Congreso
National Constitution
First Part

Chapter I

Declarations, Rights and Guarantees


Section 1.- The Argentine Nation adopts the federal republican representative form of government, as this Constitution establishes.

Section 2.- The Federal Government supports the Roman Catholic Apostolic religion.

Section 3.- The authorities in charge of the Federal Government shall reside in the city to be declared Capital of the Republic by a special law of Congress, once settled the cession of the territory to be federalized by one or more provincial legislatures.

Section 4.- The Federal Government provides for the expenditures of the Nation with the funds of the National Treasury, composed of the proceeds of export and import duties, the sale or lease of lands owned by the Nation, the revenues of the Posts, other taxes equitably and proportionally levied on the population by the National Congress, and of whatever loans and credit transactions Congress may order in case of national emergencies or for enterprises of national interest.

Section 5.- Each province shall enact its own constitution under the republican, representative system, in accordance with the principles, declarations, and guarantees of the National Constitution, ensuring its administration of justice, municipal regime, and elementary education. Under these conditions, the Federal Government shall guarantee each province the full exercise of its institutions.

Section 6.- The Federal Government may intervene in the territory of the provinces in order to guarantee the republican form of government or to repel foreign invasions; and at the request of their constituted authorities, it may intervene to support or reestablish them, should they have been deposed by sedition or invasion from another province.

Section 7.- The public acts and judicial proceedings of one province are worthy of full faith in the others; and Congress may, by general laws, prescribe the manner in which such acts and proceedings shall be proved and the legal effects thereof.

Section 8.- The citizens of each province shall be entitled to all rights, privileges, and immunities inherent in the condition of citizen in the other provinces. The extradition of criminals is a reciprocal obligation among all the provinces.

Section 9.- Throughout the territory of the Nation there shall be no other Customs than the national ones, in which the tariffs enacted by Congress shall be in force.

Section 10.- The circulation of goods of national production or manufacture is free from duties throughout the Republic, as well as the circulation of articles and merchandise of all kinds cleared in the national Customs.

Section 11.- Goods of national or foreign production or manufacture, as well as livestock of all kinds, that may pass through the territory of one province to another, shall be free from the so called transit duties, the same as the carriages, vessels or beasts in or on which they are transported; and no other duty, whatever its name may be, shall be imposed on them by reason of their passing through the territory.

Section 12.- Vessels sailing from one province to another shall not be bound to enter, anchor, or pay transit duties; and no preference shall be granted in any case to any port in respect of another, by means of trading laws or regulations.

Section 13.- New provinces may be admitted into the Nation; but a new province shall neither be established within the territory of another province or provinces, nor be formed from several, without the consent of the legislatures of the provinces concerned as well as that of Congress.

Section 14.- All the inhabitants of the Nation are entitled to the following rights, in accordance with the laws that regulate their exercise, namely: to work and perform any lawful industry; to navigate and trade; to petition the authorities; to enter, remain in, ...travel through, and leave the Argentine territory; to publish their ideas through the press without previous censorship; to make use and dispose of their property; to associate for useful purposes; to profess freely their religion; to teach and to learn.

Section 14bis.- Labor in its several forms shall be protected by law, which shall ensure to workers: dignified and equitable working conditions; limited working hours; paid rest and vacations; fair remuneration; minimum vital and adjustable wage; equal pay for equal work; participation in the profits of enterprises, with control of production and collaboration in the management; protection against arbitrary dismissal; stability of the civil servant; free and democratic labor union organizations recognized by the mere registration in a special record.
Trade unions are hereby guaranteed: the right to enter into collective labor bargains; to resort to conciliation and arbitration; the right to strike. Union representatives shall have the guarantees necessary for carrying out their union tasks and those related to the stability of their employment.
The State shall grant the benefits of social security, which shall be of an integral nature and may not be waived. In particular, the laws shall establish: compulsory social ...insurance, which shall be in charge of national or provincial entities with financial and economic autonomy, administered by the interested parties with State participation, with no overlapping of contributions; adjustable retirements and pensions; full family protection; protection of homestead; family allowances and access to a worthy housing.

Section 15.- In the Argentine Nation there are no slaves: the few who still exist shall become free as from the swearing of his Constitution; and a special law shall regulate whatever compensation this declaration may give rise to. Any contract for the purchase and sale of persons is a crime for which the parties shall be liable, as well as the notary or officer authorizing it. And slaves who by any means enter the nation shall be free by the mere fact of entering the territory of the Republic.

Section 16.- The Argentine Nation admits neither blood nor birth prerogatives: there are neither personal privileges nor titles of nobility. All its inhabitants are equal before the law, and admissible to employment without any other requirement than their ability. Equality is the basis of taxation and public burdens.

Section 17. - Property may not be violated, and no inhabitant of the Nation can be deprived of it except by virtue of a sentence based on law. Expropriation for reasons of public interest must be authorized by law and previously compensated. Only Congress levies the taxes mentioned in Section 4. No personal service can be requested except by virtue of a law or sentence based on law. Every author or inventor is the exclusive owner of his work, invention, or discovery for the term granted by law. The confiscation of property is hereby abolished forever from the Argentine Criminal Code. No armed body may make requisitions nor demand assistance of any kind.

