[jacquesm]

Yes, it does. There was a ruling long ago (early 1970's) which led to the formal inclusion of the Universal rights of man in the French constitution. It was only referenced (think of that as a hyperlink) and this reference was expanded to include the text in full.

We covered some of this in our class on 'staatsinrichting' where not only the Dutch but also other important European countries organizations were discussed. This one stands out for me because it seems that at least one European country got this one exactly right.

[martindelemotte]

It's interesting to note that since the revolution the French legislators have had an universalist view of things. The goal was to spread the enlightenment ideas to the world (who said the French weren't pretentious).

Of course in practice things haven't always followed the theory. For example in French colonies, although indigenous people were supposed to enjoy the same protections than the French colonists, it didn't happen that way. The excuse was that they needed to be put "up to speed" first.