Chapter LXVI: Part I

Article I.
The Argentine Nation adopts the federal-republican, and
representative form of Government, as established by the
present Constitution.

Article 2.
The Federal Government shall maintain the Apostolic Roman
Catholic Faith.

Article 3.
The authorities of the Federal Government shall reside in the
city which a special law of Congress may declare the capital
of the Republic, subsequently to the cession by one or more of
the Provincial Legislatures, of the territory about to be
federalized.

Article 4.
The Federal Government shall administer the expenses of the
Nation out of the revenue in the National Treasury, derived
from import and export duties; from the sale and lease of the
public lands; from postage; and from such other taxes as the
General Congress may equitably and proportionably lay upon the
people; as also, from such loans and credits as may be decreed
by it in times of national necessity, or for enterprises of
national utility.

Article 5.
Each Province shall make a Constitution for itself, according
to the republican representative system, and the principles,
declarations and guarantees of this Constitution; and which
shall provide for (secure) Municipal Government, primary
education and the administration of justice. Under these
conditions the Federal Government shall guarantee to each
Province the exercise and enjoyment of its institutions.

Article 6.
The Federal Government shall intervene in the Provinces to
guarantee the republican form of Government, or to repel
foreign invasion, and also, on application of their
constituted authorities, should they have been deposed by
sedition or by invasion from another Province, for the purpose
of sustaining or re-establishing them.

Article 7.
Full faith shall be given in each Province to the pubic acts,
and judicial proceedings of every other Province; and Congress
may by general laws, prescribe the manner in which such acts
and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof.

Article 8.
The citizens of each Province shall be entitled to all the
rights, privileges and immunities, inherent to the citizens of
all the several Provinces. The reciprocal extradition of
criminals between all the Provinces, is obligatory.

Article 9.
Throughout the territory of the Nation, no other than the
National Custom-Houses shall be allowed, and they shall be
regulated by the tariffs sanctioned by Congress.

Article 10.
The circulation of all goods produced or manufactured in the
Republic, is free within its borders, as also, that of all
species of merchandise which may be dispatched by the
Custom-Houses of entry.

Article 11.
Such articles of native or foreign production, as well as
cattle of every kind, which pass from one Province to another,
shall be free from all transit-duties, and also the vehicles,
vessels or animals, which transport them; and no tax, let it
be what it may, can be henceforward imposed upon them on
account of such transit.

Article 12.
Vessels bound from one Province to another, shall not be
compelled to enter, anchor, or pay transit-duties; nor in any
case can preferences be granted to one port over another, by
any commercial laws or regulations.

Article 13.
New Provinces may be admitted into the Nation; but no Province
shall be erected within the territory of any other Province,
or Provinces, nor any Province be formed by the junction of
various Provinces, without the consent of the legislatures of
the Provinces concerned, as well as of Congress.

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Article 14.
All the inhabitants of the Nation shall enjoy the following
rights, according to the laws which regulate their exercise:
viz. to labor and to practice all lawful industry; to trade
and navigate; to petition the authorities; to enter, remain
in, travel over and leave, Argentine territory; to publish
their ideas in the public-press without previous censure; to
enjoy and dispose of their property; to associate for useful
purposes; to profess freely their religion; to teach and to
learn.

Article 15.
In the Argentine Nation there are no slaves; the few which now
exist shall be free from the date of the adoption of this
Constitution, and a special law shall regulate the indemnity
acknowledged as due by this declaration. All contracts for the
purchase and sale of persons is a crime, for which those who
make them, as well as the notary or functionary which
authorizes them, shall be responsible, and the slaves who in
any manner whatever may be introduced, shall be free from the
sole fact that they tread the territory of the Republic.

Article 16.
The Argentine Nation does not admit the prerogatives of blood
nor of birth; in it, there are no personal privileges or
titles of nobility. All its inhabitants are equal in presence
of the law, and admissible to office without other condition
than that of fitness. Equality is the basis of taxation as
well as of public-posts.

Article 17.
Property is inviolable, and no inhabitant of the Nation can be
deprived of it, save by virtue of a sentence based on law. The
expropriation for public utility must be authorized by law and
previously indemnified. Congress alone shall impose the
contributions mentioned in Article 4. No personal service
shall be exacted save by virtue of law, or of a sentence
founded on law. Every author or inventor is the exclusive
proprietor of his work, invention or discovery, for the term
which the law accords to him. The confiscation of property is
henceforward and forever, stricken from the Argentine
penal-code. No armed body can make requisitions, nor exact
assistance of any kind.

Article 18.
No inhabitant of the Nation shall suffer punishment without a
previous judgment founded on a law passed previously to the
cause of judgment, nor be judged by special commissions, or
withdrawn from the Judges designated by law before the opening
of the cause. No one shall be obliged to testify against
himself; nor be arrested, save by virtue of a written order
from a competent authority. The defense at law both of the
person and his rights, is inviolable. The domicil, private
papers and epistolary correspondence, are inviolable; and a
law shall determine in what cases, and under what imputations,
a search-warrant can proceed against and occupy them. Capital
punishment for political causes, as well as every species of
torture and whippings, are abolished for ever. The prisons of
the Nation shall be healthy and clean, for the security, and
not for the punishment, of the criminals detained in them, and
every measure which under pretext of precaution may mortify
them more than such security requires, shall render
responsible the Judge who authorizes it.

