La QPC tra rivoluzione ed eccezione: la concretezza del controllo a posteriori a tre anni dalla sua introduzione
With the introduction of the question prioritaire de constitutionnalité, the French system of constitutional justice left its exceptional position in the comparative perspective of the European systems of judicial review of legislation, finally providing for a system of incidenter review of the constitutionality of laws. However, some doubts still remain about its collocation among the models of constitutional justice, especially with regards to its concreteness. The article aims to analyze the incidenter constitutional review in France in order to answer, in the light of the jurisprudence of the first three years, a simple question whose answer cannot be taken for granted: is the control of constitutionality of laws à la française a concrete system of constitutional review? The interest of this issue derives from two preliminary considerations. The French system of incidenter constitutional review is very similar to the incidenter systems provided in Italy, Germany or Spain; therefore, one could easily include it in the group of the concrete systems of constitutional control of legislation. Nonetheless, the French systems still have some peculiar features that show the willing to keep a certain dose of exceptionality. These peculiarities, however, do not exclude that the French control of the constitutionality of the laws is, at least to a certain extent, a concrete control. As we will explain, the French system of constitutional justice has already passed the borders that used to separate it from the other European systems, due to the introduction of a constitutional control on the application of the laws, even if such system still appears “unripe” with regard to its concreteness.
