Constitution of the Republic of Chile, 1925

From Roach Busters

Contents 1 CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF CHILE 1.1 CHAPTER IThe State, Government and Sovereignty 1.2 CHAPTER IINationality and Citizenship 1.3 CHAPTER IIIConstitutional Guarantees 1.4 CHAPTER IVThe National Congress 1.4.1 The Chamber of Deputies 1.4.2 The Senate 1.4.3 Attributes of Congress

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.

14) Protection of labor, industry and the works of social security, especially as referring to sanitary dwellings and economic conditions of living, so as to give to each inhabitant a minimum of well-being adequate for the satisfaction of his personal needs and those of his family. The law shall regulate this operation.

The State shall favor the suitable partition of estates and the creation of family holdings.

No kind of labor or industry can be prohibited unless it be contrary to good usage, the public security or public health, or as the national interests may demand a law so declare.

It is the duty of the State to care for the public health and hygienic welfare of the country. It must provide each year a sufficient amount of money to maintain a national health service.

15) Freedom to reside in any part of the Republic, to move from one place to another, or to depart from the territory, under the conditions that police regulations be observed, and saving always prejudice to a third party; otherwise, no one can be detained, prosecuted, arrested or deported except in the manner as determined by the laws.

Article 11. No one can be sentenced unless he be legally tried in accordance with a law promulgated prior to the act upon which the trial is based.

Article 12. No one can be tried by special commissions, or otherwise than by the tribunal the law appoints and has previously constituted.

Article 13. No one can be arrested except by the order of a public functionary expressly empowered by law, and after such order has been made known to him, in legal form, unless he be surprised in flagrante delicto, and in this case for the sole purpose of being brought before the proper judge.

Article 14. No one can be arrested, subjected to preventive detention or imprisoned except in his dwelling or in public places intended for this purpose.

Those in charge of prisons cannot receive therein anyone in the character of arrested, indicted or imprisoned without transcribing in their registers the detention order issued by an authority having legal capacity. They may nevertheless receive within the precincts of the prison for detention those brought for the purpose of being presented before the proper judge, but under obligation to render an account to the latter within twenty-four hours.

Article 15. In case an authority orders the arrest of any person, he must, within the forty-eight hours following, make report thereof to the proper judge and place at his disposal the person detained.

Article 16. Every individual who may be arrested, charged, or imprisoned contrary to the provisions of the foregoing articles may apply, for himself, or by anyone in his name, to the judicial authority designated by law, petitioning that the legal requirements be observed. This judicial authority shall order the individual to be brought before him and his order shall be exactly obeyed by all those having charge of the prisons and places of detention. Informed of the facts he shall declare his immediate release, or cause the legal defects to be corrected, or put the individual at the disposition of the proper judge, proceeding throughout in a brief and summary manner, correcting the defects personally, or referring them for correction to whomever it may concern.

Article 17. No order of incommunication shall prevent the official in charge of a house of detention from visiting the person detained, charged, or imprisoned therein.

This official is obliged, provided that he person detained so requires, to transmit to the proper judge a copy of the order of arrest, or make demand that he be given a copy, or himself give a certificate that such a person is arrested, if at the time of his arrest the necessary order was overlooked.

Article 18. In criminal cases the accused shall not be obliged to testify under oath about his own actions, nor can his ascendents, descendents, spouse, or relations within the third degree of consanguinity or second of affinity, inclusive, be obliged so to testify.

Torture shall not be applied, nor in any case confiscation of property be imposed, except forfeiture in the cases established by law.

Article 19. No person, unless answerable for an offense to which the law attaches afflictive punishment, shall be detained or subjected to preventive imprisonment if he be sufficiently bonded personally, or in indemnification of the action, in the form and according to the nature of the cases as determined by law.

Article 20. Every person who is acquitted, or whose prosecution is definitively abandoned, shall have the right to be indemnified in the manner determined by law, for the pecuniary or merely moral injuries that he may have unjustly suffered.

Article 21. The State treasuries shall not make any payments except by virtue of an order issued by competent authority in which shall be stated the law or the part of the budget authorizing said payment.

An autonomous institution known as the Comptrollership General of the Republic shall control the revenues and expenditures of the national treasury, the Municipalities, the Office of Public Welfare, and of other offices as determined by law; it shall examine and pass upon the accounts of the persons responsible for the property of such entities, keep the general accounts of the nation, and discharge such other duties as may be provided for by law. Excepted from this provision are the accounts of the National Congress, which will be governed by its own internal regulations.

The Comptrollership shall not enforce decrees that exceed the limit fixed in paragraph 10 of Article 72 of the Constitution, and shall transmit complete copies of the records to the Chamber of Deputies.

