Law of the 28 pluviôse year VIII

The law of the 28 pluviôse year VIII is a promulgated French Loi the 28 pluviôse An VIII, that is to say the February 17th 1800. Its official name is “law concerning the division of the territory of the Republic and the administration”. The law includes/understands two titles, grouping 24 articles (the first title being reduced to the article 1st) and an appendix.

Administrative organization

The new law envisages four levels of divisions territorial:

the department
the district
the canton
the municipality, called today the common .

The departments, cantons and communes are not inventions; on the other hand the District S are replaced by districts fewer, but vaster. The appendix with the law fixes the list of the departments and the districts. This list will change little until into 1926.

Departmental administration

Each department is managed by three bodies:

the prefect;
the general advice;
the council of prefecture.

The prefect must play a big role, insofar as article 3 lays out that “the prefect will be only in charge of the administration”.

The general advice, composed of 16 to 24 members according to the departments, appoints a president and a secretary.

The general advice has especially budgetary attributions and tax: he distributes the Direct taxation and rules on the requests for reduction of these contributions; he prepares the Budget and approves the accounts. He can also give his opinion on the needs for the department and make of it share with the ministry for the Interior.

Administration of district

In each district, there exists:

a Sub-prefect, except in the administration Chief town, or the general secretary fulfills the functions of them;
a council of district of 11 members.

The role of the council of district is appreciably the same one in the extent of the district as that of the general advice within the department. However, the opinions of the council are transmitted to the prefect.

Municipal authorities

Each commune has of a mayor and an assistant. Starting from 5000 inhabitants, the common one has moreover a police superintendent. Beyond: 10000 inhabitants, the number of associated and police chiefs increase gradually and there is a general police chief directly submitted to the prefect.

The law envisages moreover a Municipal council from 10 to 30 members according to the population of the commune. The council regulates the Budget, the rules concerning the grazing grounds and the Récolte S, the sharing out work of maintenance of the commune, the proposals of loans and the legal actions.

Particular case of Paris

The law fixes a specific scheme for Paris. The capital is divided into twelve districts, each one at its head a mayor and two having associated, as well as a police superintendent.

Paris as a whole does not have a mayor; the prefectoral capacity is shared between a prefect of the Seine and a Prefect of police. The general advice of the Seine provides the functions of the municipal council of the other communes.

Councils of prefecture

The law also contributes to the installation of true a administrative justice, after the creation of the Council of State by the Constitution of year VIII.

This justice is preceded by the councils of prefecture, chaired by the prefect and including/understanding from 3 to 5 members.

Raise of their competence:

dispute of the direct taxation;
litigations touching with the government contracts;
complaints of private individuals against contractors of Public works at the time of the latter;
authorizations to plead by the communes;
dispute of the national goods.

These various objects form most of the traditional cases of administrative justice.

The council of prefecture pronounces with the plurality of the voices, but the prefect keeps a casting vote in the event of division.

The heritage of the law

Many elements of the law of the 28 pluviôse year VIII, even if the drafting changed some, remain in the administrative organization:

prefects and sub-prefects;
division in departments, districts, cantons and communes;
the prefect of police in Paris;
general advices.

On the other hand, the councils of prefecture disappeared in 1953 with the profit from administrative courts interdépartementaux.

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