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Constitution of the Free Republic of Reformed Luces Aporia

Adopted 11 September 1994 · 186 articles in twelve titles · nine articles added by Amendment · fifteen Amendments in force

This is the text in force. Each Amendment is printed after the body of the Constitution and states the articles it changes. Where an Amendment and an original article conflict, the Amendment governs under Article 178(3). References to other articles are linked, and each article lists the articles that refer to it.

Preamble

The people of Reformed Luces Aporia, having brought to an end the rule of a single party over the offices of the State, having endured the Stoppage of 1990 to 1993 and the exhaustion of the Renewal before it, and resolved that the wealth of the country shall be held in common and governed by consent, adopt this Constitution.

We preserve the social ownership won in 1946 and abandon the direction of it by decree. The land, the water and the air of this country belong to those who come after us as much as to us. We remain among the peoples who made the union at Lindoma, and we seek peace with every state that will have peace with us.

Title I · Fundamental principles

Articles 1 to 20

The Republic

A free, unitary, democratic socialist republic, with two official names of equal force.

1.Reformed Luces Aporia is a free, sovereign, unitary and indivisible republic.
2.Its official name shall be the Free Republic of Reformed Luces Aporia. The short name Reformed Luces Aporia shall have equal force in law.
3.The Republic is a democratic socialist republic, founded on political pluralism, on the social ownership of the principal means of production, and on the rule of law.
4.The republican form of the State shall not be revised.

Sovereignty

Power belongs to the people, and taking it outside these rules is a crime without a time limit.

1.Sovereignty belongs to the people and is exercised in the forms established by this Constitution.
2.The people exercise sovereignty through the Assembly of the Republic, through referendum and popular initiative, through the organs of local self-government, and through the bodies drawn by lot in the cases this Constitution provides.
3.No party, association, organ or person shall claim sovereignty or exercise public power outside the procedures of this Constitution. The assumption of power outside those procedures is usurpation, no obedience shall be owed to its author, and prosecution for it is subject to no time limit.

Supremacy of the Constitution

The Constitution outranks every other rule, and Title II rights work in court on their own.

1.This Constitution is the supreme law of the Republic and binds every organ of the State, every unit of local self-government and every holder of public function.
2.A law, decree, regulation or administrative act which conflicts with this Constitution has no effect, and only the conflicting part of it fails.
3.The rights declared in Title II may be invoked before any court without implementing legislation.

Legality and publicity of the law

Public power needs a legal basis, and an unpublished rule binds nobody.

1.Public power shall be exercised only on a legal basis and within its limits.
2.A law, decree or regulation shall enter into force only on publication in the Official Gazette, and no sooner than the fifteenth day after publication except where the law itself provides a shorter period for reasons stated in it.
3.Secret laws, secret decrees and secret regulations are prohibited. An act not published shall bind nobody.
4.The retroactive operation of a law is prohibited, except where it is favourable to the person concerned.

Political pluralism

Parties are free and none may be given a leading role in the State or the economy.

1.Parties, trade unions, cooperative federations and associations shall be formed freely, shall govern themselves democratically, and shall publish their statutes and their accounts.
2.No party shall be accorded a leading role in the State, in the economy, in the armed forces, in education or in any enterprise, and no such role shall be established by law.
3.Membership of a party shall not be a condition of appointment to public office, of admission to education, or of employment.
4.A party may be dissolved only by judgment of the Constitutional Court, on proof that it pursues by force the abolition of democratic government or of the equal dignity of persons, and the judgment shall state the acts proved.

Prohibition of political policing

No file on a person for their opinions, and the old political police cannot return under a new name.

1.No organ of the State shall collect, hold or process information on a person by reason of that person's opinions, party membership, trade union activity, religion or lawful association.
2.Bodies exercising the functions of the former State Protection Service are abolished and shall not be re-established under any name.
3.The archives of that Service pass to the National Archive. Every person shall have access to the file kept on them and to the identity of those who informed on them, subject only to the protection of persons still living from danger to life.
4.Surveillance of communications and of the person shall be conducted only by judicial warrant, for an offence defined by law, and for a stated period.

Human dignity

Dignity cannot be violated, and no emergency or majority permits it.

1.Human dignity is inviolable and is the foundation of the rights declared in this Constitution.
2.No emergency, no economic plan, no majority and no international obligation shall authorise its violation.

Territory

The territory cannot be ceded or leased, the capital is Sluland, and the sea corridor stays open.

1.The territory of the Republic comprises its land, inland waters, territorial sea, seabed, subsoil and airspace.
2.The territory is inalienable. No part of it shall be ceded, leased to the exclusive use of a foreign power, or made the site of a foreign military installation.
3.The capital of the Republic is Sluland. The seat of an organ of the State may be fixed elsewhere by law.
4.The Republic maintains the maritime corridor to the Republic of Fluid as a permanent way of exchange, and shall keep it open in peace and in war.

Language, symbols and the calendar

Aporean is the official language, minority languages are used with it, and the national day is 11 September.