It shall also send a copy to the same Chamber of the decrees of which it takes cognizance, and which are issued with the signature of all the Ministers of State, as provided for in the paragraph cited above.

Article 22. The public forces are essentially obedient. No armed body can deliberate.

Article 23. Every resolution the President of the Republic, the Chamber of Deputies, the Senate or the Courts of Justice may agree to in the presence of or on demand of an army, a commandant at the head of an armed force, or of any assembly of people, with or without arms and in disobedience of the authorities, is null in law and cannot produce any effect.

CHAPTER IV
The National Congress

Article 24. The National Congress is composed of two branches: the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.

Article 25. In elections of Deputies and Senators a method shall be used, that, in practice, will result in giving an effective proportionality in representation to opinions and to political parties.

Article 26. Verification of the elections of Deputies and Senators and cognizance of nullification protests that may be brought against them, are under the jurisdiction of the Qualification Court.

But both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate are empowered exclusively to pass upon the disability of their members and to accept their resignations if the causes upon which the disability is founded be of such nature as to make them unfit physically or morally for the discharge of their duties. In order for a resignation to be accepted two thirds of the Deputies or Senators present must concur.

Article 27. In order to be elected Deputy or Senator it is necessary to possess the requisites of citizenship with right of suffrage and never to have been sentenced for an offense subject to afflictive punishment.

Senators in addition must have attained thirty-five years of age.

Article 28. The following cannot be elected Deputies or Senators:

1. Ministers of State.
2. Intendants and Governors.
3. Magistrates of the Superior Courts of Justice, scholastic judges (jueces de letras) and officials of the Public Ministry.
4. Natural persons and the agents or administrators of juridical persons or companies who have contracts with the State, or are sureties for the same.

Article 29. The offices of Deputies and Senators are incompatible inter se and with those of Representatives and Municipal councilors. They are likewise incompatible with every public employment paid from government or municipal funds and with every service or commission of the same kind, with the exception of employments, services or commissions of higher, secondary and special education, located in the city in which Congress holds its sessions.

The person elected must choose between the office of Deputy or Senator and another office, employment, service or commission that he may be discharging, within fifteen days, if he be within the territory of the Republic, and within one hundred days if he be absent therefrom. These periods shall be counted from the approval of the election. In default of a choice declared within the period the person elected shall cease holding his office of Deputy or Senator.

Article 30. No Deputy or Senator, from the moment of his election and until six months after the termination of office, shall be named for any service, commission or public employment paid from government or municipal funds.

This provision does not control in case of foreign war, nor is it to be applied to the offices of President of the Republic, Ministers of State and diplomatic agents, but only those offices conferred during the existence of a state of war are compatible with the functions of Deputy or Senator.

Article 31. A Deputy or Senator wh 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.

Likewise, a Deputy or Senator shall cease to hold his office who, during its exercise, enters into or becomes surety for contracts with the State; and one who acts as counsel or attorney in any kind of proceeding pending against the Treasury, or as solicitor or agent in person negotiations of an administrative character.

Article 32. Deputies and Senators are inviolable for the opinions they express and the votes they cast in the discharge of their offices.

Article 33. No Deputy or Senator from the day of his election can be indicted, prosecuted or arrested, except in a case in flagrante delicto, unless the Court of Appeals of the respective jurisdiction, in open session, has previously authorized the indictment by declaring that there exist grounds for prosecution. From this decision an appeal may be taken to the Supreme Court.

Article 34. In case of any Deputy or Senator being arrested in flagrante delicto he shall be immediately placed at the disposition of the respective Court of Appeals with the summary information. The Court will then proceed in accordance with the provisions of the preceding article.

Article 35. From the moment in which it is declared, by a final decision, that there exist grounds for prosecution the accused Deputy or Senator becomes suspended from his office and is at the disposal of the competent judge.

Article 36. If a Deputy or Senator dies or ceases for any cause, before the last year of his term, to belong to the Chamber of Deputies or to the Senate, he shall be replaced in the manner provided by the electoral law, for the period that remains of his term.

A Deputy or Senator who accepts the position of Minister of State must be replaced within thirty days.

The Chamber of Deputies

Article 37. The Chamber of Deputies is composed of members elected by the departments, or by groups of adjoining departments within each province, as the law may provide, by direct vote and in the manner determined by the electoral law.

One Deputy shall be elected for each thirty thousand inhabitants and for a fraction of not less than fifteen thousand.

Article 38. The Chamber of Deputies shall be renewed in the aggregate every four years.

