Chapter VII (2)

Article 91.
The Supreme Court of Justice shall be composed of eleven
judges, four supernumeraries, one fiscal, and one
attorney-general.

Article 92.
Each of the members of the Supreme Court of Justice shall
remain in office six years, and his election shall be indirect
in the first degree, under conditions established by the
electoral law.

Article 93.
In order to be elected a member of the Supreme Court of
Justice it is necessary that one be learned in the science of
the law in the judgment of the electors, more than thirty-five
years old, and a Mexican citizen by birth, in the exercise of
his rights.

Article 94.
The members of the Supreme Court of Justice, on entering upon
the exercise of their charge, shall take an oath before
Congress, and, in its recesses, before the Permanent
Commission, in the following form: "Do you swear to perform
loyally and patriotically the charge of Magistrate of the
Supreme Court of Justice, which the people have conferred upon
you in conformity with the Constitution, seeking in everything
the welfare and prosperity of the Union?"

[Footnote: See Additions to the Constitution,
September 25, 1873. ]

Article 95.
A member of the Supreme Court of Justice may resign his office
only for grave cause, approved by the Congress, to whom the
resignation shall be presented. In the recesses of the
Congress the judgment shall be rendered by the Permanent
Commission.

Article 96.
The law shall establish and organize the circuit and district
courts.

Article 97.
It belongs to the Federal tribunals to take cognizance of--

I. All controversies which may arise in regard to the
fulfilment and application of the Federal laws, except in the
case in which the application affects only private interests;
such a case falls within the competence of the local judges
and tribunals of the common order of the States, of the
Federal District, and of the Territory of Lower California.

II. All cases pertaining to maritime law.

III. Those in which the Federation may be a party.

IV. Those that may arise between two or more States.

V. Those that may arise between a State and one or more
citizens of another State.

VI. Civil or criminal cases that may arise under treaties with
foreign powers.

VII. Cases concerning diplomatic agents and consuls..

Article 98.
It belongs to the Supreme Court of Justice, in the first
instance, to take cognizance of controversies which may arise
between one State and another, and of those in which the Union
may be a party.

Article 99.
It belongs also to the Supreme Court of Justice to determine
the questions of jurisdiction which may arise between the
Federal tribunals, between these and those of the States, or
between the courts of one State and those of another.

Article 100.
In the other cases comprehended in Article 97, the Supreme
Court of Justice shall be a court of appeal or, rather, of
last resort, according to the graduation which the law may
make in the jurisdiction of the circuit and district courts.

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Article 101.
The tribunals of the Federation shall decide all questions
which arise--

I. Under laws or acts of whatever authority which violate
individual guarantees.

II. Under laws or acts of the State authority which violate or
restrain the sovereignty of the States.

III. Under laws or acts of the State authority which invade
the sphere of the Federal authority.

Article 102.
All the judgments which the preceding article mentions shall
be had on petition of the aggrieved party, by means of
judicial proceedings and forms which shall be prescribed by
law. The sentence shall be always such as to affect private
individuals only, limiting itself to defend and protect them
in the special case to which the process refers, without
making any general declaration respecting the law or act which
gave rise to it.

Article 103.
The Senators, the Deputies, the members of the Supreme Court
of Justice, and the Secretaries of the Cabinet are responsible
for the common crimes which they may commit during their terms
of office, and for the crimes, misdemeanors, and negligence
into which they may fall in the performance of the duties of
said office. The Governors of the States are likewise
responsible for the infraction of the Constitution and Federal
laws. The President of the Republic is also responsible; but
during the term of his office he may be accused only for the
crimes of treason against the country, express violation of
the Constitution, attack on the freedom of election, and grave
crimes of the common order. The high functionaries of the
Federation shall not enjoy any Constitutional privilege for
the official crimes, misdemeanors, or negligence into which
they may fall in the performance of any employment, office, or
public commission which they may have accepted during the
period for which, in conformity with the law, they shall have
been elected. The same shall happen with respect to those
common crimes which they may commit during the performance of
said employment, office, or commission. In order that the
cause may be initiated when the high functionary shall have
returned to the exercise of his proper functions, proceeding
should be undertaken in accordance with the provision of
Article 104 of this Constitution.

Article 104.
If the crime should be a common one, the House of
Representatives, formed into a grand jury, shall declare, by
an absolute majority of votes, whether there is or is not
ground to proceed against the accused. In the negative case,
there shall be no ground for further proceedings; in the
affirmative, the accused shall be, by the said act, deprived
of his office, and subjected to the action of the ordinary
tribunals.

Article 105.
The houses shall take cognizance of official crimes, the House
of Deputies as a jury of accusation, the Senators as a jury of
judgment. The jury of accusation shall have for its object to
declare, by an absolute majority of votes, whether the accused
is or is not culpable. If the declaration should be
absolutory, the functionary shall continue in the exercise of
his office; if it should be condemnatory, he shall be
immediately deprived of his office, and shall be placed at the
disposal of the Senate. The latter, formed into a jury of
judgment, and, with the presence of the criminal and of the
accuser, if there should be one, shall proceed to apply, by an
absolute majority of votes, the punishment which the law
designates.

Article 106.
A judgment of responsibility for official crimes having been
pronounced, no favor of pardon may be extended to the
offender.