1.The official language of the Republic is Aporean. The law shall provide for the use of the languages of national minorities before the organs of the State, in education and in the courts of the districts in which they are spoken.
2.The flag, the arms and the anthem of the Republic shall be established by organic law.
3.The eleventh of September, the day of the adoption of this Constitution, is the national day. The first of May and the eighteenth of March, the day of the liberation of 1946, are days of the Republic.

Citizenship

Citizenship is set by organic law, and no citizen may be stripped of it or expelled.

1.Citizenship shall be acquired and lost according to organic law.
2.No citizen shall be deprived of citizenship, expelled from the territory, or surrendered to a foreign state for an offence of a political character.
3.A citizen of a member state of the union to which Article 18 refers shall enter, reside, work and receive care in the Republic on the footing of a citizen of the Republic.

Economic order

Social ownership in three forms, with private firms allowed under a ceiling on employees.

1.The economy of the Republic rests on the social ownership of the principal means of production, on the enterprise of the working collective, and on planning by agreement between enterprises, districts and the organs of the State.
2.Social ownership takes three forms: property of the whole people, administered by public establishments, meaning bodies created by law to provide a service to the population; the enterprise of the working collective, which its members administer for as long as they work in it; and the property of the districts and communes.
3.Private enterprise is lawful in the trades, in agriculture, in repair, in catering, in transport of goods, in cultural production and in such other activities listed by law, subject to a ceiling of employed persons fixed by organic law and to the same taxes, standards and conditions of labour as apply to enterprises in social ownership.
4.Land, watercourses, aquifers, coastline, seabed, forests, mineral deposits and the radio spectrum are the property of the whole people. They shall not be alienated, and their use shall be granted only as a revocable and conditional concession.
5.The employment of persons for the appropriation of their surplus labour beyond the ceiling established under paragraph 3 is prohibited, and no market shall be established in the means of production.

Currency, prices and the direction of policy

The marek is issued by the Bank alone, and the range of goods allocated by money is to shrink.

1.The monetary unit of the Republic is the marek. It shall be issued by the Bank of the Republic alone.
2.The Bank of the Republic shall be accountable to the Assembly of the Republic, which shall appoint and may remove its Council. The Bank shall not lend to a foreign state, and shall not accept an instruction from a foreign body.
3.Prices in the socially owned sector shall be established by agreement between producing and using enterprises within the framework of the plan, and the law shall list the goods and services whose prices the Government fixes.
4.Housing, health care, education at every level, water, the care of children and of the aged, and public transport shall be provided free of charge at the point of use, and shall be met from the plan.
5.It is a standing objective of the Republic to reduce the range of goods and services allocated by money and to extend the range provided free of charge, at the pace that the productive capacity of the country allows. The Assembly of the Republic shall report on the progress of this objective every four years.

Labour

Labour is the ground of every claim on the product, and forced labour is prohibited.

1.Labour is the source of the wealth of the Republic and the ground of the claim of each person on its product.
2.Forced labour is prohibited. The direction of a person to a place of work against their will is prohibited.
3.Every working collective shall govern the enterprise in which it works, elect and remove its management, and decide on the disposal of the enterprise's revenues within the limits of the law and of the plan.
4.Income shall correspond to labour performed. Income derived from the bare holding of a productive asset is prohibited.

The natural environment

The State protects the land, water, air and coast, and repairs the damage done to them.

1.The Republic shall protect the land, the water, the air, the coast and the living species of the territory, and shall repair the damage done to them.
2.The State, the districts and the enterprises shall conduct their activity with regard to the capacity of the natural environment to sustain it.
3.Every person has the duty to preserve the natural environment and the right to information on its condition.

Secularity

The Republic adopts no religion and religious communities govern themselves.

1.The Republic adopts no religion. Religious communities are separate from the State, are equal before it, and shall govern themselves.
2.No public office shall carry a religious qualification, and no religious qualification shall be required for the exercise of a right.
3.Public education shall transmit verified knowledge and the methods by which it is tested.

Local self-government

Communes and districts govern themselves, and local matters belong to the commune.

1.The territory is divided into communes and districts, which govern themselves through elected councils.
2.Every matter of local concern falls to the commune, except where this Constitution or an organic law confers it on the district or on the State.
3.The resources of the communes and districts shall correspond to the functions assigned to them.

Organs of the Republic and their separation

The Assembly legislates, the Government executes, the courts judge, and four bodies stand outside all three.

1.Legislative power belongs to the Assembly of the Republic, executive power to the Government, and judicial power to the courts.
2.The President of the Republic represents the Republic and exercises the functions this Constitution confers.
3.The Constitutional Court, the Court of Accounts, the Electoral Commission and the Commission on Information and Data exercise their functions independently of the Government.
4.An organ shall not assume a function conferred on another, and a function shall not be delegated except on the authority of this Constitution.

International relations

Founding member of the Bloc, with treaties binding only after ratification and publication.

