Loi Lamine Guèye

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Loi Lamine Guèye

French law number 46-940 of May 7, 1946, called Loi Lamine Guèye , gave all residents of the French Overseas Territories the same rights that French citizens had. The law was adopted by the National Assembly on April 25, 1946 and announced by the Chairman of the Provisional Government, Félix Gouin , on May 7, 1946. It was published in the Official Gazette on May 8, 1946. It came into force on June 1, 1946. Its name is derived from the name of its author, Lamine Guèye , who was mayor of Dakar at the time and a member of the Socialist Party (SFIO) in the French National Assembly.

Historical context

In 1946, a year after World War II , France was in the process of restructuring. The relationship to the colonies was of great importance here: Since France itself had been occupied during the war, many French did not want to appear as occupiers towards their colonies. France also did not want to make the colonies equal and thereby become a colony of the former colonies.

Against this background, the French Provisional Government drafted a new constitution. The position of the colonies was so important, however, that the corresponding law, the Loi Lamine Guèye , was passed before the constitution. Law number 46-940 of May 7, 1946, called Loi Lamine Guèye , gave all residents of the French Overseas Territories the same rights as French citizens. It was adopted by the National Assembly on April 25, 1946, announced by the Chairman of the Provisional Government, Félix Gouin , on May 7, 1946, and published in the Official Gazette on May 8, 1946. It came into force on June 1, 1946. Its name is derived from the name of its author Lamine Guèye .

Legal situation before the law was passed

Before this law was passed, a distinction was made between French citizens ( citoyens français ) and subjects ( sujets d'Empire , sujets français ). French citizens were - with a few exceptions - only those who came from parents from the mother country of France.

There were few exceptions to the rule that citizenship was reserved for those who were French . The first concerned the Senegalese Quatre Communes with full French citizenship ( Dakar , Gorée , Rufisque and Saint-Louis ) and French India ( Chandannagar , Puducherry , Mahe , Yanam and Karikal ). The jurisprudence recognized here a right to vote for the indigenous people. Since this was not derived from citizenship, the case law found that it could only be exercised where the bodies to be elected were located. The law of September 29, 1916 declared the indigenous people and their descendants French citizens, which lifted all previous restrictions.

The second exception was Algeria. The decision of March 7, 1944 created a new category: Non-transferable French citizenship (citoyens français à titre personnel). In order to obtain this citizenship, certain requirements had to be met in terms of personal skills, merit or an office.

In Martinique , Guadeloupe , La Réunion and Guyana , the judiciary recognized the indigenous people as French citizens because they had the civil status of French based on the law of April 24, 1833 . There was no comparable law for Sainte Marie and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon , but the jurisprudence granted them French civil status .

For Polynesia, the jurisprudence recognized the natives of the islands of the former Kingdom of Pomarés ( Tahiti ) as French citizens (citoyens). The natives of the other islands of the archipelago were not covered by the law of 1880, although some of the islands were already subject to French civil law. A decree of March 24, 1945 recognized the natives as French citizens with the civil status French . With the decree of April 5, 1945, the local regulations on civil status that were still in force on some islands were repealed.

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On April 25, 1946, a vote was taken on the Loi Lamine Guèye , the name of which goes back to its creator, the Senegalese member of the French National Assembly Lamine Guèye from the French section of the Workers' International , who was mayor of Dakar at the time. The law consists of a single article. This reads:

From June 1, 1946, all residents of the Overseas Territories, including Algeria, have the same citizenship status as the French in France or the Overseas Territories. (In the French original: À partir du 1er juin 1946, tous les ressortissants des territoires d'outre-mer (Algérie comprise) ont la qualité de citoyen, au même titre que les nationaux français de la métropole et des territoires d'outre-mer Des lois particulières établiront les conditions dans lesquelles ils exerceront leurs droits de citoyens.)

The law did not make the residents of the overseas territories French citizens, it just gave them the same citizenship status.

It decreed that there should no longer be a difference between the citizenship of the inhabitants of the mother country , the overseas departments and the other overseas territories ( Territoire d'outre-mer ). The latter included:

Motherland and overseas territories were thus treated on an equal footing in terms of civil rights.

On October 27, 1946, the Constitution of the Fourth Republic created the Union française with the intention of reshaping the colonial empire along the lines of the British Commonwealth of Nations .

