Authoritarian abuse over the French right (8)
I believe the answer is:
stickler
'authoritarian' is the definition.
(I know that stickler is a type of martinet)
'abuse over the french right' is the wordplay.
'abuse' becomes 'stick' (stick can mean criticism or abuse).
'over' says to put letters next to each other.
'the french' becomes 'le' ('the' in French).
'right' becomes 'r' (common abbreviation).
'stick'+'le'+'r'='STICKLER'
(Other definitions for stickler that I've seen before include "Pernickety person" , "One insistent on things being just so" , "Disciplinarian, martinet" , "Particular type" , "One's less than flexible" .)