The Constitutional Council rendered its decision on Friday October 18, after the hearing on October 8. The law of February 2, 2023, aimed at limiting enclosure and protecting private property, is consistent with the constitution. It is applicable now.
“Phew. Everything is validated.” This is the cry from the heart of Jean-Noël Cardoux, former LR senator from Loiret, who introduced the law of February 2, 2023 aimed at limiting the enclosure of natural spaces and protecting private property, particularly in Sologne.
Friday, October 18, the Constitutional Council rendered its decision, after the hearing on October 8, and therefore declared that this law is consistent with the constitution.
Is the law aimed at limiting enclosure constitutional?
“Now the question of its application arises,” notes Jean-Noël Cardoux. “We will have to remedy the timidity of the enforcement agents. Namely the OFB agents (who are not numerous enough), the lieutenants of the wolf shop, the gendarmes and the development agents of the departmental hunting federations.
The acclaimed monitoring committee
The former elected official also evokes the essential role of the law monitoring committee which was stillborn with the dissolution of the National Assembly. It was announced by Christophe Béchu, then Minister of Ecological Transition, traveling in Loiret and Cher. But no meeting was ever held.
For his part, Dominique Norguet, the president of the Central Agricultural Committee of Sologne (which represents more than 600 owners/managers of rural Solognot areas), is happy: “This law is balanced, it respects the constitution. It opens the path to more natural hunting, with the circulation of wildlife. Even if we were the dwarves in this adventure, in the face of great adversity, there is a need for appeasement. The bellows must fall.
Like Jean-Noël Cardoux, he believes that the monitoring committee is “a necessity if we want to be effective, in concrete terms and in consultation.
Before the European Court of Human Rights?
As for Maître Michaël Grienenberger-Fass, who defended four associations, including Les amis des chemins de Sologne, but also hunters, he is satisfied: “This decision is coherent. It is in line with our expectations. The Constitutional Council exercised control precise and rigorous. Its only reservation of interpretation linked to the conditions of the agents’ checks, in the presence and in agreement with the owner, poses no problem for us.”
The last possible recourse for the applicants? “Once the Council of State has validated the decision of the Constitutional Council, it will be before the European Court of Human Rights, in Strasbourg,” specifies Maître Michaël Grienenberger-Fass. “If that were the case, we would respond.”
Alexis Marie
Canada