Article 39. Exclusive attributes of the Chamber of Deputies are:

1) To declare whether or not there are grounds for the accusations that ten, at the least, of its members may formulate against the following officials:

a) The President of the Republic, for acts of his administration by which the honor or the security of the State may be gravely compromised, or the Constitution or the laws openly infringed. Such an accusation may be introduced while the President is in office and in the six months following the expiration of his term. During this latter period the President cannot absent himself from the Republic without permission of the Chamber.

b) The Ministers of State, for the offenses of treason, extortion, misappropriation of public funds, bribery, violation of the Constitution, disregard of the laws in having failed to cause their execution, and for having gravely compromised the security or the honor of the nation. Such accusations may be introduced while the Minister is in office and in the three months following the expiration of his term. During this latter period the Minister cannot absent himself from the Republic without permission of the Chamber, or in its recess of its President.

c) The Magistrates of the Superior Courts of Justice and the Comptroller General of the Republic for flagrant dereliction of duty.

d) The Generals or Admirals of the armed forces for having compromised gravely the security or the honor of the Nation.

e) Intendants and Governors for the offenses of treason, sedition, infringement of the Constitution, misappropriation of public funds, and extortion.

In all these cases the Chamber, after hearing the accused and the report of a committee of five Deputies, chosen by lot, excluding the accusers, shall declare within ten days whether or not there be grounds for prosecution. The committee report must be presented within six days, after which the Chamber shall proceed without it. If its vote is affirmative the Chamber shall name three Deputies to formulate the charges and prosecute them before the Senate. If the accused does not attend the session to which he is cited or does not send a written defense, the Chamber may renew the citation or proceed without his defense.

In order to declare that there be grounds for prosecution in the case of letter (a), the vote of the majority of the Deputies entitled to vote shall be necessary.

In other cases the accused shall be suspended from office from the moment in which the Chamber declares that there are grounds for prosecution. The suspension shall cease if the Senate rejects the accusation or does not pass upon it within the thirty days following.

2) To scrutinize the acts of the Government. In order to exercise this attribute the Chamber may, on vote of a majority of the Deputies present, adopt resolutions or make suggestations that shall be forwarded in writing to the President of the Republic. The resolutions or suggestions shall not affect the political responsibilities of the Ministers and shall be answered in writing by the President of the Republic or verbally by the appropriate Minister.

The Senate

Article 40. The Senate is composed of members elected by direct ballot for the nine provincial groups, as fixed by law, with regard to the characteristics and interests of the several regions of the territory of the Republic. Each group is entitled to elect five Senators.

Article 41. The Senate shall be renewed every four years by parts in the manner determined by law. Each Senator shall remain eight years in office.

Article 42. Exclusive attributes of the Senate are:

1) To take cognizance of the accusations that the Chamber of Deputies may present in accordance with Article 39, after a prior hearing of the accused. If the latter does not attend the session to which he is cited or does not send a written defense, the Senate may renew the citation or proceed without his defense.

The Senate shall act as a jury and shall limit itself to declaring whether the accused is or is not guilty of the offense or abuse of power charged against him.

The declaration of guilt must be pronounced by a two-thirds part of the Senators entitled to vote when the matter is an accusation against the President of the Republic, and by a majority of the Senators entitled to vote in other cases.

Through the declaration of guilt the accused becomes deprived of his office.

The official found guilty shall be tried in accordance with the laws by the ordinary tribunal having jurisdiction, both for the application of the penalty as prescribed for the offense committed and for fixing civil liability for losses and damages caused to the State or to private persons.

2) To decide whether there are grounds for the admissio of accusations that any private individual may present against the Ministers on account of damage he may have suffered unjustly from any act of theirs, according to the same procedure as in the foregoing number.

3) To declare whether there are grounds for prosecution, as regards criminality, against Intendants and Governors. Excepted therefrom is the case where the accusation is initiated by the Chamber of Deputies.

4) To take cognizance of conflicts in jurisdiction that may arise between the political or administrative authorities and the Superior Courts of Justice.

5) To grant rehabilitation referred to in Article 9.

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.

7) To give advice to the President of the Republic in all cases in which he may consult it.

Attributes of Congress

Article 43. Exclusive attributes of Congress are:

1) To approve or disapprove annually the statement of disbursement of funds intended for the expenses of the public administration, which the Government must present.

2) To give its consent for the President of the Republic to leave the national territory.

3) To declare, when the President of the Republic tenders his resignation from office, whether or not the causes upon which he bases it do disable him from holding the office, and in consequence whether to accept or to refuse the resignation.

4) To declare, when there may be occasion for doubts, whether the disability that debars the President from the exercise of his functions is of such a nature that a new election should be held.

5) To approve or disapprove treaties that, before their ratification, the President of the Republic presents to it.

All of the above resolutions shall be subject in Congress to the same procedure as a law.

Article 44. Only by virtue of a law is it possible:

1) To impose taxes of any kind or nature, to repeal existing taxes, to fix their apportionment when necessary among the provinces or communes, and to determine their proportionality or progression.