France Conseil Constitutionnel

Catherine Leroy Delegated Signature Authority

The President of the Constitutional Council granted delegated signature authority to Secretary General Catherine Leroy on April 16, 2026. The delegation empowers her to sign all acts and administrative decisions and to mandate expenditures on behalf of the President. The decision will be published in the Journal Officiel de la République française.

Political Group Funding Decreased by Court

The Conseil Constitutionnel issued Decision No. 2026-1197 QPC on April 17, 2026, ruling on a priority constitutional question referred by the Conseil d'État on behalf of the Union des droites pour la République. The case concerned Article 9-1 of the Law of March 11, 1988 on financial transparency in political life, specifically the mechanism reducing public funding for political parties whose candidate gender gaps exceed 2% by a penalty of 150% of that gap. The Constitutional Council examined whether this provision violated constitutional principles of equality, proportional punishment, and pluralistic democratic participation.

QPC 2026-1194: Constitutionality of Minor Provisional Detention Rules

The Conseil Constitutionnel ruled on April 17, 2026 on the constitutionality of Articles L. 231-7 and L. 531-2 of the Code de la justice pénale des mineurs concerning automatic provisional detention of minors aged 16+ convicted by the cour d'assises des mineurs and appealing their conviction. The referral was made by the Cour de cassation (chambre criminelle) on January 30, 2026, on behalf of M. Sawran S. via counsel Me Antonin Gravelin-Rodriguez. The Constitutional Council held that the contested provisions, which apply standard major criminal procedure rules to minors in assize court appeals, do not violate the constitutional principle of youth justice protection, finding the automatic detention measure constitutionally justified by public order protection for serious offences.