Corps Législatif

Corps Législatif, the legislature in France from 1795 to 1814. In the period of the Directory (q.v.) it was the name of the bicameral legislature made up of the Council of Five Hundred and the Council of Ancients. Under Napoleon’s consulate, legislative powers were nominally divided among three bodies: the Tribunate (Tribunat), which proposed and debated; the Corps Législatif, comprising about 300 members, which enacted or rejected proposed legislation; and the Conservative Senate (Sénat Conservateur), which “guarded the constitution.” At first the legislature did enjoy powers of legislation, within limits, but gradually Bonaparte found the process too slow and went over the heads of the legislature by means of direct orders to his ministers. After enactment of the Constitution of Year XII (1804), which established the empire, the Corps Législatif, like the other bodies, lost power and persisted only in form and name. In 1814, under Louis XVIII, the system was abolished.