Article 107.
The responsibility for official crimes and misdemeanors may be
required only during the period in which the functionary
remains in office, and one year thereafter.

Article 108.
With respect to demands of the Civil order, there shall be no
privilege or immunity for any public functionary.

Article 109.
The States shall adopt for their internal regimen the popular,
representative, republican form of government, and may provide
in their respective Constitutions for the reelection of the
Governors in accordance with what Article 78 provides for the
President of the Republic.

Article 110.
The States may regulate among themselves, by friendly
agreements, their respective boundaries; but those regulations
shall not be carried into effect without the approval of the
Congress of the Union.

Article 111.
The States may not in any case--

1. Form alliances, treaties, or coalitions with another State,
or with foreign powers, excepting the coalition which the
frontier States may make for offensive or defensive war
against the Indians.

II. Grant letters of marque or reprisal.

III. Coin money, or emit paper money or stamped paper.

Article 112.
Neither may any State, without the consent of the Congress of
the Union:

I. Establish tonnage duties, or any port duty, or impose taxes
or duties upon importations or exportations.

II. Have at any time permanent troops or vessels of war,

III. Make war by itself on any foreign power except in cases
of invasion or of such imminent peril as to admit of no delay.
In these cases the State shall give notice immediately to the
President of the Republic.

Article 113.
Each State is under obligation to deliver without delay the
criminals of other States to the authority that claims them.

Article 114.
The Governors of the States are obliged to publish and cause
to be obeyed the Federal laws.

Article 115.
In each State of the Federation entire faith and credit shall
be given to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings
of all the other States. The Congress may, by means of general
laws, prescribe the manner of proving said acts, records, and
proceedings, and the effect thereof.

Article 116.
The powers of the Union are bound to protect the States
against all invasion or external violence. In case of
insurrection or internal disturbance they shall give them like
protection, provided the Legislature of the State, or the
Executive, if the Legislature is not in session, shall request
it.

Article 117.
The powers which are not expressly granted by this
Constitution to the Federal authorities are understood to be
reserved to the States.

Article 118.
No person may at the same time hold two Federal elective
offices; but if elected to two, he may choose which of them he
will fill.

Article 119.
No payment shall be made which is not comprehended in the
budget or determined by a subsequent law.

Article 120.
The President of the Republic, the members of the Supreme
Court of Justice, the Deputies, and other public officers of
the Federation, who are chosen by popular election, shall
receive a compensation for their services, which shall be
determined by law and paid by the Federal Treasury. This
compensation may not be renounced, and any law which augments
or diminishes it shall not have effect during the period for
which a functionary holds the office.

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Article 121.
Every public officer, without any exception, before taking
possession of his office, shall take an oath to maintain this
Constitution and the laws which emanate from it.

[Footnote: See the Additions of September 25, 1873.]

Article 122.
In time of peace no military authority may exercise more
functions than those which have close connection with military
discipline. There shall be fixed and permanent military
commands only in the castles, fortresses, and magazines which
are immediately under the government of the Union; or in
encampments, barracks, or depots which may be established
outside of towns for stationing troops.

Article 123.
It belongs exclusively to the Federal authorities to exercise,
in matters of religious worship and external discipline, the
intervention which the laws may designate.

Article 124.
The States shall not impose any duty for the simple passage of
goods in the internal commerce. The Government of the Union
alone may decree transit duties, but only with respect to
foreign goods which cross the country by international or
interoceanic lines, without being on the national territory
more time than is necessary to traverse it and depart to the
foreign country. They shall not prohibit, either directly or
indirectly, the entrance to their territory, or the departure
from it, of any merchandise, except on police grounds; nor
burden the articles of national production on their departure
for a foreign country or for another State. The exemptions
from duties which they concede shall be general; they may not
be decreed in favor of the products of specified origin. The
quota of the import for a given amount of merchandise shall be
the same, whatever may have been its origin, and no heavier
burden may be assigned to it than that which the similar
products of the political entity in which the import is
decreed bear. The national merchandise shall not be submitted
to definite route nor to inspection or registry on the ways,
nor any fiscal document be demanded for its internal
circulation. Nor shall they burden foreign merchandise with a
greater quota than that which may have been permitted them by
the Federal law to receive.

Article 125.
The forts, military quarters, magazines, and other edifices
necessary to the government of the Union shall be under the
immediate inspection of the Federal authorities.

Article 126.
This Constitution, the laws of the Congress of the Union which
emanate from it, and all the treaties made or which shall be
made by the President of the Republic, with the approval of
Congress, shall be the supreme law of the whole Union. The
judges of each State shall be guided by said Constitution,
law, and treaties in spite of provisions to the contrary which
may appear in the Constitutions or laws of the States.

Article 127.
The present Constitution may be added to or reformed. In order
that additions or alterations may become part of the
Constitution, it is required that the Congress of the Union,
by a vote of two-thirds of the members present, shall agree to
the alterations or additions, and that these shall be approved
by the majority of the Legislatures of the States. The
Congress of the Union shall count the votes of the
Legislatures and make the declaration that the reforms or
additions have been approved.

