3. Le contrôle de l’activité législative de la nation en 1789. L’opinion de Dupont de Nemours

Abstract

On the eve of the French Revolution, Dupont de Nemours became infatuated with constitutional issues that had hitherto been the exclusive domain of some of his fellow physiocrats, in particular Le Mercier de La Rivière. He was convinced of the necessity of creating a new political regime that would take the features of a moderate monarchy. The prince would be submitted to constitutional rules, sovereignty transferred to the nation and the legislative power exercised by its representatives. However, the representatives of the nation should not exercise their prerogatives outside a clearly established, defined constitutional framework. Partly consistent with the original physiocratic theories, Dupont de Nemours identified constitutional norms that should be promoted and protected from abuses of the legislature. He decided to entrust the heavy burden of controlling legislative activity to political instances, namely, successively, the people and the monarch. Although the omnipotence of the revolutionary legicentrism seemed incompatible with such a system of verification of the norm, it remains that Dupont de Nemours was part of a current which considerably developed during the XVIIIth century and which found a certain resonance in the decade following the Revolution.