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==<center>'''TITLE V'''<br><u>The Legislative Power</u></center>==
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D7ZJWC Thanks a lot for the article post.Really thank you! Fantastic.
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<center>Chapter I<br><u>Organization and Powers</u></center>
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<u>Article.</u> The legislative power shall be exercised by Congress.
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<u>Article.</u> The latter shall be composed of two chambers: one of deputies and the other of senators, which shall function jointly or separately according to the various provisions of this Constitution.
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<u>Article.</u> Congress is competent:
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(1) To enact Codes and other laws; to interpret, amend, and repeal existing laws;
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<br>(2) To open and close ordinary and extraordinary legislative sessions at the time which the Constitution fixes;
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<br>(3) To designate its meeting place and determine whether there are or are not to be armed forces, in what number and at what distance;
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<br>(4) To establish tribunals and regulate the administration of justice and of contentious-administrative matters;
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<br>(5) To examine infractions of the Constitution and do what is necessary in order to make effective the responsibility of those who infringe it;
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<br>(6) To establish or to modify the political or the administrative division of the country;
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<br>(7) To approve or disapprove annually the statement of disbursement of funds intended for the expenses of the public administration, which the government must present;
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<br>(8) To levy the necessary taxes to meet budgetary expenditures, provide for their distribution, collection and appropriation, and to repeal, modify, or increase those in existence;
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<br>(9) To authorize the executive power to negotiate loans pledging the national treasury and indicating funds for their amortization;
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<br>(10) To recognize the national debt and indicate the means for its consolidation and amortization;
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<br>(11) To approve each year the estimate of receipts and in the same law to fix the expenditures of the public administration;
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<br>(12) To establish mints, to prescribe the weight, fineness, value, type, and denomination of the coinage, to determine the value of foreign currencies, and to adopt a general system of weights and measures;
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<br>(13) To create and abolish public posts and assign to them the proper emoluments, with the exception of those whose creation or abolition devolves on other bodies according to the law;
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<br>(14) To specify the functions of government employees and indicate the territorial jurisdictions in which they are to be exercised;
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<br>(15) To approve or disapprove, by an absolute majority of the full membership of both chambers, the treaties, conventions, concordats, and other international agreements which the executive power may make with foreign powers;
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<br>(16) To regulate trade with foreign nations;
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<br>(17) To designate each year the armed forces that may be necessary. Military effectives may be increased only by an absolute majority of the votes of the full membership of each chamber;
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<br>(18) To authorize the executive power to declare war and conclude peace;
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<br>(19) On the proposal of the executive power, to issue military ordinances and enact the organic law of the military courts;
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<br>(20) To authorize, for specific periods of time, on the proposal of the executive power, concessions for the establishment of new industries or national public services, as well as for the extraction and transformation of raw materials;
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<br>(21) To accept or reject the resignation from his post of the President of the Republic;
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<br>(22) To declare vacant the Presidency of the Republic in the cases which the Constitution indicates;
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<br>(23) To establish new archbishoprics and bishoprics or to abolish those already existing at the request of the executive power;
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<br>(24) To elect, in joint session of both chambers, the Comptroller-General and the Prosecutor General;
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<br>(25) To accept or reject the resignation of the members of the Comptroller-General and of the president of the Prosecutor General;
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<br>(26) To grant pardons by a two-thirds vote of the full membership of Congress in joint session, and to grant amnesties in extraordinary cases, by an absolute majority vote of the full membership of each chamber;
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<br>(27) To establish the legal rules governing the transfer and lease of fiscal and municipal assets;
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<br>(28) To establish rules for the occupation and alienation of vacant lands and fix their price;
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<br>(29) To open and close ports and to establish, transfer, or close down maritime and frontier custom houses, and designate their location;
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<br>(30) To grant awards and extend temporary privileges permitted by the Constitution to authors and inventors of works of general utility and to persons who have introduced new industries or improved existing ones;
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<br>(31) To regulate river, maritime, air, and space navigation;
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<br>(32) To register ships and aircraft as Higueran in accordance with the law;
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<br>(33) To change, under extraordinary circumstances on serious grounds of public necessity, the seat of any or all government organs;
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<br>(34) To grant honorary citizenship to foreigners who have rendered eminent services to the Republic; and
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<br>(35) To exercise any other powers that are within its competence according to this Constitution.
