The Tribunat was one of the four assemblies set up in France by the Constitution of Year VIII. It was set up officially on 1 January 1800 at the same time as the Corps législatif. Its first president was the historian Pierre Daunou, whose independent spirit led to his dismissal from the post by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802. The Tribunat assumed some of the functions of the Council of Five Hundred, but its role consisted only of deliberating projected laws before their adoption by the Corps législatif, with the legislative initiative remaining with the Council of State.
Elections
As with elections to the Corps législatif, members of the Tribunat were not elected by direct universal suffrage. They were chosen via a complex process by the Senate from the "national lists of notables" set up following a series of votes "en cascade" - the citizens would first elect "communal notables" from one tenth of their number, who would choose "departmental notables" from one tenth of their number, who would in turn choose "national notables" from another one tenth of their number.
Functions
The Tribunat's function was to send three orators to discuss proposed laws with government orators in the presence of the Corps législatif. It could not vote on such laws, but its decisions did have some consequence, if only as a consultative opinion, with the final decision always coming back as a last resort to the First Consul, who might or might not take the Tribunat's opinion into account. The Tribunat could also ask the Senate to overturn "the lists of eligibles, the acts of the Legislative Body and those of the government" on account of unconstitutionality, but the Tribunat's opinion was, once again, non-binding.
History
Shortly after the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire, the Tribunat became a focus of opposition to the regime the First Consul was in the process of setting up. Also, on 7 January, Benjamin Constant entered the Tribunat and, in a speech that made him leader of the opposition, denounced "the regime of servitude and silence" Bonaparte was preparing. The Tribunat was made up of liberal personalities like Constant, whose independent point of view Bonaparte saw as prejudicial to the public order and political unity he was trying to establish. Thus it was first purged after its opposition to the projected Code civil in 1802, then suppressed by a decree of the Senate in 1807, with its remaining functions and members absorbed into the Corps législatif. It is notable that the Corps législatif tended to reinforce the powers of the executive. The introduction of the plebiscite, reducing the chambers' legitimacy and thus their power, had the same aim. The Tribunat was an organ intended to improve separation of powers, but the way that the separation of powers was structured did not let the Tribunat run effectively.
