E. Boutmy's political-legal ideas on French constitutional acts

The article analyzes the political and legal views of the French political scientist, sociologist and legal expert of the late XIX - early XX centuries Émile Boutmy on constitutional construction in France. The main ideas of the French researcher on con- stitutional acts in a comparative legal context are analyzed. It is shown that the focus of E. Boutmy was the disclosure of the concept of “sovereignty” through the prism of comprehension of historical and legal traditions in France, the USA and Eng- land. Changes in constitutional and legal institutions are conditioned by different nature, causing their causes, which affects the principles of building state power. For France it is characteristic to count the power institutions from the revolutionary events of the late 18th century, which predetermined their subsequent constitutional instability. In England, constitutional institutions developed in the course of a long historical development and had treaty bases. The US Constitution had the form of an imperative act created on a contractual basis by individual states. The main ideas of E. Boutmy on the consolidation and actual realization of human rights in the perspective of their constitutional and legal consolidation are analyzed. There is shown certain continuity in the consideration of fundamental human rights and freedoms in the French political and legal thought of the second half of the 19th century. A conclusion is drawn about the peculiarities of political and legal interpreta- tion of E. Boutmy's constitutional acts.