Section 18.- No inhabitant of the Nation may be punished without previous trial based on a law enacted before the act that gives rise to the process, nor tried by special committees, nor removed from the judges appointed by law before the act for which he is tried. Nobody may be compelled to testify against himself, nor be arrested except by virtue of a written warrant issued by a competent authority. The defense by trial of persons and rights may not be violated. The domicile may not be violated, as well as the written correspondence and private papers; and a law shall determine in which cases and for what reasons their search and occupation shall be allowed. Death penalty for political causes, any kind of tortures and whipping, are forever abolished. The prisons of the Nation shall be healthy and clean, for the security and not for the punishment of the prisoners confined therein; and any measure taken with the pretext of precaution which may lead to mortify them beyond the demands of security, shall render liable the judge who authorizes it.

Section 19. - The private actions of men which in no way offend public order or morality, nor injure a third party, are only reserved to God and are exempted from the authority of judges. No inhabitant of the Nation shall be obliged to perform what the law does not demand nor deprived of what it does not prohibit.

Section 20. - Foreigners enjoy within the territory of the Nation all the civil rights of citizens; they may exercise their industry, trade and profession; own real property, buy and sell it; navigate the rivers and coasts; practice freely their religion; make wills and marry under the laws. They are not obliged to accept citizenship nor to pay extraordinary compulsory taxes. They may obtain naturalization papers residing two uninterrupted years in the Nation; but the authorities may shorten this term in favor of those so requesting it, alleging and proving services rendered to the Republic.

Section 21. - Every Argentine citizen is obliged to bear arms in defense of the fatherland and of this Constitution, in accordance with the laws issued by Congress and the Decrees of the National Executive Power to this effect. Citizens by naturalization are free to render or not this service for a period of ten years as from the date they obtain naturalization papers.

Section 22. - The people neither deliberate nor govern except through their representatives and authorities established by this Constitution. Any armed force or meeting of persons assuming the rights of the people and petitioning in their name, commits the crime of sedition.

Section 23. - In the event of domestic disorder or foreign attack endangering the full enforcement of this Constitution and of the authorities hereby established, the province or territory which is in a turmoil shall be declared in state of siege and the constitutional guarantees shall be suspended therein. But during such a suspension the President of the Republic shall not pronounce judgment or apply penalties on his own. In such case, his power shall be limited, with respect to persons, to their arrest or transfer from one place of the Nation to another, should they not prefer to leave the Argentine territory.

Section 24.- Congress shall promote the reform of the present legislation in all its branches, and the establishment of trial by jury.

Section 25.- The Federal Government shall foster European immigration; and may not restrict, limit or burden with any tax whatsoever, the entry into the Argentine territory of foreigners who arrive for the purpose of tilling the soil, improving industries, and introducing and teaching arts and sciences.

Section 26.- Navigation of the inland rivers of the Nation is free for all flags, only subject to the regulations issued by the national authority.

Section 27.- The Federal Government is under the obligation to strengthen its relationships of peace and trade with foreign powers, by means of treaties in accordance with the principles of public law laid down by this Constitution.

Section 28.- The principles, guarantees and rights recognized in the preceding sections shall not be modified by the laws that regulate their enforcement.

Section 29.- Congress may not vest on the National Executive Power - nor may the provincial legislatures vest on the provincial governors - extraordinary powers or the total public authority; it may not grant acts of submission or supremacy whereby the life, honor, or wealth of the Argentine people will be at the mercy of governments or any person whatsoever. Acts of this nature shall be utterly void, and shall render those who formulate them, consent to them or sign them, liable to be condemned as infamous traitors to their fatherland.

Section 30.- The Constitution may be totally or partially amended. The necessity of reform must be declared by Congress with the vote of at least two-thirds of the members; but it shall not be carried out except by an Assembly summoned to that effect.

Section 31.- This Constitution, the laws of the Nation enacted by Congress in pursuance thereof, and treaties with foreign powers, are the supreme law of the Nation; and the authorities of each province are bound thereby, notwithstanding any provision to the contrary included in the provincial laws or constitutions, except for the province of Buenos Aires, the treaties ratified after the Pact of November 11, 1859.

Section 32.- The Federal Congress shall not enact laws restricting the freedom of the press or establishing federal jurisdiction over it.

Section 33.- The declarations, rights and guarantees which the Constitution enumerates shall not be construed as a denial of other rights and guarantees not enumerated, but rising from the principle of sovereignty of the people and from the republican form of government.

Section 34.- The judges of the federal courts cannot at the same time hold an office in the provincial courts. The federal service, whether civil or military, shall not grant a right of residence in the province in which it is performed unless it is where the employee habitually resides, this provision being understood as pertaining to the right to choose employments in the province in which he accidentally happens to be.

Section 35.- The denominations successively adopted from 1810 up to the present, namely: "United Provinces of the River Plate"; "Argentine Republic"; "Argentine Confederation", shall henceforth be official names to be indistinctly used for the designation of the government and territory of the provinces, the words "Argentine Nation" being used in the making and enactment of laws.

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