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<center>Chapter II<br><u>Chamber of Deputies</u></center>
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<u>Article.</u> The Chamber of Deputies shall consist of one hundred and twenty deputies elected, with their respective alternates, in the manner and by the electoral circumscriptions determined by law.
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The number of deputies may be changed by law, the enactment of which shall require a two-thirds vote of the full membership of each chamber.
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<u>Article.</u> Deputies shall have a term of office of five years.
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<u>Article.</u> The qualifications for being elected deputy are the following:
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(1) To be a native citizen in full exercise of civil rights;
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<br>(2) To have attained twenty-five years of age at the time of the election;
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<br>(3) To be a native of the region to which the electoral circumscription belongs or to have had three years' continuous residence therein; and
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<br>(4) Not to be included within any of the grounds for incapacity indicated in Article _____.
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<u>Article.</u> It appertains to the Chamber of Deputies:
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(1) To initiate the consideration of bills relating to the tax, monetary, and banking systems, to the General Budget of Revenues and Expenditures of the Republic, to the contracting of loans, and to electoral or municipal legislation;
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<br>(2) To supervise, through a committee drawn from its body, the correct performance of the functions of the Office of the Comptroller-General;
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<br>(3) To vote resolutions of censure against the Ministers of State. A censure motion shall be debated only two days after being submitted to the Chamber of Deputies, which shall have the power to decide by an absolute majority of the full membership of the Chamber that the censure shall include the removal from office of the Minister or Ministers concerned;
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<br>(4) To agree to State intervention in regional or municipal governments, in accordance with the provisions of Article _____ of the Constitution;
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<br>(5) To impeach before the Senate the President and Vice President of the Republic, the members of both chambers, the Ministers and Vice Ministers of State, and the members of the Supreme Court of Justice, for violation of the Constitution or the laws, or other serious offenses, after taking cognizance of the matter upon petition of a party or by one of its members, and having decided that there are grounds for prosecution; and
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<br>(6) To exercise any other powers which this Constitution expressly confers upon it.
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<center>Chapter III<br><u>Senate</u></center>
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<u>Article.</u> The Senate shall consist of sixty regular senators and their respective alternates, elected by the regions, in conformity with the law.
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The former Presidents of the Republic who held the presidency by direct popular vote shall be life members of the Senate; and the presidential candidate of the party that obtained second place in the corresponding popular vote shall be a member of the Senate for the term for which he was nominated.
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<u>Article.</u> The term of office of senators chosen by popular election is five years. The same period applies to the presidential candidate of the party that obtained second place in the election of the supreme authorities.
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<u>Article.</u> The qualifications for being elected senator are the following:
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(1) To be a native citizen in full exercise of civil rights;
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<br>(2) To have attained thirty-five years of age at the time of the election; and
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<br>(3) Not to be included within any of the grounds for incapacity indicated in Article _____.
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<u>Article.</u> It appertains to the Senate:
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(1) To initiate the consideration of bills relating to national defense, to amnesty and general pardons, and to the ratification of treaties, conventions, concordats, and other international agreements;
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<br>(2) To consent to the appointment of the members of the Supreme Court of Justice, the attorney general, and the ambassadors and ministers plenipotentiary of the foreign service of the Republic, as well as to military promotions beginning with and including the rank of colonel in the army, or its equivalent in the other branches of the armed forces and in the services;
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<br>(3) To permit or prohibit the entry of foreign troops into the territory of the Republic, and in the former case, to fix the time when they must depart. Excepted from the above are forces which may enter for the sole purpose of doing honor and whose entry shall be authorized by the executive power;
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<br>(4) To refuse or permit the expedition of national forces outside the Republic, in the latter case fixing the time for their return to the country;
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<br>(5) To authorize public officials or employees to accept posts, honors, or recompense from foreign governments;
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<br>(6) To grant or deny its consent to the acts of the President of the Republic in cases in which the Constitution or the law so requires. If the Senate does not pass upon the matter within thirty days after call for urgency by the President of the Republic, its consent shall be taken for granted;
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<br>(7) To initiate the public trial of those impeached by the Chamber of Deputies and to pronounce sentence, by a two-thirds vote of its full membership, and such sentence shall have the sole effect of removal from office. An impeached person whom the Senate has removed from office in accordance with the above shall nevertheless be subject to trial according to law; and
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<br>(8) To exercise any other powers which this Constitution may assign to it.
