Spanish Constitution of 1837

Donna Isabel the Second, by the grace of God and the Spanish Monarchy, Queen of Spain; and in her royal name, and during her minority, the Queen Dowager, her mother, Donna Maria Christina de Bourbon, regent of the empire; to all those to whom these presents may come, be it known, that the Cortes General have decreed and approved, and that we in due form have accepted the same, as follows:

It being the will of the nation to revise, in virtue of its sovereignty, the political constitution promulgated in Cadiz on the 19th day of March, 1812, the Cortes General assembled for this purpose, decree, and approve the following constitution of the monarchy of Spain:

Art. 1. Spaniards are

1st. All persons born in the Spanish dominions.

2d. The children of Spaniards, though born out of Spain.

3d. Strangers who have obtained letters of naturalization.

4th. Those persons without letters of naturalization obtain a right of settlement in any part of the monarchy of Spain.

The rights of Spanish citizenship are forfeited by naturalization in a foreign country, and by accepting employment under any other Government without the permission of the Sovereign of Spain.

2. All Spaniards may print and publish their thoughts freely without a previous censorship, but subject to the laws. The determination of offences by the press belongs exclusively to juries empanelled for that purpose.

3. Every Spaniard has the right of petitioning in writing to the Cortes and the King, as the laws prescribe.

4. The same code of law shall govern in all parts of the monarchy, and in them shall be recognized by all Spaniards but one right in common trials of a civil or criminal nature.

5. All Spaniards are eligible to public offices according to merit and capacity.

6. Every Spaniard is obliged to defend the country with arms in his hands whenever he may be called upon to do so by the law, and to contribute according to his abilities to the expenses of the state.

7. No Spaniard can be detained, imprisoned, or taken from his family, nor his house entered, except in those cases according to the forms determined by the laws.

8. If the security of the state require, in extraordinary circumstances, the temporary suspension in whole or in part of the Spanish monarchy, the provisions of the preceding article are to be determined by the law.

9. No Spaniard can be prosecuted or sentenced, except by a judge or competent tribunal, in conformity with laws enacted anterior to the commission of the offence, and in the manner laid down by them.

10. The confiscation of property is abolished, and no Spaniard is to be deprived of his property except in cases justified by public utility, and with a previous indemnification of losses sustained.

11. The nation is obliged to maintain the public worship and ministers of the Catholic religion professed by the Spaniards.

OF THE CORTES.

12. The power of enacting laws resides in the Cortes in conjunction with the King.

13. The Cortes is composed of two co-legislative bodies equal in powers―The Senate and the Congress of Deputies.

OF THE SENATE.

14. The number of senators shall be equal to three-fifths of the whole number of the deputies.

15. The senators are appointed by the King from a triple list proposed by the electors of each province who elect the deputies.

16. To each province belongs the right of proposing a number of senators proportional to its population; but each is to return one senator at least.

17. To be a senator it is necessary to be a Spaniard, to be 40 years of age, and to be possessed of the income and other qualifications which may be defined in the electoral law.

18. All Spaniards possessed of these qualifications may be proposed for the office of senator in any of the provinces of the monarchy.

19. Each time that there is a general election of the deputies, whether in consequence of their term of office having expired, or of a dissolution of the Congress, the third part of the Senate, in the order of seniority, is to be renewed, those going out being re-eligible.

20. The sons of the King and the immediate heir to the throne are senators of right at the age of 25 years.

OF THE CONGRESS OF DEPUTIES.

21. Each province shall appoint one deputy at least for every 50,000 souls of the population.

22. The deputies are elected by the direct method, and may be re-elected indefinitely.

23. To be a deputy it is necessary to be a Spaniard, in the secular state to have completed the 25th year, and to possess all the other qualifications prescribed by the electoral law.

24. Every Spaniard possessing these qualifications may be named a deputy for any of the provinces.

25. The deputies shall be appointed for three years.

OF THE MEETING AND FACULTIES OF THE CORTES.

26. The Cortes are to assemble each year. It is the right of the King to convoke them, to suspend and close their meetings, and dissolve the Cortes; but under the obligation, in the latter case, of convoking and reassembling another Cortes within the period of three months.

27. If the King should omit to convoke the Cortes on the 1st of December in any one year, the Cortes are notwithstanding to assemble precisely on that day; and in case of the conclusion of the term of the Congress holding office happening to occur in that year, a general election for the nomination of deputies is to commence on the first Sunday of the month of October.

