, resulting from a liberation prior to the provisions thus taken, calls for a specific text which will be issued shortly."[f][12]

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ "il n'existe plus de gouvernement proprement français" and "L'organisme sis à Vichy et qui prétend porter ce nom est inconstitutionnel et soumis à l'envahisseur."
  2. ^ "les pouvoirs publics dans toutes les parties de l'Empire libérées du contrôle de l'ennemi [...] sur la base de la législation française antérieure au 23 juin 1940."
  3. ^ The Vichy laws were declared void ab initio. The intent was that this was not a repeal, which would have given credence to the fact that Vichy laws once were legitimate, but rather that they were never legal in the first place, therefore never in force.
  4. ^ La forme du Gouvernement est et demeure la République. En droit, celle-ci n'a pas cessé d'exister.
  5. ^ Sont en conséquence, nuls et de nul effet tous les actes constitutionnels, législatifs ou réglementaires, ainsi que les arrêtés pris pour leur exécution, sous quelque dénomination que ce soit, promulgués sur le territoire continental postérieurement au 16 juin 1940 et jusqu'au rétablissement du Gouvernement provisoire de la République française. Cette nullité doit être expressément constatée.
  6. ^ Telle est l'ordonnance portant rétablissement de la légalité républicaine sur le territoire continental, c'est-à-dire en France métropolitaine, exception faite de la Corse où la situation législative, résultant d'une libération antérieure aux dispositions ainsi prises, appelle un texte particulier qui interviendra incessamment.

Footnotes

  1. ^ law-1944-08-09.
  2. ^ a b Conan & Rousso 1996, p. 70-71.
  3. ^ Conan & Rousso 1998, p. needed.
  4. ^ a b c Conan & Rousso 1996, p. 71.
  5. ^ JOFL 1941, p. 3.
  6. ^ Maury 2006.
  7. ^ a b c Sauvé 2014.
  8. ^ Paxton, Robert O. (1972). Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940-1944. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 477. ISBN 978-0-8041-5410-9.
  9. ^ l'Intérieur, Ministère de. "Légalité républicaine" (in French). Archived from the original on 1 January 2020. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  10. ^ Comité français de la Libération nationale (16 September 1944). "Journal officiel de la République française". Gallica (in French). Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  11. ^ "Journal officiel de la République française. Lois et décrets". Gallica (in French). 2 November 1945. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  12. ^ Maury, Jean-Pierre. "Gouvernement de la Libération, France, MJP, université de Perpignan". mjp.univ-perp.fr. Archived from the original on 17 August 2025. Retrieved 18 December 2025.

Works cited

  • "Ordonnance du 9 août 1944 relative au rétablissement de la légalité républicaine sur le territoire continental – Version consolidée au 10 août 1944" [Law of 9 August 1944 Concerning the reestablishment of the legally constituted Republic on the mainland – consolidated version of 10 August 1944]. gouv.fr. Legifrance. 9 August 1944. Archived from the original on 16 July 2009. Retrieved 21 October 2015. Article 1: The form of the government of France is and remains the Republic. By law, it has not ceased to exist.
    Article 2: The following are therefore null and void: all legislative or regulatory acts as well as all actions of any description whatsoever taken to execute them, promulgated in Metropolitan France after 16 June 1940 and until the restoration of the Provisional Government of the French Republic. This nullification is hereby expressly declared and must be noted.
    Article 3. The following acts are hereby expressly nullified and held invalid: The so-called "Constitutional Law of 10 July 1940; as well as any laws called 'Constitutional Law';...
  • Conan, Eric; Rousso, Henry (1998). Vichy: An Ever-Present Past. Sudbury, Massachusetts: Dartmouth. ISBN 978-0-87451-795-8., a translation of the French:
  • "Ordonnance du 9 août 1944 relative au rétablissement de la légalité républicaine sur le territoire continental" [Ordinance of 9 August 1944 concerning the re-establishment of republican rule of law in mainland France]. Journal officiel de la France libre [Official Gazette of Free France]. London: Free France. 20 January 1941.

Further reading

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