1.The Republic is a founding member of the Democratic Socialist Bloc, established at Lindoma in 1994, and shall remain a member so long as that union rests on social ownership, ecological limits, democratic self-government and the equality of its members.
2.A treaty shall bind the Republic only on ratification by the Assembly of the Republic and publication, and shall then have the force of law and prevail over a contrary provision of a law.
3.The Republic shall not conclude a treaty that submits it to a foreign or arbitral jurisdiction in a dispute with a company, that permits a foreign military installation, or that restricts the amendment of this Constitution.
4.The Republic renounces war as an instrument of policy, recognises no acquisition of territory obtained by force, and grants asylum to persons persecuted for their opinions, their origin or their activity in defence of rights.

Armed forces and public order

The armed forces obey the civil power and may not be used against a lawful assembly.

1.The armed forces are subordinate to the civil power, serve the defence of the territory, and shall not be employed in a political dispute or against a lawful assembly.
2.A member of the armed forces or of the police shall not belong to a party while in service.
3.The Republic shall neither possess nor accept on its territory a nuclear, chemical or biological weapon.
4.The armed forces shall act beyond the frontier only on a law adopted by two thirds of the members of the Assembly of the Republic.

Access to public information

Anyone may ask for information held by a public body, and a refusal must be reasoned and appealable.

1.Every person has the right of access to information held by an organ of the State, by a district, by a commune or by an enterprise in social ownership.
2.Refusal shall be reasoned, shall rest on a ground stated in an organic law, and shall be subject to appeal to a court.
3.The plan, the budget, the accounts of enterprises in social ownership, and the register of concessions granted under Article 11(4) shall be published.

Title II · Rights, liberties and duties

Articles 21 to 57

Chapter 1: General provisions

Equality

Everyone is equal before the law, and hereditary titles are abolished.

1.All persons are equal before the law and are entitled to its equal protection.
2.No person shall be favoured or prejudiced by reason of origin, nationality, language, sex, birth, age, disability, health, property, occupation, religion, opinion, party membership or family situation.
3.Measures adopted to remove an established inequality shall not be held contrary to this Article.
4.Privileges of birth, hereditary titles and hereditary offices are abolished.

Scope and limitation of rights

A right may be limited only by law, only where necessary, and never in its essential content.

1.The rights declared in this Title bind the Assembly of the Republic, the Government, the administration, the courts, the districts, the communes and the enterprises.
2.A right may be limited only by a law, only where the limitation is necessary for the protection of another right or of a public interest stated in this Constitution, and only to the extent required.
3.A limitation shall be general in its terms and shall not touch the essential content of the right.
4.Where a right is claimed to have been infringed, the organ concerned shall bear the burden of showing that the conditions of paragraph 2 are satisfied.

Foreigners, stateless persons and asylum

Foreigners hold the same rights except those reserved to citizens, and asylum is granted for persecution.

1.Foreigners and stateless persons lawfully in the territory enjoy the rights declared in this Title, except those which this Constitution reserves to citizens.
2.Asylum shall be granted to a person persecuted for their opinions, their origin, their belonging to a group, or their activity in defence of rights.
3.Extradition shall be refused where the offence is of a political character, where the person would face the death penalty, or where they would face torture or an inhuman punishment.
4.A person shall not be expelled to a territory in which their life or liberty would be in danger.

National minorities

Minorities keep their language, culture and religion, and forced assimilation is prohibited.

1.Persons belonging to a national minority have the right to preserve their language, their culture and their religion, to be taught in their language, and to use it before the organs of the State in the districts in which they reside in significant numbers.
2.The law shall provide for their representation in the councils of those districts.
3.Assimilation by measure of the State is prohibited.

Remedy and reparation

Every infringed right has a remedy, and the State pays for the unlawful acts of its agents.

1.Every person whose right has been infringed has the right to a remedy before a court, decided within a reasonable time.
2.The State shall make reparation for damage caused by the unlawful act of a public organ or of its agents, and shall recover from the agent at fault.
3.A person unlawfully deprived of liberty or convicted in error has the right to compensation and to the public rectification of the record.

Chapter 2: Life, integrity and liberty

Life

Life is inviolable and the death penalty cannot be brought back, including in war.

1.The life of the person is inviolable.
2.The death penalty is abolished and shall not be re-established, including in time of war.

Integrity of the person

Torture is prohibited, and a statement obtained by it counts for nothing.

1.The physical and mental integrity of the person is inviolable.
2.Torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment are prohibited.
3.A medical or scientific intervention on a person requires their free and informed consent, given in the forms laid down by law.
4.A statement obtained by torture, by threat or by deception shall be inadmissible in any proceeding.

Liberty and security of the person

Arrest requires law, a judge within forty-eight hours, and counsel from the first hour.

1.No person shall be deprived of liberty except in the cases and by the procedure established by law.
2.A person arrested shall be informed at once of the reasons and of their rights, and shall be brought before a judge within forty-eight hours, failing which they shall be released.
3.Detention before judgment shall be exceptional, shall rest on a reasoned judicial decision, and shall be subject to a maximum fixed by law.
4.Every person deprived of liberty has the right to inform a person of their choice, to counsel from the first hour, and to a medical examination.
5.Detention for debt is prohibited. Detention on the ground of illness, poverty, homelessness or want of employment is prohibited.

