Ordinance of 9 August 1944

The Ordinance of 9 August 1944 was a constitutional law enacted by the Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF) during the Liberation of France which re-established republican rule of law in mainland France[1][2][3] after four years of occupation by Nazi Germany and control by the collaborationist Vichy regime.

The refusal to consider the Vichy regime as a legally constituted authority was a constant in the Free France founded by Charles de Gaulle.

[4] Already in his Brazzaville Manifesto of 27 October 1940, the general had proclaimed that there was no longer a French government, and that "the Vichy-based organization that claims to bear this name is unconstitutional and submits to the invader",[4][a] even as he published on the same day the first Ordinance of Free France establishing the Empire Defense Council,[2] which organized "the legal authority in all parts of the [colonial] Empire liberated from control of the enemy ... based on French legislation prior to 23 June 1940.

"[5][4][b] Promulgated in Algiers by the GPRF led by General de Gaulle,[6] the ordinance expunged all trappings of legality from the Vichy regime, declaring all constitutional regulatory texts enacted by the regime of Pétain and Laval to be void ab initio,[c] beginning with the Constitutional Law of 10 July 1940.

[7] Through the text of this ordinance Free France, embodied by the GPRF and led by General de Gaulle, retroactively constituted itself as the continuous and uninterrupted extension of the French Republic.