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<u>Article.</u> The incompatibilities mentioned in Article _____ shall not apply to life senators. The holding of any public office declared incompatible shall merely suspend the right to serve as a life senator during the time he occupies the other position.
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<center>Chapter IV<br><u>Sessions of Congress</u></center>
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<u>Article.</u> Congress shall begin its sessions on the fifteenth of March of each year, meeting until the fifteenth of December, or only until October fifteenth, in the event that there are elections, and the new Congress must in that event begin its sessions on the fifteenth of the following February.
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Congress shall meet on the dates indicated, without the necessity of special convocation by the executive power.
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Only for grave and urgent reasons may Congress, or either of the chambers, or the executive power, terminate the recess, and then exclusively for the purpose of dealing with the questions which have given rise to the convocation.
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<u>Article.</u> The President of the Senate shall preside over the meetings of the Congress, but if he is unable to do so, the President of the Chamber of Deputies shall preside over them. In default of both, the Vice President of the Senate or of the Chamber of Deputies shall preside, in that order.
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<u>Article.</u> The chambers shall open and close their sessions simultaneously and shall hold their sessions in such a way that the number held by either one shall not exceed the number held by the other by more than three, unless otherwise agreed upon by both.
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Any action taken in either chamber in contravention of this provision is void.
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<center>Chapter V<br><u>Provisions Common to Both Chambers</u></center>
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<u>Article.</u> Deputies and senators represent the nation and are not subject to any imperative mandate.
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<u>Article.</u> Regular elections for members of Congress shall be held simultaneously with those for President of the Republic.
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<u>Article.</u> In being sworn into the chambers, the deputies and senators shall take an oath to fulfill their offices faithfully and patriotically, and to act in every respect in conformity with the provisions of this Constitution.
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<u>Article.</u> Each chamber is the sole judge of the election of its members and their rights and titles. Neither chamber shall open its sessions without the presence of an absolute majority of its members; but a smaller number may compel the absent members to attend the sessions, under a penalty that shall be established in the rules or procedure for absentees.
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<u>Article.</u> By a two-thirds majority vote, each chamber may reprimand or remove any of its members because of misconduct in the performance of duty, incapacity, or physical or mental disability, duly substantiated. In cases of resignation, it shall decide by a simple majority vote.
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<u>Article.</u> No member of Congress may be legally accused or interrogated for any opinions he may express in the performance of his duties as a legislator. From the day he is elected until the end of his term, no senator or deputy may be arrested, except when caught <u>flagrante delicto</u>. In that case, the authority taking action shall place him in custody in his residence and shall immediately notify the corresponding chamber of this occurrence, and shall transmit the antecedents of this case to the lower courts. Should the latter institute proceedings against the member for that offense, or any other, and if there are grounds for issuance of a warrant for arrest, the judge of the case, before issuing that warrant, shall notify the chamber, which shall, by a two-thirds vote, suspend the accused and place him at the disposal of the judge.
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<u>Article.</u> In the event of a temporary or permanent absence of a member of Congress, he shall be replaced by the corresponding alternate. If the latter is absent, the president of the chamber shall call upon any other alternate of the same political party as the absentee, until the list is exhausted, in accordance with the formalities specified in the respective regulations.
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In the event that the designated alternates refuse to or cannot attend the chamber, the president thereof shall fill the vacancy with alternates of another party of his own choosing.
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<u>Article.</u> A deputy or senator who absents himself from the country for more than thirty days without permission of the chamber to which he belongs, or in the recess thereof, of its president, shall cease to hold his office. Special laws alone can authorize an absence of more than a year.
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<u>Article.</u> Deputies and senators who, without justifiable cause or without permission of the president of the respective chamber, do not attend a session, shall have no right to remuneration for the day on which they were absent.