Fair trial and defence

A public hearing before an independent court, with defence, interpretation and appeal.

1.Every person has the right to a hearing in public before an independent and impartial court established by law.
2.The accused shall be presumed innocent until convicted by a final judgment.
3.The accused has the right to be informed of the charge, to time and facilities for defence, to counsel provided free of charge where they lack means, to interpretation, to examine witnesses, and to appeal.
4.No person shall be tried twice for the same act, nor compelled to testify against themselves or against a member of their family.
5.Extraordinary courts are prohibited. A civilian shall not be tried by a military court.

Legality of offences and penalties

No offence and no penalty without a law in force at the time, and no penalty without review.

1.An act shall be punished only where it constituted an offence defined by law at the time of its commission, and only with the penalty then prescribed.
2.A penalty shall be proportionate to the offence. Penalties shall serve the protection of society and the restoration of the person, and no penalty shall be perpetual and without review.
3.A penalty shall not extend to the family of the convicted person, and shall not entail the general forfeiture of goods.
4.Deprivation of liberty shall not entail the loss of the right to vote.

Inviolability of the home

The home is entered only on a judicial warrant, except in pursuit or danger to life.

1.The home is inviolable. Entry, search or seizure requires a reasoned judicial warrant, except in pursuit of a person taken in the act or in case of danger to life.
2.A search shall be conducted in the presence of the occupier or of witnesses, and a record shall be given to them.

Correspondence and personal data

Correspondence is secret, and data collected without a legal basis must be erased.

1.The secrecy of correspondence and of communication is guaranteed. Interception requires a reasoned judicial warrant, for a stated offence and a stated period.
2.Every person has the right to know what data on them is held by an organ of the State or by an enterprise, to obtain the correction of error, and to obtain the erasure of data collected without a legal basis.
3.Data collected for one purpose shall not be used for another, and the general numbering of persons across unconnected registers is prohibited.

Freedom of movement

Movement is free, and the exit visa and the internal residence permit are abolished.

1.Every person lawfully in the territory has the right to move within it and to choose their residence.
2.Every citizen has the right to leave the territory and to return to it. A passport shall be refused only by reasoned decision subject to appeal to a court.
3.The exit visa and the internal permit of residence are abolished and shall not be re-established.

Chapter 3: Conscience, expression and association

Conscience and religion

Conscience and religion are free, and objection to armed service carries a civil alternative.

1.Freedom of conscience, of religion and of belief is guaranteed, in private and in public, alone and in community.
2.No person shall be required to declare their religion or belief.
3.Conscientious objection to armed service is recognised, and the law shall provide a civil service of equal duration.

Expression and information

Expression is free, censorship is prohibited, and insulting the State is no offence.

1.Every person has the right to express and to publish their opinions, and to seek and receive information.
2.Censorship is prohibited. A publication shall not be seized or a broadcast suspended except by judicial decision.
3.Liability for expression shall arise only after publication and only in the cases the law defines. Insult to the State, to its symbols or to the holder of an office shall not be an offence.
4.Scientific research and artistic creation are free.

Media

No State monopoly over the press, and journalists may protect their sources.

1.A monopoly of the State over the press, broadcasting or telecommunication is prohibited.
2.The ownership and the funding of a medium shall be public, and the law shall prevent the concentration of media in few hands.
3.The public broadcasting service shall be independent of the Government, shall be governed by a council appointed by the Assembly of the Republic by a majority of two thirds, and shall give access to the parties and associations on equal terms.
4.Journalists have the right to protect their sources and shall not be compelled to disclose them.

Assembly

Assembly needs no prior permission, and force is used only once it stops being peaceful.

1.Every person has the right to assemble peacefully and without arms, in public or in private, without prior authorisation.
2.Notice may be required for an assembly on a public way, and a failure of notice shall not of itself render the assembly unlawful.
3.An assembly shall be dispersed only where it has ceased to be peaceful, by decision of the responsible authority, and by the least force sufficient.

Association

Associations form freely and only a court may dissolve one.

1.Every person has the right to form associations and to join them or abstain from joining them.
2.An association becomes a person in law by registration, so that it may own property, make contracts and appear in court in its own name. Registration which shall be refused only by reasoned decision subject to appeal to a court.
3.An association shall be dissolved only by judicial decision.
4.Secret associations and associations of a military character are prohibited.

Petition and access to the organs

Anyone may petition a public body and must receive a reasoned reply.

1.Every person has the right to address a petition to any organ of the State and to receive a reasoned reply within the period laid down by law.
2.Every person has the right to be heard before a decision of the administration affecting them, and to receive the reasons for it in writing.

Chapter 4: Political rights

Suffrage

Universal suffrage from eighteen, with no turnout condition on any result.

1.Every citizen of eighteen years has the right to vote and to stand for election.
2.The vote is universal, equal, direct, secret and free. Voting is not compulsory.
3.No condition of turnout shall be attached to the validity of an election or of a referendum.
4.Residents who are not citizens shall vote and stand in elections to the councils of the commune after three years of lawful residence.