Article 128.
This Constitution shall not lose its force and vigor even if
its observance be interrupted by a rebellion. In case that by
any public disturbance a government contrary to the principles
which it sanctions shall be established, as soon as the people
recover their liberty its observance shall be reestablished,
and in accordance with it and the laws which shall have been
issued in virtue of it, shall be judged not only those who
shall have figured in the government emanating from the
rebellion, but also those who shall have cooperated with it.

Additions.

Article 1.
The State and the Church are independent of one another. The
Congress may not pass laws establishing or prohibiting any
religion.

Article 2.
Marriage is a civil contract. This and the other acts relating
to the civil state of persons belong to the exclusive
jurisdiction of the functionaries and authorities of the civil
order, within limits provided by the laws, and they shall have
the force and validity which the same attribute to them.

Article 3.
No religious institution may acquire real estate or capital
fixed upon it, with the single exception established in
Article 27 of this Constitution.

Article 4.
The simple promise to speak the truth and to comply with the
obligations which have been incurred, shall be substituted for
the religious oath, with its effects and penalties.

----------CONSTITUTION OF MEXICO: End----------

CONSTITUTION OF NETHERLANDS KINGDOM.
After 1830, this became the Kingdom of Holland.

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1830-1832, and 1830-1884.

----------NETHERLANDS: End----------

CONSTITUTION OF NORWAY.

"On May 17, 1814, ... a constitution was granted to Norway.
The Fundamental Law of the constitution (Grundlöv), which
almost every peasant farmer now-a-days has framed and hung up
in the chief room of his house, bears the date the 4th of
November 1814."

_C. F. Keary, Norway and the Norwegians, chapter 13._

The following the text of the constitution as granted in 1814:

Title I.

Article 1.
The kingdom of Norway is a free, independent, undivisible, and
inalienable state, united to Sweden under the same king. The
form of its government is limited, hereditary, and
monarchical.

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Article 2.
The Lutheran evangelical religion shall continue to be the
ruling religion of the kingdom; those of the inhabitants which
profess it are bound to bring up their children in its tenets;
Jesuits and monastic orders shall not be prohibited in the
kingdom. The admission of Jews into the kingdom shall always
be, as formerly, prohibited.

Title II.

Article 1.
The executive power is declared to be in the person of the
king.

Article 2.
The king shall always profess the evangelical Lutheran
religion, which he shall maintain and protect.

Article 3.
The person of the king is sacred: he can neither be blamed or
accused.

Article 4.
The succession is lineal, and collateral, such as it is
determined by the order of succession decreed by the general
estates of Sweden, and sanctioned by the king in the Act of
the 26th September 1810, of which a translation is annexed to
this Constitution. Of the number of legitimate heirs, is
comprehended the child in its mother's womb, which, as soon as
it shall be born, after the death of its father, takes the
place which is due to him in the line of succession. When a
Prince, heir of the re-united crowns of Norway and Sweden,
shall be born, his name, and the day of his birth shall be
announced at the first Storthing, and inscribed in the
registers.

Article 5.
Should there not be found any prince, a legitimate heir to the
throne, the king can propose his successor at the Storthing of
Norway, and at the same time to the states general of Sweden.
As soon as the king shall have made the proposition, the
representatives of the two nations shall choose from among
them a committee, invested with the right of determining the
election, in case the king's proposition should not, by the
plurality of voices, be approved of separately by the
representatives of each of the countries. The number of
members of this committee, shall be composed of an equal
number of Norwegians and Swedes, so that the step to follow in
the election shall be regulated by a law which the king shall
propose at the same time to the next Storthing, and the states
general of Sweden. They shall draw by lot one out of the
committee for its member.

Article 6.
The Storthing of Norway, and the states general of Sweden
shall concert to fix by a law the king's majority; if they
cannot agree, a committee, taken from the representatives of
the two nations, shall decide it in the manner established by
article 5th, title 2nd. As soon as the king shall have
attained the years of majority fixed by the law, he shall
publicly declare that he is of age.

[Footnote: Storthing is the national assembly, or general
estates of the kingdom.]

[Footnote: A law of the Storthing, 13th July 1815, and
sanctioned by the king, declared that the king is major on
arriving at the age of eighteen years.]

Article 7.
When the king comes of age he shall take into his hands the
reins of government, and make the following oath to the
Storthing: "I swear, on my soul and conscience, to govern the
kingdom of Norway conformably to its constitution and laws."
If the Storthing is not then assembled, this oath shall be
deposited in writing in the council, and solemnly repeated by
the king at the first Storthing, either vivâ voce or by
writing, by the person whom he shall have appointed to this
effect.

Article 8.
The coronation of the king shall take place when he is of age,
in the cathedral of Drontheim, at the time and with those
ceremonies that shall be fixed by himself.

Article 9.
The King shall pass some time in Norway yearly, unless this is
prevented by urgent circumstances.

Article 10.
The king shall exclusively choose a council of Norwegians,
citizens, who shall have attained the seventieth year of their
age. This council shall be composed at least of a minister of
state, and seven other members. In like manner the king can
create a viceroy or a government. The king shall arrange the
affairs between the members of the council, in such manner as
he shall consider expedient. Besides these ordinary members of
council, the king, or in his absence the viceroy (or the
government jointly with the ordinary members of council) may
on particular occasions, call other Norwegians, citizens, to
sit there, provided they are not members of the Storthing. The
father and son, or two brothers, shall not, at the same time,
have a seat in the council.

