Constitutional status of presidents in the French and Lithuanian republics

• straipsnio tekstas

ENThe purpose of this article is to identify constitutional status of presidents of Lithuania and France and to compare its similarities and differences. The idea to compare those two constitutions in this regard came to my mind, because contemporary Lithuanian form of government with directly elected president of the Republic was partly influenced by the form government the French Vth Republic under the 1985 Constitution. This comparative analysis does not have ambition to compare all relative constitutional provisions, but to stress the idea of so called double constitutional status of President of the Republic in modern constitutional democracy, who is, on one hand, an executive official (exercising executive powers together Government), but on the other hand, he or she is also a head od state, whose competence extends beyond the modern comcept of separation of powers. Of course, this double constitutional status should be understood not as contradiction, but as certain constitutional paradox. It's worthy to say, that this article examines only constitutional provisions of those two European countries, not denying the fact that a significant part of the President's competence is provided for in the legislation. Thus, this concept of dual constitutional status of President in both countries has determined the structure of the article: the first part shows the historical genesis of legal status of the President of the Republic in general, while the second part is devoted to President as executive officer in both countries and the third part - to President as the head of state of the French and Lithuanian Republics. Finally, the article ends with some conclusions. [Extract, p. 98]

• Teisė / Law
• Politikos mokslai / Political sciences