Importance of the law

Before the Loi Lamine Guèye existed, only people were recognized as French citizens who had the civil status (statut civil) French . The Loi Lamine Guèye was intended to eliminate the difference between French citizens ( citoyens ) and subjects ( sujets d'Empire ). The legal status indigène ( native inhabitants ) was abolished and replaced by the status citoyen de statut local ( citizens with local status ). The national personal statute ( statut personnel coutumier ) was retained; As a result, French laws remained ineffective for the great majority of Africans in terms of civil law, especially in family matters. Citizenship was conceived as a political achievement under public law, not as complete equality in all areas. But even in the political field, the newly won right was immediately restricted again by a two-class right to vote , see

The Loi Lamine Guèye , however, represents a new era in the understanding of what French identity, citizenship and civil rights mean. The residents of the colonial areas were no longer just the subject of laws, but rather took part in the debates and introduced bills. The law can be seen as the culmination and conclusion of a long development and shows the “strength of the assimilatory and integrationist conception of French colonial policy immediately after the Second World War.” The law has been compared by its creator with the Constitutio Antoniniana of 212, all of them made Roman subjects into Roman citizens.

Effects

Granting the right to vote to all people under French rule would have meant that the residents of the overseas territories would have had a majority in the French National Assembly. In order to prevent this, the inhabitants of the overseas territories were only allowed a number of MPs that was far below their proportion of the total population. Thus, according to the law of October 5, 1946, the mother country sent 544 delegates; Algeria elected 30 MPs and the remaining colonies only 40.

In Algeria, under the law of September 20, 1947, a legislative assembly was created with 120 members, 60 of whom were elected by French citizens and selected autochthons of special merit. The remaining 60 were elected by the overwhelming majority of the population, namely the autochthons who did not have French civil status.

Further development

Inclusion in the constitution

Articles 80 to 82 of the Constitution affirmed the line of the law. These determined that all residents of the overseas territories ( Territoires d'outre-mer ) should have the same civil rights as the citizens (nationaux) of the mother country and the overseas departments .

This also declared those French citizens who had not previously been French . Laws should regulate more details on exercising civil rights.

Limitations and how to remove them

The opponents of the Loi Lamine Guèye rallied around Charles de Gaulle and founded the RPF party in 1947 to combat what opposed the idea of ​​an eternal, i.e. completely white and Christian France.

A committee of the constituent assembly had provided for a two-class suffrage ( double collège ). The African MPs then threatened to resign. Lamine Guèye handed a corresponding letter to Prime Minister Georges Bidault , which led to a partial suspension of the two-class suffrage: In the elections to the Paris parliament, there was no two-class suffrage in French West Africa and Togo . In the elections to the French National Assembly in French Equatorial Africa and Cameroon, as well as for all local elections in all of Africa except Senegal, a two-class suffrage was in effect until 1956.

The law of October 5, 1946, amended on August 27, 1947, clarified the two-class voting right. It provided for elections to the French National Assembly for those with French civil status to vote . The others were given the right to vote, but in a different electoral chamber (collège). In practice, for Cameroon, for example, this meant that every white person had one vote and each 30 autochthonous tones together had one vote.

Later laws expanded the composition of the electoral chambers:

Law number 51-586 of May 23, 1951 governed the election of MPs for the French National Assembly in the areas under the Ministry of Overseas France. In Article 3 the right to vote was granted to the following persons of both sexes aged 21 and over:

  • Heads of family who paid the minimum tax or a similar tax for themselves or for members of the family on January 1st of the current year
  • Mothers of two children who were alive or died for France
  • Beneficiaries of a pension from the military or civil sector.

Law number 52-130 of February 6, 1952 governed the elections to the legislative assemblies of West Africa and Togo, the French territories in Equatorial Africa, Cameroon and Madagascar. Article 4 changed Article 3 of the previous law of May 23, 1951: it gave the right to vote to all persons of both sexes over the age of 21 who had at least the qualification of head of the family.

At the end of 1953, it turned out that the forces seeking uniform citizenship for the motherland and overseas territories were in the minority: the Assembly of the French Union passed a resolution stating that there were two citizenships, one for France and one for the Union. French nationals were also citizens of the Union, but the reverse was not true. This meant that the residents of the Union could not vote in the mother country.

It was not until law number 56-619 of June 23, 1956, known as loi-cadre Defferre , that the various electoral chambers (collèges) were abolished and universal suffrage was introduced. Article 10 gave all persons of both sexes over the age of 21 the right to vote if they had registered themselves in the electoral roll and if there were no legal reasons against exercising their civil rights. Article 21 stipulated the abolition of the various electoral chambers.