Article 11.
The king shall appoint a governor of the kingdom in his
absence, and on failure it shall be governed by the viceroy or
a governor, with five at least of the members of council. They
shall govern the kingdom in the name and behalf of the king;
and they shall observe inviolably, as much the principles
contained in this fundamental law as those relative precepts
the king shall lay down in his instructions. They shall make a
humble report to the king upon those affairs they have
decided. All matters shall be decided by plurality of votes.
If the votes happen to be equal, the viceroy or governor, or
in their absence the first member of council, shall have two.

Article 12.
The prince royal or his eldest son can be viceroy; but this
can only occur when they have attained the majority of the
king. In the case of a governor, either a Norwegian or a Swede
may be nominated. The viceroy shall remain in the kingdom, and
shall not be allowed to reside in a foreign one beyond three
months each year. When the king shall be present, the
viceroy's functions shall cease. If there is no viceroy, but
only a governor, the functions of the latter shall also cease,
in which event he is only the first member of council.

Article 13.
During the residence of the king in Sweden, he shall always
have near him the minister of state of Norway, and two of the
members of the Norwegian council, when they shall be annually
changed. These are charged with similar duties, and the same
constitutional responsibility attaches to them as to the
sitting council in Norway; and it is only in their presence
that state affairs shall be decided by the king. All petitions
addressed to the king by Norwegian citizens ought, first, to
be transmitted to the Norwegian council, that they may be duly
considered previously to decisions being pronounced. In
general, no affairs ought to be decided before the council has
expressed an opinion, in case it should be met with important
objections. The minister of state of Norway ought to report
the affairs, and he shall be responsible for expedition in the
resolutions which shall have been taken.

Article 14.
The king shall regulate public worship and its rites, as well
as all assemblies that have religion for their object, so that
ministers of religion may observe their forms prescribed to
them.

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Article 15.
The king can give and abolish ordinances which respect
commerce, the custom-house, manufactures, and police. They
shall not, however, be contrary to the constitution nor the
laws adopted by the Storthing. They shall have provisional
force until the next Storthing.

Article 16.
The king shall in general regulate the taxes imposed by the
Storthing. The public treasurer of Norway shall remain in
Norway, and the revenues shall only be employed towards the
expenses of Norway.

Article 17.
The king shall superintend the manner in which the domains and
crown property of the state are employed and governed, in the
manner fixed by the Storthing, and which shall be most
advantageous to the country.

Article 18.
The king in council has the right to pardon criminals when the
supreme tribunal has pronounced its opinion. The criminal has
the choice of receiving pardon from the king or of submitting
to the punishment to which he is condemned. In the causes
which the Odelsthing would have ordered to be carried to the
Rigsret, there can be no other pardon but that which shall
liberate from a capital punishment.

Article 19.
The king, after having heard his Norwegian council, shall
dispose of all the civil, ecclesiastic, and military
employments. Those who assist in the functions shall swear
obedience and fidelity to the constitution and to the king.
The princes of the royal family cannot be invested with any
civil employment; yet the prince royal, or his eldest son, may
be nominated viceroy.

Article 20.
The governor of the kingdom, the minister of state, other
members of council, and those employed in the functions
connected with these offices, the envoys and consuls, superior
magistrates, civil and ecclesiastic commanders of regiments,
and other military bodies, governors of fortresses, and
commanders-in-chief of ships of war, shall, without previous
arrest, be deposed by the king and his Norwegian council. As
to the pension to be granted to those employed they shall be
decided by the first Storthing. In the mean time, they shall
enjoy two-third parts of their former salary. The others
employed can only be suspended by the king, and they shall
afterwards be brought before the tribunals, but cannot be
deposed excepting by order of an arrest, and the king cannot
make them change their situations contrary to their will.

Article 21.
The king can confer orders of knighthood on whomsoever he
chooses, in reward of distinguished services, which shall be
published; but he can confer no other rank, with the title,
than that which is attached to every employment. An order of
knighthood does not liberate the person on whom it is
conferred from those duties common to all citizens, and
particular titles are not conferred in order to obtain
situations in the state. Such persons shall preserve the title
and rank attached to those situations which they have
occupied. No person can, for the future, obtain personal,
mixed, or hereditary privileges.

Article 22.
The king elects and dismisses, whenever he thinks proper, all
the officers attached to his court.

Article 23.
The king is commander-in-chief of all the forces, by sea and
land, in the kingdom, and these cannot be increased or
diminished without the consent of the Storthing. They will not
be ceded to the service of any foreign power, and troops
belonging to a foreign power (except auxiliary troops in case
of a hostile invasion,) cannot enter the country without the
consent of the Storthing. During peace, the Norwegian troops
shall be stationed in Norway, and not in Sweden.
Notwithstanding this the king may have in Sweden a Norwegian
guard, composed of volunteers, and may for a short time, not
exceeding six weeks in a year, assemble troops in the environs
of the two countries, for exercising; but in case there are
more than 3,000 men, composing the army of one of the two
countries, they cannot in time of peace enter the other.

[Footnote: The law of the Storthing, 5th July 1816, bears,
that troops of the line shall be employed beyond the frontiers
of the kingdom, and the interpretation given by it to that law
is, that troops of the line shall be employed beyond the
frontiers of the two kingdoms.]