28. On the demise of the Crown, or on the King being incapacitated to govern through any cause, the extraordinary Cortes are immediately to assembly.

29. Each of the co-legislative bodies is to form rules for its own internal regulation, and to scrutinize the legality of the election, and the qualifications of the individuals who compose them.

30. The Congress of the Deputies is to name its president, vice president, and secretaries.

31. In each legislature the King shall appoint from amongst the members of the senate the president, and vice-president of that body, the latter appointing its own secretaries.

32. The King shall open and conclude the sittings of the Cortes in person, or by his ministers.

33. One of the legislative bodies cannot be convoked for business without the other being assembled at the same time, except in the case in which the senate sits in judgment on the King's ministers.

34. The legislative bodies are not to deliberate in conjunction, nor in the presence of the King.

35. The sessions of the Senate and of the Congress shall be public, and only in cases requiring reserve can private sittings be held.

36. The King and each of the co-legislative bodies possess the right of originating the laws.

37. Laws relating to taxes and public credit shall be presented first to the Congress of Deputies; and if altered in the Senate contrary to the form in which they have been approved by the Congress, they are to receive the Royal sanction in the form definitely decided on by the Deputies.

38. The resolutions of each of the legislative bodies are to be determined by an absolute plurality of votes; but in the enactment of laws the presence of more than half the number of each of these bodies is necessary.

39. If one of the co-legislative bodies should reject any project of law submitted to them, or if the King should refuse it his sanction, such project of law is not to be submitted anew in that Legislature.

40. Besides the legislative powers which the Cortes exercise in conjunction with the King, the following faculties belong to them:

First, to receive from the King, the immediate successor to the throne, from the Regency or Regent of the empire, the oath to observe the constitution and the laws. Second, to resolve any doubt that may arise of fact or of right with respect to the order of succession to the crown. Third, to elect the Regent, or appoint the regency of the empire, and to name the tutor of the sovereign while a minor, when the constitution deems it necessary. Fourth, to render effective the responsibility from the ministers of the Crown, who are to be impeached by the deputies and judged by the senators.

41. The senators and deputies are irresponsible and inviolable for opinions expressed and votes given by them in the discharge of their duties.

42. Senators and deputies are not to be proceeded against or arrested during the sessions without the permission of the legislative body to which they may belong, if not taken in the act of committing flagrant crime; but in this case, and in those in which they are prosecuted or arrested whilst the cortes are closed, they are to give immediate information to their respective co-legislative bodies for their cognizance.

43. Deputies and senators who receive from the Government or from the royal family, pension, employment which may not be an instance of promotion from a lower to a higher office of the same kind, commission with salary, honours or titles, are subject to re-election.

OF THE KING.

44. The person of the king is sacred and inviolable, and is not subject to responsibility. His ministers are responsible.

45. The power of executing the law resides in the king, and his authority extends to all matters which conduce to the preservation of public order in the interior, and to the security of the state abroad, in conformity with the provisions of the constitution and the laws.

46. The king sanctions and promulgates the laws.

47. Besides the prerogatives granted to the crown by the constitution, he possesses the following:

1. To issue decrees, regulations, and instructions which may be conducive to the execution of the laws.

2. To provide that justice be promptly and efficiently dispensed throughout the empire.

3. To pardon criminals according to the provisions of the law.

4. To declare war and make peace, afterwards giving an account and documents to the Cortes.

5. To dispose of the military forces of the country, distributing them as may be most convenient.

6. To conduct diplomatic and commercial relations with other states.

7. To provide for the coinage of money, on which is to be impressed his bust and name.

8. To decree the application of the funds destined for each branch of the public administration.

9. To appoint public officers, and to confer honours and distinctions on all classes, in conformity with the law.

10. To name and dismiss his ministers without restriction.

48. The king is obliged to be authorized by a special law

1. To alienate, to grant, or exchange any part of the Spanish territory.

2. To admit foreign troops into the kingdom.

3. For the ratification of treaties of offensive alliance, of special treaties of commerce, and those which stipulate to give assistance to any foreign power.

4. To absent himself from the kingdom.

5. To contract matrimony, and to permit those who may be called to the throne to enter into that state.

6. To abdicate the throne in favour of his immediate successor.

49. The income of the king and royal family is to be settled by the Cortes at the commencement of each reign.

OF THE SUCCESSION TO THE CROWN.