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<u>Article.</u> Any meeting or action of members of Congress for the purpose of exercising the legislative power, held otherwise than in accordance with the constitutional provisions, shall be void.
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<u>Article.</u> The following may not be elected as deputies or senators:
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(1) Members of the executive power, the judicial power, the Office of the Attorney-General, the Public Ministry, the Office of the Comptroller-General, the regional or municipal councils, or of salaried councils or boards of directors of the autonomous entities;
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<br>(2) Military employees or civil employees of the executive power, the judicial power, the Office of the Attorney-General, the Public Ministry, the Office of the Comptroller-General, the regional or municipal governments, and the autonomous entities, if they receive a salary, but excepting retired or pensioned employees. This provision does not apply to university teaching positions or university technicians with teaching functions, but if the elected deputy or senator chooses to continue in such position, it must be honorary during his term of office. Military persons who resign their posts and salary in order to serve in the legislature shall retain their rank but for the duration of their legislative functions they may not be promoted; they shall be exempt from all military discipline and the time during which they hold their legislative position shall not be counted for purposes of seniority for promotion;
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<br>(3) Those who administer or have administered or collected national, regional, or municipal funds, until their accounts have been settled;
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<br>(4) Those who are part of an enterprise that operates a public service or has obtained a concession from the government, or those who are attorneys, representatives, or advisers of such an enterprise;
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<br>(5) Members of the clergy; and
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<br>(6) Those whose citizenship rights are suspended.
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<u>Article.</u> Deputies and senators shall be compensated for their services by a monthly salary which they shall receive during their term of office and which shall be fixed by a two-thirds vote of the full membership of Congress in joint session in the last period of each legislature, to affect the members of the following legislature. The monthly remuneration to the deputies and senators may not be renounced, withheld, or attached.
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<u>Article.</u> The armed forces may not enter the premises of either chamber or of the Congress in joint session except at the request of the presiding officer, and they shall remain at his orders.
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<u>Article.</u> The sessions of the chambers and of Congress in joint session shall be public, except in those cases in which it is otherwise established by this Constitution or the respective regulations.
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<u>Article.</u> No regular deputy or senator, or alternate holding office, from the time of his election or installation, may be appointed or elected to public office or employment paid from national, regional, or municipal government funds, and the appointment shall have no legal effect unless he first resigns as a representative. The following positions are excepted from the incompatibility stipulated in this article: positions on international arbitration tribunals, in the field of teaching, on the boards of directors of the universities, and those on the social welfare boards.
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They may also be members of technical or scientific commissions or hospital directors or physicians.
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<u>Article.</u> For the purposes of voting in the chambers of Congress, a simple majority shall be understood to mean one half of the legal quorum plus one; an absolute majority, at least the legal quorum; a two-thirds majority, two-thirds of the legal quorum; and a two-thirds absolute majority, two thirds of the total number of members of each chamber. The legal quorum shall consist of one half of that total, plus one, in each case. When the type of majority is not specified, it shall be understood to be a simple majority.
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<u>Article.</u> Each chamber shall be governed internally by such regulations as it may issue, and when they meet in joint session, by such rules as Congress may make.
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<u>Article.</u> Each chamber shall elect its President and Vice President, appoint its secretaries and personnel, organize its police services, approve and execute its budget of expenses on the basis of the annual item fixed in the respective law, and execute and order the execution of resolutions concerning its functioning and the exclusive powers previously enunciated.
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<u>Article.</u> Any legislator may ask the (to be fixed)Ministers of State, the Supreme Court of Justice, the Electoral Court, the Contentious-Administrative Tribunal, and the Tribunal of Accounts,(to be fixed) for such data and information as he may consider necessary for the discharge of his duties. The request shall be made in writing and through the intermediary of the president of the respective chamber, who will transmit it immediately to the appropriate agency. If the latter does not supply the information within the period to be fixed by law, the legislator may request it through the chamber to which he belongs, which will make final decision in the case.
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Matters pertaining to the jurisdictional business and competence of the judicial power may not be the object of such a request.