The Norwegian army and gun-boats shall not be employed without
the consent of the Storthing. The Norwegian fleet shall have
dry docks, and during peace its stations and harbours in
Norway. Ships of war of both countries shall be supplied with
the seamen of the other, so long as they shall voluntarily
engage to serve. The landwehr, and other Norwegian forces,
which are not calculated among the number of troops, of the
line, shall never be employed beyond the frontiers of the
kingdom of Norway.

Article 24.
The king has the right of assembling troops, commencing war,
making peace, concluding and dissolving treaties, sending
ministers to, and receiving those of, foreign courts. When he
begins war he ought to advise the council of Norway, consult
it, and order it to prepare an address on the state of the
kingdom, relative to its finances, and proper means of
defence. On this the king shall convoke the minister of state
of Norway, and those of the council of Sweden, at an
extraordinary assembly, when he shall explain all those
relative circumstances that ought to be taken into
consideration; with a representation of the Norwegian council,
and a similar one on the part of Sweden, upon the state of the
kingdom, shall then be presented. The king shall then require
advice upon these objects; and each shall be inserted in a
register, under the responsibility imposed by the
constitution, when the king shall then adopt that resolution
which he judges most, proper for the benefit of the state.

Article 25.
On this occasion all the members of council must be present,
if not prevented by some lawful cause, and no resolution ought
to be adopted unless one half of the members are present. In
Norwegian affairs, which, according to the fifteenth article,
are decided in Sweden, no resolution shall be taken unless the
minister of state of Norway and one of the members of council,
or two members, are present.

Article 26.
The representations respecting employments, and other
important acts, excepting those of a diplomatic and military
nature, properly so called, shall be referred to the council
by him who is one of the members in the department charged
with it, who shall accordingly draw up the resolution adopted
in council.

Article 27.
If any member of council is prevented from appearing, and
referring the affairs which belong to his peculiar department,
he shall be replaced in this office by one of the others
appointed to this purpose, either by the king, if personally
present, and if not, by him who has precedence in the council,
jointly with the other members composing it. Should several of
these be prevented from appearing, so that only one half of
the ordinary number is present, the other employed in the
offices shall in like manner have right to sit in council; and
in that event it shall be afterwards referred to the king, who
decides if they ought to continue to exercise this office.

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Article 28.
The council shall keep a register of all affairs that may come
under its consideration. Every individual who sits in it shall
be at liberty to give his opinion freely, which the king is
obliged to hear; but it is reserved to his majesty to adopt
resolutions after he has consulted his own mind. If a member
of council finds that the king's resolution is contrary to the
form of government, the laws of the kingdom, or injurious to
the state, he shall consider it his duty to oppose it, and
record his opinion in the register accordingly; but he who
remains silent shall be presumed to have agreed with the king,
and shall be responsible for it, even in the case of being
referred to at a future period; and the Odelsthing is
empowered to bring him before the Rigsret.

Article 29.
All the orders issued by the king (military affairs excepted)
shall be countersigned by the Norwegian minister of state.

Article 30.
Resolutions made in absence of the king, by the council in
Norway, shall be publicly proclaimed and signed by the
viceroy, or the governor and council, and countersigned by him
who shall have referred them, and he is further responsible
for the accuracy and dispatch with the register in which the
resolution is entered.

Article 31.
All representations relative to the affairs of this country,
as well as writings concerning them, must be in the Norwegian
language.

Article 32.
The heir-apparent to the throne, if a son of the reigning
king, shall have the title of prince royal, the other
legitimate heirs to the crown shall be culled princes, and the
king's daughters princesses.

Article 33.
As soon as the heir shall have attained the age of eighteen,
he shall have a right to sit in council, without, however,
having a vote, or any responsibility.

Article 34.
No prince of the blood shall marry without permission of the
king, and in case of contravention, he shall forfeit his right
to the crown of Norway.

Article 35.
The princes and princesses of the royal family, shall not, so
far as respects their persons, be bound to appear before other
judges, but before the king or whomsoever he shall have
appointed for that purpose.

Article 36.
The minister of state of Norway, as well as the two members of
council who are near the king, shall have a seat and
deliberative voice in the Swedish council, where objects
relative to the two kingdoms shall be treated of. In affairs
of this nature the advice of the council ought also to be
understood, unless these require quick dispatch, so as not to
allow time.

Article 37.
If the king happens to die, and the heir to the throne is
under age, the council of Norway, and that of Sweden, shall
assemble, and mutually call a convocation of the Storthing in
Norway and Diet of Sweden.

Article 38.
Although the representatives of the two kingdoms should have
assembled, and regulated the administration during the king's
minority, a council composed of an equal number of Norwegian
and Swedish members shall govern the kingdoms, and follow
their fundamental reciprocal laws. The minister of state of
Norway who sits in this council, shall draw by ballot in order
to decide on which of its members the preference shall happen
to fall.

Article 39.
The regulations contained in the two last articles shall be
always equally adopted after the constitution of Sweden. It
belongs to the Swedish council, in this quality, to be at the
head of government.

Article 40.
With respect to more particular and necessary affairs that
might occur in cases under the three former articles, the king
shall propose to the first Storthing in Norway, and at the
first Diet in Sweden, a law having for its basis the principle
of a perfect equality existing between the two kingdoms.

