Corps législatif

The Corps législatif was a part of the French legislature during the period of the French Revolution and beyond.

During the period of the French Directory, beginning in 1795, the Corps législatif referred to the bicameral legislature of the Conseil des Cinq-Cents (Council of Five Hundred) and the Conseil des Anciens (Council of Ancients). Later, under Napoleon's Consulate, the Corps législatif was the law-making body of the three-part government apparatus. Napoleon grew more impatient with its slow deliberations. It was stripped of much of its power in 1804, and abolished by Louis XVIII in 1814.

When Napoleon III gained power, he re-constituted the Corps, and the name was finally changed to Chamber of Deputies by the Third Republic.

The generic French term corps législatif refers to any legislative body.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wood, James, ed. (1907). The Nuttall Encyclopædia. London and New York: Frederick Warne. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)