50. Donna Isabel II. de Bourbon is the legitimate queen of Spain.

51. The succession to the throne of Spain shall be in the regular order of primogeniture and representation, always preferring the anterior to the posterior line of succession, in the same line also preferring the nearer degree of kindred to the more remote; in the same degree, the more remote to the female line of descent; and in the same sex the oldest to the younger branches of the family.

52. The line of the descendants of Donna Isabel II. de Bourbon becoming extinct, her sister and her uncles by the father's side, male as well as female, and their legitimate descendants shall succeed, if not excluded specially by law.

53. If the lines of succession pointed out become extinct, the Cortes shall name the sovereign as may be best for the interests of the nation.

54. The Cortes shall exclude from the succession, such persons as are incompetent to govern, or who have done anything which should cause them to deserve forfeiting their rights to the throne.

55. During the reign of a female, her husband is to take no part whatever in the government of the kingdom.

OF THE MINORITY OF THE SOVEREIGN; AND OF THE REGENCY.

56. The sovereign to be considered a minor until he is 14 years of age.

57. When the king is incapacitated from exercising his functions, or the Crown is vacant in consequence of the minority of the immediate successor, the Cortes shall appoint a regency for the government of the kingdom, consisting of one, three, or five persons.

58. Until the Cortes shall appoint the regency, the kingdom shall be governed provisionally by the father or mother of the king; and in their absence by a council of the ministers.

59. The Regency shall exercise all the functions of royalty, in whose names shall be published all the acts of the government.

60. The guardian of the king, while a minor, shall be the person appointed in the will of the deceased sovereign, always providing that such guardian shall be a Spaniard by birth; if the deceased king should not have appointed such guardian of the successor, a minor, to the throne, then the father or mother, being in the state of widowhood, shall be the guardian. In the absence thereof, the Cortes shall appoint: but the offices of guardian and regent cannot be discharged by the same individual, except in the case of a father or mother.

OF THE MINISTERS.

61. All commands or dispositions issued by the sovereign shall be signed by the respective ministers; and no public functionary is to execute such orders if not thus signed.

62. The ministers may be senators or deputies, and take part in the discussions of the two legislative bodies; but they are permitted to vote in that body only to which they belong.

OF THE JUDICIAL POWER.

63. To the tribunals and judges alone belong the power to apply the laws in civil and criminal cases, and without exercising any other functions than those of judges and of ministers of justice.

64. The laws are to determine the nature of the tribunals and judgments which are to exist, the organization of each, its faculties, the mode of proceeding, and the qualifications of the officers belonging to them.

65. Judgments in criminal cases to be public, and in the form prescribed by the laws.

66. No magistrate or judge can be deposed for a shorter or longer period, except by a written sentence, nor suspended from the discharge of the duties of his office, except by a judicial act, or in consequence of the order of the king, after he, on sufficient grounds, commands him to be tried by a proper tribunal.

67. Judges are personally responsible for all infractions of the law committed by them.

68. Justice is to be administered in the name of the king.

OF THE PROVINCIAL DEPUTATIONS AND CORPORATIONS.

69. In each province there shall be a provincial deputation, composed of a number of persons specified by law, and appointed by the same electors who return the deputies to Cortes.

70. For the internal government of towns a corporation shall exist in each, to be elected by the inhabitants to whom this right pertains by law.

71. The law shall determine the organization and duties of the provincial deputations and corporations.

OF TAXES.

72. Each year the government shall submit an estimate of the expenses of the state for the following year, and a schedule of the contributions and of the means of raising them; and in like manner the accounts of the collection and disbursement of the public revenues for the examination and approval of the Cortes.

73. No tax or contribution is to be imposed or collected which has not been authorized by the law of the estimates or other special authority.

74. A similar authorization is necessary to dispose of the property of the state, and for raising money by loans on the public credit.

75. The public debt shall be under the special protection of the nation.

OF THE NATIONAL MILITARY FORCES.

76. The Cortes, at the proposition of the king, shall each year determine the number of the permanent military forces by sea and land.

77. In each province there shall be corps of national militia, whose organization and duties are to be defined by a particular law; and the king may, in case of necessity, dispose of these forces within their respective provinces, but not out of them without the express authorization of the Cortes.

ADDITIONAL ARTICLES.

1. The laws shall define the time and manner in which judgments by juries for every class of offences are to be established.

2. The provinces beyond the seas shall be governed by special laws.

Palace of the Cortes in Madrid, June 8, 1837.