Article 41.
The election of guardians to be at the head of government
during the king's minority, shall be made after the same rules
and manner formerly prescribed in the second title, Article
5th, concerning the election of an heir to the throne.

Article 42.
The individuals who in the cases under the 38th and 39th
articles, are at the head of government, shall be, the
Norwegians at the Storthing of Norway, and shall take the
following oath: "I swear, on my soul and conscience, to govern
the kingdom conformably to its constitution and laws;" and the
Swedes shall also make a similar oath. If there is not a
Storthing or Diet, it shall be deposited in writing in the
council, and afterwards repeated at the first of these when
they happen to assemble.

Article 43.
As soon as the governments have ceased, they shall be restored
to the king, and the Storthing.

Article 44.
If the Storthing is not convoked, agreeably to what is
expressed in the 38th and 39th articles, the supreme tribunal
shall consider it as an imperious duty, at the expiration of
four weeks, to call a meeting.

Article 45.
The charge of the education of the king, in case his father
may not have left in writing instructions regarding it, shall
be regulated in the manner laid down under the 5th and 41st
articles. It is held to be an invariable rule, that the king
during his minority shall learn the Norwegian language.

Article 46.
If the masculine line of the royal family is extinct, and
there has not been elected a successor to the throne, the
election of a new dynasty shall be proceeded in, and after the
manner prescribed under the 5th article. In the mean time the
executive power shall be exercised agreeably to the 41st
article.

Title III.

Article 1.
Legislative power is exercised by the Storthing, which is
constituted of two houses, namely, the Lagthing and
Odelsthing.

Article 2.
None shall have a right to vote but Norwegians, who have
attained twenty·five years, and resided in the country during
five years.
1. Those who are exercising, or who have exercised functions.
2. Possess land in the country, which has been let for more
than five years.
3. Are burgesses of some city, or possess either in it, or
some village, a house, or property of the value of at least
three hundred bank crowns in silver.

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Article 3.
There shall be drawn up in cities by the magistrates, and in
every parish by the public authority and the priest, a
register of all the inhabitants who are voters. They shall
also note in it without delay, those changes which may
successively take place. Before being inscribed in the
register, everyone shall take an oath, before the tribunal, of
fidelity to the constitution.

4. Right of voting is suspended in the following cases:

1. By the accusation of crime before a tribunal;
2. By not attaining the proper age;
3. By insolvency or bankruptcy, until creditors have
obtained their payment in whole, unless it can be proved
that the former has arisen from fire, or other unforeseen
events.

5. The right of voting is forfeited definitively:

1. By condemnation to the house of correction, slavery, or
punishment for defamatory language;
2. By acceptance of the service of a foreign power, without
the consent of government.
3. By obtaining the right of citizen in a foreign country.
4. By conviction of having purchased and sold votes, and
having voted in more than one electoral assembly.

6. The electoral assemblies and districts are held every three
years, and shall finish before the end of the month of
December.

7. Electoral assemblies shall be held for the country, at the
manor-house of the parish, the church, town-hall, or some
other fit place. In the country they shall be directed by the
first minister and assistants; and in towns, by magistrates
and sheriffs; election shall be made in the order appointed by
the registers. Disputes concerning the right of voting shall
be decided by the directors of the assembly, from whose
judgment an appeal may be made to the Storthing.

8. Before proceeding to the election, the constitution shall
be read with a loud voice in the cities, by the first
magistrate, and in the country by the curate.

9. In cities, an elector shall be chosen by fifty eligible
inhabitants. They shall assemble eight days after, in the
place appointed by the magistrate, and choose, either from
amongst themselves, or from others who are eligible in the
department of their election, a fourth of their number to sit
at the Storthing, that is after the manner of three to six in
choosing one; seven to ten in electing two; eleven to fourteen
in choosing three, and fifteen to eighteen in electing four;
which is the greatest number permitted to a city to send. If
these consist of less than 150 eligible inhabitants, they
shall send the electors to the nearest city, to vote
conjointly with the electors of the former, when the two shall
only be considered as forming one district.

[Footnote: A law passed 8th February 1816, contains this
amendment. Twenty-five electors and more shall not elect
more than three representatives, which shall be, ad
interim, the greatest number which the bailiwick can send:
and, consequently, out of which the number of
representatives in the county, which are sixty-one, shall
be diminished from fifty to fifty-three.]

10. In each parish in the country the eligible inhabitants
shall choose in proportion to their number electors in the
following manner; that is to say, a hundred may choose one;
two to three hundred, three; and so on in the same proportion.

[Footnote: If future Storthings discover the number of
representatives of towns from an increase of population
should amount to thirty, the same Storthing shall have
right to augment of new the number of representatives of
the country, in the manner fixed by the principles of the
constitution, which shall be held as a rule in future.]

Electors shall assemble a month after, in the place appointed
by the bailiff, and choose, either from amongst themselves or
the others of the bailiwick eligible, a tenth of their own
number to sit at the Storthing, so that five to fourteen may
choose one; fifteen to twenty-four may choose two of them;
twenty-five to thirty-four, three; thirty-five and beyond it,
four. This is the greatest number.