Article 19.
Those private actions of men that in nowise offend public
order and morality, or injure a third party, belong alone to
God, and are beyond the authority of the magistrates. No
inhabitant of the Nation shall be compelled to do what the law
does not ordain, nor be deprived of anything which it does not
prohibit.

Article 20.
Within the territory of the Nation, foreigners shall enjoy all
the civil rights of citizens; they can exercise their
industries, commerce or professions, in accordance with the
laws; own, buy and sell real-estate; navigate the rivers and
coasts; freely profess their religion, and testate and marry.
They shall not be obliged to become citizens, nor to pay
forced contributions. Two years previous residence in the
Nation shall be required for naturalization, but the
authorities can shorten this term in favour of him who so
desires it, under the allegation and proof of services
rendered to the Republic.

Article 21.
Every Argentine citizen is obliged to arm himself in defense
of his country and of this Constitution, according to the laws
which Congress shall ordain for the purpose, and the decrees
of the National Executive. For the period of ten years from
the day on which they may have obtained their citizenship,
this service shall be voluntary on the part of the
naturalized.

Article 22.
The people shall not deliberate nor govern save by means of
their Representatives and Authorities, created by this
Constitution. Every armed force or meeting of persons which
shall arrogate to itself the rights of the people, and
petition in their name, is guilty of sedition.

Article 23.
In the event of internal commotion or foreign attack which
might place in jeopardy the practice of this Constitution, and
the free action of the Authorities created by it, the Province
or territory where such disturbance exists shall be declared
in a state of siege, all constitutional guarantees being
meantime suspended there. But during such suspension the
President of the Republic cannot condemn nor apply any
punishment per se. In respect to persons, his power shall be
limited to arresting and removing them from one place to
another in the Nation, should they not prefer to leave Argentine
territory.

Article 24.
Congress shall establish the reform of existing laws in all
branches, as also the trial by Jury.

Article 25.
The Federal Government shall foment European immigration; and
it cannot restrict, limit, nor lay any impost upon, the entry
upon Argentine territory, of such foreigners as come for the
purpose of cultivating the soil, improving manufactures, and
introducing and teaching the arts and sciences.

Article 26.
The navigation of the interior rivers of the Nation is free to
all flags, subject only to such regulations as the National
Authority may dictate.

Article 27.
The Federal Government is obliged to strengthen the bonds of
peace and commerce with foreign powers, by means of treaties
which shall be in conformity with the principles of public law
laid down in this Constitution.

Article 28.
The principles, rights and guarantees laid down in the
foregoing articles, cannot be altered by any laws intended to
regulate their practice.

Article 29.
Congress cannot grant to the Executive, nor the provincial
legislatures to the Governor of Provinces, any "extraordinary
faculties," nor the "sum of the public power," nor
"renunciations or supremacies" by which the lives, honor or
fortune of the Argentines shall be at the mercy of any
Government or person whatever. Acts of this nature shall be
irremediably null and void, and shall subject those who frame,
vote, or sign them, to the pains and penalties incurred by
those who are infamous traitors to their country.

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Article 30.
This Constitution can be reformed in whole or in part. The
necessity for the reform shall be declared by Congress by at
least a two-thirds vote; but it can only be accomplished by a
convention called ad hoc.

Article 31.
This Constitution, and the laws of the Nation which shall be
made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made or which
shall be made with Foreign Powers, shall be the supreme law of
the land; and the authorities of every Province shall be bound
thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any Province
to the contrary notwithstanding, excepting in the case of
Buenos-Aires, in the treaties ratified after the compact of
November 11th, 1859.

Article 32.
The Federal Congress shall not dictate laws restricting the
liberty of the press, nor establish any federal jurisdiction
over it.

Article 33.
The enumeration in this Constitution of certain rights and
guarantees, shall not be construed to deny or disparage other
rights and guarantees, not enumerated; but which spring from
the principle of popular sovereignty, and the republican form
of Government.

Article 34.
The Judges of the Federal courts shall not be Judges of
Provincial tribunals at the same time; nor shall the federal
service, civil as well as military, constitute a domicil in
the Province where it may be exercised, if it be not
habitually that of the employé; it being understood by this,
that all Provincial public-service is optional in the Province
where such employé may casually reside.

Article 35.
The names which have been successively adopted for the Nation,
since the year 1810 up to the present time; viz., the United
Provinces of the Rio de la Plata, Argentine Republic and
Argentine Confederation, shall henceforward serve without
distinction, officially to designate the Government and
territory of the Provinces, whilst the words Argentine Nation
shall be employed in the making and sanction of the laws.