The Role of the Parliament of Paris in Expand the Public Field of Royal Power

Abstract

The article explores the process of acquiring the Royal power in France in the 13—15th centuries of a public legal character in the light of changing the status of the Parliament of Paris. The Parliament made a decisive contribution to the development of the three main components of publicity: as an integral attribute of power, as a synonym for openness, and as an expression of the Kingdom's “common interest”. This contribution was facilitated by the judicial function exercised by the Parliament as the Supreme and appellate court of the Kingdom with “total” competence. The function of justice, being the main one in the sacred concept of “service of the king” at this stage, played a major role in the monarch's acquisition of the status of a sovereign and “public person”. As management became more complex, requiring professionals, and the authorities became autonomous from the person of the monarch, the function of administering justice in the name of the king was delegated to Parliament. The personal interest of the judges in the success of building the state left an imprint on the entire process. The juridical metaphor “Parliament represents the person of the king without intermediaries” reflected the status of the judicial department. It has evolved in the context of the formation of the public legal foundations of the monarchy. At first, it was similar to the function of procurators-representatives who were delegated the authority to speak on behalf of another person or group. The emergent concepts of eternity of the crown and “the immortal body of the king” transformed the essence of metaphor, turning the Parliament into a representative “image” of the crown, not the person of monarch. This transformation was clearly reflected in the funeral ceremony of the king of France, where the presidents of Parliament occupied a privileged position and had a different appearance from the rest. The establishment of the principle of publicity was strongly promoted by the judicial procedure itself: the trial was conducted openly, in front of the public, in French, in the symbolically significant Royal Palace in Cité. Finally, the Parliament actively promoted the principle of protecting the common good as the basis and goal of Royal power. By the end of this period, Parliament claims to be the protector of the “common interest” and the intermediary between the crown and society.