Access to public office

Public office is open on equal terms, and office holders publish their interests and assets.

1.Every citizen has the right of access to public office on conditions of equality, by competition or by election.
2.Appointment and promotion in the administration shall be made on merit established by public procedure.
3.The holder of a public office shall declare their interests and their assets, and the declaration shall be published.

Referendum and popular initiative

Referendum and popular initiative, with rights placed outside their reach.

1.A referendum shall be held on the demand of the Assembly of the Republic, of one third of its members, or of a number of citizens fixed by organic law.
2.A number of citizens fixed by organic law may lay a proposal of law before the Assembly of the Republic, which shall consider it and vote on it within six months.
3.A referendum shall not be held on a matter that would abolish a right declared in this Title.

Participation in local affairs

Residents take part in local decisions, and a harmful installation needs a public hearing first.

1.Residents have the right to participate in the decisions of their commune, through the assembly of the commune, through consultation on plans of land use, and through the local referendum.
2.A decision to site an installation harmful to health or to the environment shall be taken after a public hearing in the commune concerned, whose opinion shall be published together with the decision.

Chapter 5: Economic and social rights

Work

The right to work, protection against dismissal, and a floor and ceiling on income.

1.Every person has the right to work, to choose their occupation, and to be assisted by the State in obtaining employment corresponding to their qualification.
2.Dismissal shall be permitted only on a ground defined by law and shall be subject to appeal to a court.
3.Dismissal on the ground of trade union activity, of the exercise of a right, or of pregnancy is void.
4.Equal work is paid equally, and the law shall fix a minimum income and a maximum ratio between the highest and the lowest income in any enterprise.

Conditions of labour

Forty hours, paid leave, safe conditions, and no employment of children in school.

1.The working week shall not exceed forty hours. The law shall reduce it as the productivity of labour allows.
2.Every worker has the right to a daily and a weekly rest, to paid annual leave of no fewer than twenty-four working days, and to public holidays.
3.Every worker has the right to conditions of work that protect their health, to information on the hazards of their work, and to withdraw from work presenting a serious and immediate danger without loss of income.
4.The employment of children below the age at which compulsory education ends is prohibited.

Strike

The right to strike, including in the public service, with the lock-out prohibited.

1.The right to strike is guaranteed to every worker, including in enterprises in social ownership and in the public service.
2.The law shall provide for a minimum service in health, in water, in electricity and in emergency communication, and that minimum service shall not be set at a level which makes the strike ineffective.
3.The closure of a workplace by its management in answer to a strike, called a lock-out, is prohibited. A worker shall not be dismissed or penalised for participation in a lawful strike.

Trade unions

Unions form freely and stay independent of the State, the parties and management.

1.Workers have the right to form trade unions freely, to join the union of their choice, and to be represented by it.
2.Trade unions shall be independent of the State, of the parties and of the management of enterprises.
3.Collective agreements concluded between unions and enterprises or their associations have the force of law between the parties, and the law shall provide for their extension to a branch.

Self-management in the enterprise

The working collective elects a council which appoints the director and decides the enterprise plan.

1.The working collective of an enterprise in social ownership shall constitute a workers' council, elected by secret ballot from among its members.
2.The council shall adopt the statute of the enterprise, appoint and remove its director, decide on the plan of the enterprise, and dispose of its revenues within the limits of the law.
3.In an enterprise in private ownership employing more than the number of persons fixed by organic law, the workers shall elect a committee entitled to information on the accounts of the enterprise and to consultation before a change in the organisation of work.

Housing

An adequate dwelling, allocated by need, with no eviction without a judicial decision.

1.Every person has the right to a dwelling adequate to the size of their household, secure in tenure, and served with water, sanitation, heating and electricity.
2.Dwellings shall be allocated from the public stock according to need, on criteria published by the commune, in the order of a register open to inspection by the applicants.
3.A person shall not be evicted from their dwelling without a judicial decision and without the offer of alternative accommodation.
4.The purchase of dwellings for letting at a profit, and the holding of dwellings vacant, shall be limited by law, and the commune may take a vacant dwelling into the public stock on compensation.

Health

Health care free at the point of use, financed from the plan.

1.Every person has the right to the protection of their health and to care provided free of charge at the point of use by the public health service.
2.The public health service shall be general, shall serve the whole territory, and shall be financed from the plan.
3.Preventive medicine, the medicine of work and the health of mothers and children are duties of the State.
4.A charge shall not be imposed for treatment, for a medicine on the list established by law, or for an examination.

Education

Education free at every level, compulsory for at least nine years, with self-governing universities.

1.Every person has the right to education. Education is free of charge at every level, including higher education, and in the establishments of the State alone.
2.Education is compulsory to the age fixed by law and shall not be shorter than nine years.
3.Higher education shall be open on the basis of ability established by public examination.
4.Universities govern themselves, and the freedom of teaching and of research is guaranteed.
5.Private establishments of education may be founded on the conditions laid down by law and shall receive no public funds.

Social security

Social security in old age, sickness, disability and unemployment, adjusted to prices.

