Authors: Duhamel & Mény
Summary: This 950-words entry is compiled formally and procedurally, only from a jurisprudential perspective, with no mention to positive law studies or natural law.
Law is defined as "the text deliberated by the Parliament or adopted by it after a referendum and promulgated by the President of the Republic". A description of various procedural steps of law promulgation, from the intervention of the two chambers of Parliament to the publication in the Official Journal, ensues. In a subsequent passage, the author describes the three most important types of laws, distinguishing the loi ordinaire and the loi organique from the loi constitutionnelle or loi de revision constitutionnelle, which need a mixed procedure: namely, the initiative may stem from the Parliament butt then it must be approved by a popular referendum.
Beyond a brief mention to the legality principle, whose achievement constitutes the major aim of the law, intended as a whole body of norms governing a juridical system, the remaining of the entry addresses the different qualifications assumed by ordinary law, e.g. loi de finances, loi d'orientation, loi de habilitation, and so on.