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<u>Article.</u> Each chamber has the right, by a resolution of one third of its full membership, to require the presence on its floor of the Ministers of State in order to question them and receive from them information which it considers appropriate, whether for legislative purposes or for purposes of inspection or investigation.
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<u>Article.</u> Each Chamber may appoint parliamentary committees for making investigations or for obtaining data for legislative purposes.
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<center>Chapter VI<br><u>Enactment and Promulgation of the Laws</u></center>
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<u>Article.</u> Acts approved by the chambers as co-legislative bodies are termed laws. Laws which systematically cover rules relating to a given subject may be termed Codes.
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<u>Article.</u> Organic laws are those which are so designated by this Constitution and those which are invested with this character by a two-thirds absolute majority of each chamber when the respective bill is introduced therein.
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Laws which are enacted on matters governed by organic laws are subject to the rules contained in the latter.
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<u>Article.</u> The introduction of bills pertains to:
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(1) Deputies and senators;
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<br>(2) The President of the Republic; and
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<br>(3) The judicial power, when matters relating to judicial organization or procedures are concerned.
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<u>Article.</u> The enactment of laws may commence in either of the two chambers, without distinction, with the exception of bills whose initiation is the responsibility of a given chamber, by express mandate of this Constitution.
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<u>Article.</u> All bills shall be presented with a statement of reasons for them.
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<u>Article.</u> Every bill shall have at least two discussions in each chamber, on different days and in full chamber, in accordance with the rules established in this Constitution and in the respective regulations.
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<u>Article.</u> When a bill is approved in one of the chambers it shall be sent to the other. If the latter approves it without modifications, it becomes sanctioned as law. If it is approved with modifications it is returned to the chamber where it originated.
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If the chamber of origin accepts the modifications, it is thereby sanctioned as law. Otherwise, the chambers in joint session shall decide by majority vote what is to be done with the articles on which there are differences and others having a connection with them, and they may agree on a text different from that adopted by either chamber. When the differences have been settled, the executive power will declare it sanctioned as law.
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<u>Article.</u> Bills rejected may not be considered again in either chamber during the sessions of the same year, unless presented by an absolute majority of one of them.
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The discussion of bills that were pending at the end of one session may be continued in the following sessions if so decided by the respective chamber.
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<u>Article.</u> Magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice have the right to a voice in the discussion of laws relating to judicial organization and procedure.
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<u>Article.</u> Regardless of their stage of passage, the President of the Republic may withdraw any bills that he has sent from Congress and table them or postpone their presentation until another legislative session.
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<u>Article.</u> Within ten days following the receipt by the President of the Republic of a law approved by Congress, the former must promulgate it and order its observance.
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If the executive has observations to make, they shall be presented to Congress within ten days certain. The law having been reconsidered in Congress with the observations of the executive and, nevertheless, again approved, shall be sanctioned and its promulgation and enforcement ordered.
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<u>Article.</u> If the President of the Republic does not promulgate and order the observance of the law within ten days, it shall be promulgated and its observance ordered by the President of Congress, who shall order its publication in some newspaper.
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<u>Article.</u> In drafting laws Congress shall use this formula:
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<center>The Congress of the Republic of Higueras has enacted the following law:
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<br>. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Let it be communicated to the executive power for promulgation.</center>
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The executive, in promulgating and ordering the observance of laws, shall use this formula:
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<center>The President of the Republic:
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<br>Whereas Congress has enacted the following law:
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<br>. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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<br>Therefore: I order that it be published and observed.</center>
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<u>Article.</u> In the interpretation, amendment, or repeal of laws, the same procedure shall be followed as that established for their enactment.
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<u>Article.</u> A law is obligatory from the day following its promulgation and publication, except when the law itself provides otherwise.
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<u>Article.</u> Members of the public can take action before the judicial power against regulations, and against the government resolutions and decrees of a general character which infringe the Constitution or the laws.
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The law shall establish the judicial procedure in question.
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<center>Chapter VII<br><u>Delegated Committee of Congress</u></center>
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<u>Article.</u>
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==<center>'''TITLE VI'''<br><u>The Executive Power</u></center>==
==<center>'''TITLE VI'''<br><u>The Executive Power</u></center>==

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