Coalition and association

The notions “coalition” and “association” are essential to interpreting the intermediary entities that existed between the state and individual citizens after the French Revolution. Even though the relationship between those two notions has been considered obvious in most of the research done to date, “coalition” and “association” were mentioned separately by the French Criminal Code of 1810; and there is still research that refers to one notion only. One of the reasons why the relationship has been considered obvious can be found within the very source used to analyze the amendment to Articles 414-416 of the Criminal Code, which had prohibited “coalition” before this amendment The notion of “association” was mentioned frequently in the bill prepared by a commission of the Corps législatif. To clarify the status of the bill's interpretation of intermediary entities in the contemporary discourse, the author of the present article conducted an exhaustive examination of all the sources relevant to the amendment, and reached the following findings. <br> In the course of the discussion of the amendment, there were two positions: One promoting the family-like association and denying the freedom of coalition, the calling for both the freedoms of coalition and of association within the context of the right to work. The bill prepared by the commission was not completely in accord with either of these two position, rather taking an eclectic stance, assuming that association had its collective interest, while coalition was an aggregation of individual interests, thus considering the freedom of association as an extension of the freedom of coalition. The Corps législatif’s unique interpretation of the intermediary entities went counter to contemporary thinking, and while this strategy of the Corps was effective in successfully establishing the freedom of coalition, the legal status of the freedom of association remained undefined. The interpretation of the intermediary entities posed in the process of the amendment to Articles 414-416, thus, will always be indicated by the social policies of the early Third Republic.