French speakers

[A18]

"Le Président de la République ne peut être mis en accusation que par l'Assemblée Nationale et le Sénat réunis en Congrès et statuant, à vote secret, à la majorité des deux-tiers des membres."

Can someone give me a fluent translation of this? I'm not sure I'm following the syntax correctly.

[PGSable]

The president of the Republic shall be charged [for a crime, presumably] only by a joint session of the National Assembly and Senate with a majority of two thirds of the members voting in favor of the accusation.

[A18]

Merci! So the "en Congrès" means "in congress" and not "in Congress," then.

One more question, if you'll oblige. In legal contexts, does "L'instruction" have a technical meaning in French?

[PGSable]

Merci! So the "en Congrès" means "in congress" and not "in Congress," then.

Yes.

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I'm not a legal expert, but, as I understand it, it means a criminal or civil investigation. In France, it is usually carried out by the juge d'instruction, although the government has controversially decided to eliminate that office. Hopefully someone who knows more about the French legal system can help verify this.

[big bad fab]

Merci! So the "en Congrès" means "in congress" and not "in Congress," then.

Yes.

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I'm not a legal expert, but, as I understand it, it means a criminal or civil investigation. In France, it is usually carried out by the juge d'instruction, although the government has controversially decided to eliminate that office. Hopefully someone who knows more about the French legal system can help verify this.

Right.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

Merci! So the "en Congrès" means "in congress" and not "in Congress," then.

Yes.

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In fact it's in congress in Versailles (Versailles being the place where the National Assembly and the Senate gather themselves to form the "French Congress").

I'm not a legal expert, but, as I understand it, it means a criminal or civil investigation. In France, it is usually carried out by the juge d'instruction, although the government has controversially decided to eliminate that office. Hopefully someone who knows more about the French legal system can help verify this.

To complete it and to give the meaning of it: in France the instruction in the context of Justice, or furthermore of Right, is to refer to the constitution, the making, the building, of a file. But in that sense it is mainly used for a context of justice, by making an instruction, the judge of instruction will gather all the elements about an affair.

[PGSable]

I don't agree, but maybe I don't understand the question.

It's indeed "in Congress".

The National Assembly and the Senate gather together AND become a temporary own institution which is called "Congrès".

This "Congrès" (with a capital letter in the French Constitution) has its own "bureau" (which is the same as the "bureau" of the National Assembly). It's also the case for the President (who is the president of the National Assembly).
And the majorities usually required in front of the "Congrès" (see constitutional amendments, article 89) are global ones: you don't count Assemblymen on one hand and Senators on the other hand.

Right, the Congrès is the joint session of Parliament. During the Congrès, the National Assembly and the Senate convene in one place; in other words, they are united in congress (with a lowercase C). "Congress" with a capital C, as used in the United States, means the national legislature itself, not the joint session. So the Congress would translate into the French system as the Parliament. Any formal body can meet in congress, but the term "Congress" refers specifically to the national legislature

The Congrès, as you say, has a temporary existence, like the joint sessions of Congress in the United States. The Congress and Parliament, however, are permanent institutions. There is only one Congress in the United States, and only one Parliament in France, but any formal body can meet in congress (this is what was meant by the Socialist Party's Congrès in Reims last year, which was simply the equivalent of a party convention).