1.Every person has the right to social security in old age, in sickness, in disability, in unemployment, in the loss of a supporter, and in maternity and paternity.
2.Benefits shall be sufficient to maintain the recipient and their household in dignity, and shall be adjusted at least annually to the movement of prices.
3.The right acquired to a pension shall not be reduced.
4.Every person without means has the right to a subsistence income and to shelter.

Family and children

The family is protected, children born outside marriage have equal rights, and children are heard.

1.The family is protected by the State. Marriage rests on the free consent and the equality of the spouses.
2.Children born within and outside marriage have equal rights, and any mention of the circumstances of birth in a public register is prohibited.
3.Parents have the right and the duty to maintain and educate their children, and shall be assisted in it by the State by leave from work, by allowance and by public establishments for the care of children.
4.Children have the right to protection against neglect, violence and exploitation, and shall be heard in decisions affecting them according to their age.
5.Young persons, aged persons and persons with disability have the right to the particular measures of protection and of participation that the law establishes.

Culture, science and creation

Cultural life is open to all, and knowledge made with public funds is published.

1.Every person has the right to take part in cultural life and to enjoy the benefit of scientific progress.
2.The author of a work of the mind has the right to be named as its author and to object to its distortion. These rights cannot be sold or surrendered.
3.Knowledge produced with public funds shall be published and shall be open to use without charge.
4.The cultural and natural heritage of the territory shall be protected, and its removal from the territory is prohibited.

Chapter 6: Environment and consumption

Environment

An environment which does not injure health, with information and an assessment before projects.

1.Every person has the right to an environment that does not injure their health, and the duty to preserve it.
2.Every person has the right to information on the condition of the environment and on emissions affecting the place where they live or work, and the right to bring proceedings for the cessation of a harm and for its repair.
3.A project liable to affect the environment significantly shall be preceded by a public assessment, whose conclusions shall be published before the decision is taken.

Consumption and public services

Users get safety, truthful information, repairable goods and a way to complain.

1.Users of goods and services have the right to safety, to truthful information on what is provided to them, to the repair of goods, and to redress.
2.Goods sold in the Republic shall be repairable, and the parts and the information necessary for repair shall be available for the useful life of the good.
3.Users of a public service have the right to be consulted on its organisation and to complain to an organ independent of the service.

Chapter 7: Duties

Duties

Obey the law, pay according to means, defend the territory, and preserve the environment.

1.Every person shall observe the Constitution and the laws, contribute to public burdens according to their means, and respect the rights of others.
2.Every citizen shall serve in the defence of the territory on the conditions laid down by law, and Article 34(3) governs.
3.Every person shall preserve the natural environment, the public property and the cultural heritage.
4.A duty shall not be established except by law, and the invocation of a duty shall not justify the denial of a right.

Title III · The economic and social order

Articles 58 to 90

Chapter 1: The plan

Objectives

The economy serves needs, full employment, equality between districts, and the environment.

1.Economic activity in the Republic serves the satisfaction of the needs of the population, full employment, the reduction of inequality between persons and between districts, and the protection of the natural environment.
2.Economic policy shall be conducted so as to reduce the dependence of the Republic on supplies it cannot replace.
3.The State shall not conduct economic policy in a manner that transfers to households the cost of the failure of an enterprise or of a public establishment.

Nature of the plan

A five-year plan, revised annually, adopted as a law and binding on public bodies.

1.The plan of the Republic is adopted for five years and revised annually, in each case by a law.
2.The plan states the objectives of production, of investment, of employment and of provision, the resources allocated to them, and the enterprises and establishments responsible.
3.The plan binds the organs of the State, the districts, the communes, the public establishments and the enterprises in social ownership. It binds a private enterprise only in relation to a contract it has concluded under the plan.

Preparation of the plan

The plan is negotiated between enterprises, communes, districts and the Office of the Plan.

1.The plan is prepared by agreement between the enterprises, the communes, the districts and the Office of the Plan, in rounds of negotiation opened by the Government and concluded before the plan is laid before the Assembly of the Republic.
2.Enterprises state the quantities they can produce and the inputs they require. Communes and districts state the needs of their population. Trade unions and associations of users are heard.
3.Where agreement is not reached, the Office of the Plan proposes a settlement, and the Assembly of the Republic decides.
4.The drafts, the variants and the objections recorded in the negotiation shall be published with the plan.

Content and accounts of the plan

The plan is stated in money and in physical units, with balances for energy, water and labour.

1.The plan is expressed in monetary values and, for the goods and resources listed by law, in physical units.
2.The plan shall include balances for energy, for water, for the principal materials and for labour.
3.The plan shall state the effect of the planned activity on the natural environment, in the terms the law prescribes.

Effect of the plan on enterprises

An enterprise which agreed a task performs it, and is released if its inputs fail to arrive.

1.An enterprise which has agreed a task in the plan shall perform it, and shall be entitled to the inputs allocated to it for that purpose.
2.Where an allocation is not delivered, the enterprise is released from the corresponding task and may claim compensation from the party in default.
3.An enterprise may produce beyond its task in the plan and dispose of the surplus, on the conditions laid down by law.