In Algeria, however, universal suffrage was only introduced with Decree 58-568 of July 3, 1958. This implemented the decision of June 27, 1958, which concerned the exercise of the right to vote by Muslim women. They stipulated that the women without involving the status Frenchwoman would be conducted in the electoral rolls as well as French citizens and could vote under the same conditions. The various electoral chambers were abolished by this decree.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b international - Is the Loi Lamine Gueye-law n ° 46-940 of May 7, 1946 enacted by the French Parliament of any relevance today? - Law Stack Exchange. In: law.stackexchange.com. February 1, 2002, accessed February 20, 2019 .
  2. ↑ GRAH MEL Frédéric: Félix Houphouët-Boigny, La fin et la suite. KARTHALA Editions, 2010, ISBN 978-2-811-13319-1 , p. 19 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  3. ^ Decree of the Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation of March 6, 1883, DP 83.I.308; Decree of the Civil Chamber of July 24, 1907, p. 1912. I. 401; Decree of the Civil Chamber of July 22, 1908, p. 1912. I. 401.
  4. ^ Court of Cassation, Decree of the Civil Chamber of July 22, 1912, p. 1912, I.121; Order of the Criminal Chamber of March 6, 1924, Penant, I. 161.
  5. ^ Decree of the Council of State of April 24, 1891, Cardella, DP 92.3.103.
  6. ↑ Loi n ° 46-940 du 7 mai 1946, à tendant proclamer citoyens tous les ressortissants the territoires d'outre-mer. , accessed on February 18, 2019
  7. ↑ Ina, Studio Hypermédia: indépendances - L'accueil de la loi-cadre dans les territoires d'outre-mer - Ina.fr. In: fresques.ina.fr. Retrieved February 20, 2019 .
  8. ^ Service commun de la documentation Universit & eac: Manioc: Audio-Vidéo - Marr-2809. In: manioc.org. September 28, 2017. Retrieved February 20, 2019 .
  9. ^ A b c Franz Ansprenger : Politics in Black Africa. The modern political movements in Africa with French influences. Westdeutscher Verlag Köln and Opladen, 1961, p. 68.
  10. ↑ James E. Genova: Constructing Identity in Post-War France: Citizenship, Nationality, and the Lamine Guèye Law, 1946-1953. In: The International History Review, Taylor & Francis Group, March 1, 2004, Volume 26 (1), pp. 56-79, pp. 62, ISSN 0707-5332.
  11. ^ Rudolf von Albertini: Decolonization. Springer-Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-322-98922-2 , p. 442 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  12. ↑ 19 Mars 2011: date anniversaire du statut de "Département. In: clicanoo.re. March 19, 2011, accessed on February 20, 2019 (French).
  13. ↑ La redaction de Mondafrique: Lettre ouverte à Macky Sall (1/2), L'héritage colonial indéfendable. . In: Mondafrique , August 9, 2018, accessed February 20, 2019.
  14. ↑ Citoyenneté pour tous; loi Lamine-Gueye. In: contreculture.org. Retrieved February 18, 2019 (French).
  15. ↑ a b La loi Lamine Gueye du 07 may 1946 qui fit des Camerounais des citoyens français - Journal du Cameroun. In: journalducameroun.com. February 16, 2017, accessed February 20, 2019 (French).
  16. ^ Franz Ansprenger: Politics in Black Africa. The modern political movements in Africa with French influences. Westdeutscher Verlag Köln and Opladen, 1961, pp. 72–73.
  17. ^ Franz Ansprenger: Politics in Black Africa. The modern political movements in Africa with French influences. Westdeutscher Verlag Köln and Opladen, 1961, p. 73.
  18. ↑ Law number 51-586 of May 23, 1951, in: Journal officiel de la République française , May 24, 1951, p. 5323.
  19. ↑ Law number 52-130 of February 6, 1952, in: Journal officiel de la République française , February 7, 1952, p. 1587.
  20. ↑ James E. Genova: Constructing Identity in Post-War France: Citizenship, Nationality, and the Lamine Guèye Law, 1946-1953. In: The International History Review, Taylor & Francis Group, March 1, 2004, Volume 26 (1), pp. 56-79, pp. 76, ISSN 0707-5332.
  21. ↑ Law 56-619 of June 23, 1956, in: Journal officiel de la République française , June 24, 1956, p. 5782.