Parallel to what happened in other countries of continental Europe, the expression “Etat de droit” first appeared in France as a translation of the German “Rechtsstaat”. For the most part of the Twentieth century, its usage was confined to the work of Public Law scholars, often in connection or in reference to German legal thought. Not until the late 1970s, with the rise of the Constitutional Council and the extension of judicial review to parliamentary legislation, did the expression become part of mainstream legal and political discourse. As elsewhere, politicians, scholars and judges tend to invoke it as a self-congratulatory rhetorical device. The “Etat de droit” is meant to be something good, but what it exactly means is not quite clear. To the extent that it is not wholly devoid of descriptive content, the phrase loosely denotes the idea of legality and the imperative that governmental acts be subject to judicial review, in particular judicial review by a constitutional court.