11. The powers contained in the 9th and 10th articles shall
have their proper force and effect until next Storthing. If it
is found that the representatives of cities constitute more or
less than one-third of those of the kingdom, the Storthing, as
a rule for the future, shall have right to change these powers
in such a manner that representatives of the cities may join
with those of the country, as one to two; and the total number
of representatives ought not to be under seventy-five, nor
above one hundred.

12. Those eligible, who are in the country, and are prevented
from attending by sickness, military service, or other proper
reasons, can transmit their votes in writing to those who
direct the electoral assemblies, before their termination.

13. No person can be chosen a representative, unless he is
thirty years of age, and has resided ten years in the country.

14. The members of council, those employed in their offices,
officers of the court, and its pensioners, shall not be chosen
as representatives.

15. Individuals chosen to be representatives, are obliged to
accept of the election, unless prevented by motives considered
lawful by the electors, whose judgment may be submitted to the
decision of the Storthing. A person who has appeared more than
once as representative at an ordinary Storthing, is not
obliged to accept of the election for the next ordinary
Storthing. If legal reasons prevent a representative from
appearing at the Storthing, the person who after him has most
votes shall take his place.

16. As soon as representatives have been elected, they shall
receive a writing in the country from the superior magistrate,
and in the cities from the magistrate, also from all the
electors, as a proof that they have been elected in the manner
prescribed by the constitution. The Storthing shall judge of
the legality of this authority.

17. All representatives have a right to claim an
indemnification in travelling to and returning from the
Storthing; as well as subsistence during the period they shall
have remained there.

18. During the journey, and return of representatives, as well
as the time they may have attended the Storthing, they are
exempted from arrest; unless they are seized in some flagrant
and public act, and out of the Storthing they shall not be
responsible for the opinions they may have declared in it.
Everyone is bound to conform himself to the order established
in it.

19. Representatives, chosen in the manner above declared,
compose the Storthing of the kingdom of Norway.

20. The opening of the Storthing shall be made the first
lawful day in the month of February, every three years, in the
capital of the kingdom, unless the king, in extraordinary
circumstances, by foreign invasion or contagious disease,
fixes on some other city of the kingdom. Such change ought
then to be early announced.

21. In extraordinary cases, the king has the right of
assembling the Storthing, without respect to the ordinary
time. The king will then cause to be issued a proclamation,
which is to be read in all the principal churches six weeks at
least previous to the day fixed for the assembling of members
of the Storthing at the place appointed.

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22. Such extraordinary Storthing may be dissolved by the king
when he shall judge fit.

23. Members of the Storthing shall continue in the exercise of
their office during three consecutive years, as much during an
extraordinary as any ordinary Storthing that might be held
during this time.

24. If an extraordinary Storthing is held at a time when the
ordinary Storthing ought to assemble, the functions of the
first will cease, as soon as the second shall have met.

25. The extraordinary Storthing, no more than the ordinary,
can be held if two-thirds of the members do not happen to be
present.

26. As soon as the Storthing shall be organized, the king, or
the person who shall be appointed by him for that purpose,
shall open it by an address, in which he is to describe the
state of the kingdom, and those objects to which he directs
the attention of the Storthing. No deliberation ought to take
place in the king's presence. The Storthing shall choose from
its members one-fourth part to form the Lagthing, and the
other three-fourths to constitute the Odelsthing. Each of
these houses shall have its private meetings, and nominate its
president and secretary.

27. It belongs to the Storthing,--

1. To make and abolish laws, establish imposts, taxes,
custom-houses, and other public acts, which shall, however,
only exist until the 1st of July of that year, when a new
Storthing shall be assembled, unless this last is expressly
renewed by them.

2. To make loans, by means of the credit of the state.

3. To watch over the finances of the state.

4. To grant sums necessary for its expenses.

5. To fix the yearly grant for the maintenance of the king
and viceroy, and also appendages of the royal family; which
ought not, however, to consist in landed property.

6. To exhibit the register of the sitting council in
Norway, and all the reports, and public documents (the
affairs of military command excepted), and certified
copies, or extracts of the registers kept by the ministers
of state and members of council near the king, or the
public documents, which shall have been produced.

7. To communicate whatever treaties the king shall have
concluded in the name of the state with foreign powers,
excepting secret articles, provided these are not in
contradiction with the public articles.

8. To require all individuals to appear before the
Storthing on affairs of state, the king and royal family
excepted. This is not, however, applicable to the princes
of the royal family, as they are invested with other
offices than that of viceroy.

9. To examine the lists of provisional pensions; and to
make such alterations as shall be judged necessary.

10. To name five revisers, who are annually to examine the
accounts of the state, and publish printed extracts of
these, which are to be remitted to the revisers also every
year before the 1st of July. 11. To naturalize foreigners.

28. Laws ought first to be proposed to the Odelsthing, either
by its own members or the government, through one of the
members of council. If the proposition is accepted, it shall
be sent to the Lagthing, who approve or reject it; and in the
last case return it accompanied with remarks. These shall be
weighed by the Odelsthing, which sets the proposed law aside,
or remits it to the Lagthing, with or without alterations.
When a law shall have been twice proposed by the Odelsthing to
the Lagthing, and the latter shall have rejected it a second
time, the Storthing shall assemble, when two-thirds of the
votes shall decide upon it. Three days at least ought to pass
between each of those deliberations.

