Constitution of the Republic of Chile, 1925

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CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF CHILE

CHAPTER I
The State, Government and Sovereignty

Article 1. The State of Chile is unitary. Its government is republican and representatively democratic.

Article 2. The sovereignty is vested intrinsically in the nation, which delegates the exercise thereof to the authorities that this Constitution establishes.

Article 3. No person or assembly of persons has authority to arrogate the title or representation of the people, to usurp its rights, or to make demands in its name. Violation of this article is sedition.

Article 4. No magistracy, or person, or assembly of persons, not even under the pretext of extraordinary circumstances, is empowered to assume any other authority or rights than those that have been expressly conferred upon them by the laws. Every act in contravention of this article is void.

CHAPTER II
Nationality and Citizenship

Article 5. Chileans are:

1) Those born in the territory of Chile, excepting the children of foreigners who happen to be in Chile in the service of their government, and the children of transient foreigners, all of whom may choose between the nationality of their parents and that of Chile.

2) The children of a Chilean father or mother, born in foreign territory, by the sole act of becoming resident in Chile.

The children of Chileans born abroad, the father or mother being at that time in the service of the republic, are Chileans even for those purposes for which the fundamental, or any other laws, may require birth within Chilean territory.

3) Foreigners who may obtain letters of naturalization in conformity with the law, upon express renunciation of their former nationality. The renunciation of Spanish nationality shall not be required of persons born in Spain who have resided for more than ten years in Chile, provided that in their country this same right is extended to Chileans.

4) Those who have obtained a special grant of naturalization by law.

Naturalized persons will have the right to hold public office by popular election only after five years of being in possession of letters of naturalization.

The law shall prescribe the procedure for choosing between Chilean and foreign nationality, for the granting, denial or cancellation of letters of naturalization, and for the keeping of a register of all these proceedings.

Article 6. Chilean nationality is lost:

1) By naturalization in a foreign country, except in the case of those Chileans included in Nos. 1 and 2 of the preceding Article, who have been naturalized in Spain without the renunciation of their Chilean nationality.

2) By cancellation of the letters of naturalization, that may be reclaimed within a period of ten years before the Supreme Court, which will have jurisdiction in the matter. The interposition of this petition will suspend the effects of the cancellation of the letter of naturalization.

Letters of naturalization issued in favor of persons holding office by popular election cannot be canceled.

3) By lending aid during war to the enemies of Chile or their allies.

Those who have lost Chilean nationality for any of the reasons set forth in this Article cannot be rehabilitated except by law.

The reason for loss of Chilean nationality provided in No. 1 of this Article does not govern in those cases in which, by virtue of legal or constitutional provisions of other countries, Chileans resident therein must adopt the nationality of the country in which they reside as a condition for remaining there.

Article 7. Chileans who have attained twenty-one years of age, who can read and write, and are inscribed in the electoral registers are citizens with the right of suffrage.

These registers shall be open to public inspection and shall be valid for such time as the law may determine.

Inscriptions shall be continuous and shall be suspended only for the periods indicated by law.

In popular elections voting shall always be by secret ballot.

Article 8. The exercise of the right of suffrage is suspended:

1) For physical or mental incapacity that may interfere with free and deliberative action.

2) When the citizen is under indictment for an offense subject to afflictive punishment.

Article 9. The status of citizen with right of suffrage is lost:

1) By loss of Chilean nationality.

2) By sentence to afflictive punishment. Those who on this account may have lost the status of citizenship may petition for rehabilitation by the Senate.

CHAPTER III
Constitutional Guarantees

Article 10. The Constitution ensures to all the inhabitants of the Republic:

1) Equality before the law. In Chile there is no privileged class.

In Chile there are no slaves, and he who sets fot upon its territory becomes free. Chileans cannot engage in the slave traffic. A foreigner who does so cannot live in Chile or be naturalized therein.

2) Practice of all beliefs, liberty of conscience and the free exercise of all religions not contrary to morality, good usage and public order. Therefore, the respective religious bodies have the right to erect and maintain houses of worship and accessory property under the conditions of security and hygiene as fixed by the laws and regulations.