Districts and communes in the plan

Districts and communes plan too, and transfers follow published criteria.

1.Districts and communes adopt their own plans, which shall conform to the plan of the Republic in the matters it regulates.
2.The transfers to districts and communes shall be established by the plan on criteria fixed by law, published in advance, and equal in their application.

Chapter 2: Enterprises

The enterprise in social ownership

The enterprise is a person in law whose assets belong to the whole people.

1.An enterprise in social ownership is a person in law. Its assets belong to the whole people, and the enterprise administers them on its own responsibility.
2.The assets of the enterprise shall not be sold, mortgaged or transferred except on the conditions laid down by law and with the approval of the organ that established it.
3.The enterprise is governed by the workers' council under Article 48.

Establishment and dissolution

Enterprises are founded, merged and dissolved by the organ that created them, after consultation.

1.An enterprise in social ownership is established by the Assembly of the Republic, by a district or by a commune, and its founding act states its purpose and its assets.
2.An enterprise may be merged, divided or dissolved by the organ that established it, after consultation of its workers' council and of the trade union.
3.On dissolution, the assets return to the founding organ and the workers have the right to transfer to other employment and to income during the period of transfer.

Accounts and audit

Accounts are published annually, audited, and open to questions from residents.

1.Every enterprise in social ownership shall keep accounts in the form the law prescribes and publish them annually.
2.The accounts are audited by the Court of Accounts or by an auditor it approves.
3.The workers' council, the trade union and any resident of the commune in which the enterprise operates may inspect the published accounts and put questions to the director, who shall reply in writing.

Losses and support

Losses fall on the enterprise, with support possible from the founding organ.

1.An enterprise in social ownership bears its own losses out of its reserves.
2.Where an enterprise cannot meet its obligations, the founding organ may grant support out of the funds of the plan, for a stated period and against a programme of recovery, or may proceed to dissolution under Article 65.
3.The grant of support and the programme of recovery shall be published.

Public establishments

Health, education, water, post, rail and electricity stay in public hands and out of profit.

1.Health, education, water, sanitation, the postal service, the railways and the supply of electricity are conducted by public establishments serving the whole territory.
2.These activities shall not be transferred to a private enterprise, nor conducted for profit, nor made the object of a concession to a foreign person.

Private enterprise

Private firms in listed trades, under an employee ceiling and the same standards as everyone else.

1.A private enterprise may be established in the activities listed by law, and shall be registered.
2.The number of persons it employs shall not exceed the ceiling fixed by organic law, and the ceiling shall be the same for every activity.
3.The private enterprise is subject to the same standards of safety, of health, of conditions of labour and of environmental protection as the enterprise in social ownership.
4.A private enterprise shall not be established in banking, in insurance, in the extraction of minerals, in the generation of electricity, in the railways, in the press of national circulation, in health or in education.

Cooperatives and agriculture

Land is worked by cooperatives, public farms and family holdings under a size ceiling.

1.Agricultural land is worked by cooperatives of producers, by public farms and by family holdings.
2.Membership of a cooperative is voluntary, and a member may withdraw with the land and the equipment they brought into it, on the conditions laid down by law.
3.The area of a family holding shall not exceed the ceiling fixed by organic law.

Sole and principal suppliers

A sole or principal supplier may not dictate terms, and price-fixing agreements are void.

1.An enterprise which is the sole or the principal supplier of a good or a service shall not use that position to impose conditions on a user, on a supplier or on a commune.
2.Agreements between enterprises to divide a market or to fix a price outside the plan are void.

Chapter 3: Finance

The budget

An annual budget covering all revenue and expenditure, with nothing spent outside it.

1.The budget of the Republic is adopted by a law for each budget year, which runs from 1 January to 31 December, before that year begins, and states all revenue and all expenditure.
2.Expenditure shall not be undertaken outside the budget. A fund outside the budget may be established only by a law which states its purpose, its resources and the date of its expiry.
3.The accounts of execution of the budget are laid before the Assembly of the Republic and published within six months of the end of that year.

Taxation

Taxes only by law, progressive, and never below the subsistence income.

1.A tax, a contribution or a charge shall be established, altered or abolished only by a law which states the taxable event, the base, the rate and the persons liable.
2.Taxation is progressive in relation to income and to wealth, and shall not reduce a person below the subsistence income under Article 52(4).
3.The privileges of exemption granted to a person or to an enterprise individually are prohibited.

Public borrowing

Borrowing only by law, only for investment, and foreign lenders only by a two-thirds vote.

1.The Republic may borrow only by authority of a law which states the amount, the purpose and the term.
2.Borrowing shall be applied to investment and shall not be applied to current expenditure.
3.The Republic shall not borrow from a foreign state, a foreign bank or an international financial institution except by a law adopted by two thirds of the members of the Assembly of the Republic, and shall not accept a condition touching its internal order.

The Bank of the Republic

The Bank issues the marek, answers to the Assembly, and may not fund a budget deficit.