29. When a resolution proposed by the Odelsthing shall be
approved by the Lagthing, or by the Storthing alone, a
deputation of these two houses to the Storthing shall present
it to the king if he is present, and if not, to the viceroy,
or Norwegian council, and require it may receive the royal
sanction.

30. Should the king approve of the resolution, he subscribes
to it, and from that period it is declared to pass into a
public law. If he disapproves he returns it to the Odelsthing,
declaring that at this time he does not give it his sanction.

31. In this event, the Storthing, then assembled, ought to
submit the resolution to the king, who may proceed in it in
the same manner if the first ordinary Storthing presents again
to him the same resolution. But if, after reconsideration, it
is still adopted by the two houses of the third ordinary
Storthing, and afterwards submitted to the king, who shall
have been intreated not to withhold his sanction to a
resolution that the Storthing, after the most mature
deliberations, believes to be useful; it shall acquire the
strength of a law, even should it not receive the king's
signature before the closing of the Storthing.

32. The Storthing shall sit as long as it shall be judged
necessary, but not beyond three months, without the king's
permission. When the business is finished, or after it has
assembled for the time fixed, it is dissolved by the king. His
Majesty gives, at the same time, his sanction to the decrees
not already decided, either in corroborating or rejecting
them. All those not expressly sanctioned are held to be
rejected by him.

33. Laws are to be drawn up in the Norwegian language, and
(those mentioned in 31st article excepted) in name of the
king, under the seal of the kingdom, and in these terms:--"We,
&c. Be it known, that there has been submitted to us a decree
of the Storthing (of such a date) thus expressed (follows the
resolution); We have accepted and sanctioned as law the said
decree, in giving it our signature, and seal of the kingdom."

34. The king's sanction is not necessary to the resolutions of
the Storthing, by which the legislative body,--

1. Declares itself organized as the Storthing, according to
the constitution.

2. Regulates its internal police.

3. Accepts or rejects writs of present members.

4. Confirms or rejects judgments relative to disputes
respecting elections.

5. Naturalizes foreigners.

6. And in short, the resolution by which the Odelsthing
orders some member of council to appear before the
tribunals.

35. The Storthing can demand the advice of the supreme
tribunal in judicial matters.

36. The Storthing will hold its sittings with open doors, and
its acts shall be printed and published, excepting in cases
where a contrary measure shall have been decided by the
plurality of votes.

37. Whoever molests the liberty and safety of the Storthing,
renders himself guilty of an act of high treason towards the
country.

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Title IV.

Article 1.
The members of the Lagthing and supreme tribunal composing the
Rigsret, judge in the first and last instance of the affairs
entered upon by the Odelsthing, either against the members of
council or supreme tribunal for crimes committed in the
exercise of their offices, or against the members of Storthing
for acts committed by them in a similar capacity. The
president of the Lagthing has the precedence in the Rigsret.

2. The accused can, without declaring his motive for so doing,
refuse, even a third part of the members of the Rigsret,
provided, however, that the number of persons who compose this
tribunal be not reduced to less than fifteen.

3. The supreme tribunal shall judge in the last instance, and
ought not to be composed of a lesser number than the resident
and six assessors.

4. In time of peace the supreme tribunal, with two superior
officers appointed by the king, constitutes a tribunal of the
second and last resort in all military affairs which respect
life, honour, and loss of liberty for a time beyond the space
of three months.

5. The arrests of the supreme tribunal shall not in any case
be called upon to be submitted to revisal.

6. No person shall be named member of the supreme tribunal, if
he has not attained at least thirty years of age.

Title V.

Article 1.
Employments in the states shall be conferred only on Norwegian
citizens, who profess the Evangelical Lutheran religion--have
sworn fidelity to the constitution and king, speak the
language of the country, and are,--

1. Either born in the kingdom of parents who were then
subjects of the state.

2. Or born in a foreign country, their father and mother
being Norwegians, and at that period not the subjects of
another state.

3. Or, who on the 17th May, 1814, had a permanent residence
in the kingdom, and did not refuse to take an oath to
maintain the independence of Norway.

4. Or who in future shall remain ten years in the kingdom.

5. Or who have been naturalized by the Storthing.
Foreigners, however, may be nominated to these official
situations in the university and colleges, as well as to
those of physicians, and consuls in a foreign country. In
order to succeed to an office in the superior tribunal, the
person must be thirty years old; and to fill a place in the
inferior magistracy,--a judge of the tribunal of first
instance, or a public receiver, he must be twenty-five.

2. Norway does not acknowledge herself owing any other debt
than that of her own.

3. A new general code, of a civil and criminal nature,
shall first be published; or, if that is impracticable, at
the second ordinary Storthing. Meantime, the laws of the
state, as at present existing, shall preserve their effect,
since they are not contrary to this fundamental law, or
provisional ordinances published in the interval. Permanent
taxes shall continue to be levied until next Storthing.

4. No protecting dispensation, letter of respite, or
restitutions, shall be granted after the new general code
shall be published.

5. No persons can be judged but in conformity to the law, or
be punished until a tribunal shall have taken cognizance of
the charges directed against them. Torture shall never take
place.

6. Laws shall have no retro-active effect.

7. Fees due to officers of justice are not to be combined with
rents payable to the public treasury.