The churches, creeds, and religious institutions of any ritual shall have the right in respect to their property that the laws now in force stipulate or recognize but they will be subject, under the guarantees of this Constitution, to the general law in the exercise of ownership of their fuure-acquired property.

Churches and accessory property intended for the service of any religious sect are exempt from taxation.

3) Freedom to express, without prior censorship, opinions, orally or in writing, through the medium of the press or in any other form, without prejudice to liability for offenses and abuses that may be committed in the exercise of this liberty in the manner and in the cases as determined by law.

4) The right of assembly without prior license and without arms. In plazas, streets and other places of public use, assemblies will be governed by the general police regulations.

5) The right of association without prior license and in conformity with the law.

6) The right of presenting petitions to the constituted authority upon any matter of public or private interest, without any other limitation than that of using respectful and suitable language.

7) The freedom of teaching.

Public education is preferentially an affair of the State.

Primary education is obligatory.

There shall be a Bureau of Public Education in whose charge will be the inspection of national instruction and its direction, under the authority of the Government.

8) Admission to all employments and offices without other conditions than those imposed by the law.

9) The equal apportionment of imposts and taxes in proportion to property, or in graduation or form as fixed by law, and the equal apportionment of other public burdens.

Direct or indirect levies can be imposed only by law, and without such special authorization, every State authority and every individual is prohibited from imposing such, even though it be under pretext of urgency, of being in voluntary form, or of any other nature.

No kind of personal service or contribution can be exacted except by virtue of an order from the proper authority founded upon a law that authorizes the said exaction.

No armed body can make requisitions or exact any kind of aid except through the civil authorities and by order of the latter.

A special law shall prescribe the means for recruitment and replacement of the sea and land forces.

All Chileans able to bear arms, unless they be especially exempt by law, shall be inscribed in the military registers.

10) The Right to ownership of property in its different forms.

The law shall prescribe the manner in which property is to be acquired, used, enjoyed, and disposed of and the limitations and obligations thereon which ensure its social function and render it accessible to all. The social function of property includes whatever may be required by the general interests of the State, public benefits and health, a better utilization of the productive sources and energies in the service of the community, and a raising of the living conditions of the people as a whole.

Whenever the interest of the national community so demands, the law may reserve to the State exclusive domain over natural resources, production goods, or others, declared to be of preeminent importance to the economic, social or cultural life of the country. It shall seek, likewise, a suitable distribution of property and the establishment of family "homesteads".

No one may be deprived of his property except by virtue of a general or special law which authorizes expropriation on grounds of public benefit or social interest, defined by the lawmaker. The expropriated owner shall always have the right to compensation, the amount and terms of payment of which shall be equitably determined by taking into consideration the interest of the community and of the expropriated owner. The law shall prescribe the rules for fixing the compensation, the court which is to hear claims concerning the amount, which shall in all cases rule according to law, the manner of discharging this obligation, and the time and manner in which the expropriator shall take material possession of the expropriated property.

Whenever the expropriation of rural property is concerned, the compensation shall be equivalent to the assessed valuation in effect for purposes of the land tax, plus the value of improvements not included in such valuation, and it may be paid partly in cash and partly in installments over a period of not more than thirty years, all in the manner and under conditions specified by law.

The law may reserve to the national domain for public use all waters existing within the national territory and may expropriate those under private ownership in order to incorporate them in that domain. In such a case, owners of expropriated waters may continue to use them as concessionaries of a right of appropriation and they shall have the right to compensation only when, by total or partial denial of that right, they are effectively deprived of sufficient water to meet, by reasonable and beneficial use, the same needs that were met prior to denial of the right.

Small rural property holdings worked by the owner and the housing inhabited by its proprietor may not be expropriated without previous payment of compensation.

11) Exclusive property in every discovery or production, for such time as the laws may concede. If the law requires its expropriation, the author or inventor shall be given suitable indemnification.

12) Inviolability of the home.

The house of any person living in Chilean territory can be forcibly entered only for a special purpose, determined by law, and by virtue of an order from the competent authority.

13) Inviolability of epistolary and telegraphic correspondence. Public papers or effects shall not be opened, intercepted or examined except in the cases expressly designated by the law.

Constitution of the Republic of Chile, 1925

From Roach Busters

Revision as of 07:08, 21 October 2009

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