1.The Bank of the Republic issues the marek, holds the accounts of the State, and conducts the credit of the Republic within the framework of the plan.
2.The Council of the Bank is appointed by the Assembly of the Republic for a term of six years and reports to it twice a year in public sitting.
3.The Bank shall not grant credit to the State to cover a deficit of the budget.

Credit to enterprises

Enterprises borrow from the Bank on published conditions and in the order of the plan.

1.Enterprises obtain credit for investment from the Bank of the Republic, on application stating the purpose, the term and the expected return, and in the order of priority established by the plan.
2.The conditions of credit shall be published, and shall be the same for every applicant of the same class.
3.Credit unpaid at term shall be recovered, and the Bank shall report annually to the Assembly of the Republic on the amounts unrecovered, by enterprise.

Savings and household credit

Household savings are guaranteed, and credit is for dwellings, study and small enterprise.

1.Households may hold savings in the Bank of the Republic and in the savings institutions established by law, and their savings are guaranteed by the Republic.
2.Credit to households is granted for the construction and repair of dwellings, for study and for the establishment of a private enterprise under Article 69.
3.Interest on savings shall not exceed the rate fixed by law, and income from interest is subject to tax.

Prices

Some prices are fixed by the Government, and shortage is met by rationing for a limited period.

1.The law lists the goods and services whose prices are fixed by the Government, and the Government publishes the reasons for each price it fixes.
2.Other prices are agreed between the parties within the framework of the plan.
3.Where a good in general use is in short supply, the Government may establish rationing by an order limited to twelve months, renewable by a law, and shall publish the quantities available and the criteria of distribution.

Chapter 4: Labour and incomes

Incomes

Incomes are set by the workers' council within statutory limits and an annual national agreement.

1.Income in an enterprise in social ownership is determined by its workers' council, within the minimum and the ratio established under Article 44(4) and within the funds the enterprise has earned.
2.The Government, the trade unions and the associations of enterprises shall conclude an annual agreement on the movement of incomes, which is laid before the Assembly of the Republic.
3.Income in the public service and in the public establishments is fixed by law on a published scale.

Employment

A public employment service, advance notice of redundancy, and benefit without forced acceptance.

1.The State, the districts and the communes shall organise the employment service, publish the vacancies known to it, and provide training and retraining free of charge.
2.Where an enterprise reduces its workforce, it shall notify the employment service and the trade union in advance, and the workers concerned have priority for training and for vacancies in the district.
3.A person seeking employment receives the benefit under Article 52 for the period laid down by law, which shall not be conditioned on the acceptance of employment below their qualification or outside their district.

Chapter 5: Land, resources and the environment

Concessions over natural resources

Natural resources are used under a public, revocable concession with restoration conditions.

1.The use of land, water, forests, minerals, the coast and the seabed is granted by concession, for a stated period, against stated conditions of restoration, and against payment to the Republic.
2.A concession is revoked where its conditions are broken, and the holder shall restore the site at their own cost.
3.The register of concessions, with their conditions and their terms, is public.

Spatial planning

Land use follows the commune plan, and building on floodplains and unstable slopes is prohibited.

1.Land use is governed by the spatial plan of the commune, which conforms to the plan of the district and to the plan of the Republic.
2.A spatial plan is adopted after a public inquiry, and the objections received and the reasons for rejecting them are published with it.
3.Building in a floodplain, on an unstable slope or on land subject to coastal retreat is prohibited, and the law shall provide for the removal of existing building and for the compensation of the occupiers.

Expropriation

Property is taken only for a public purpose, on full compensation, never for a private firm.

1.Property may be taken for a public purpose stated by law, by a decision subject to appeal to a court, and against prior and full compensation.
2.Property shall not be taken for the benefit of a private enterprise.

Protection of the environment and of resources

Annual publication of the state of air, water, soil and forests, with polluters paying for repair.

1.The Government shall publish annually the condition of the air, of the water, of the soil and of the forests, and the quantities of the principal materials extracted, imported, used and discarded.
2.Emissions and discharges are subject to limits fixed by law, and the enterprise causing a harm shall pay for its repair.
3.Waste shall be reduced, materials shall be returned to use, and the deposit of untreated waste is prohibited from the date the law fixes.

Energy and water

Electricity, water and heating stay socially owned, and water is never cut off for non-payment.

1.The generation and distribution of electricity, the supply of water and the district heating networks are held in social ownership and shall not be alienated.
2.The Republic shall reduce its consumption of fossil fuels on the timetable the plan establishes.
3.A supply of water sufficient for personal and domestic use shall not be cut off for non-payment.

Chapter 6: External economic relations

Foreign trade

Bloc trade by agreement, other trade under a public licence.

1.Trade with the member states of the union under Article 18 is conducted by agreement concluded within that union, and settled in the manner the agreement provides.
2.Trade with other states is conducted by enterprises under licence granted by the Government, which states the goods, the quantities and the term.
3.The register of licences is public.

Trade agreements

Trade agreements are ratified and published, and reserved activities stay closed to them.

1.The Republic may conclude trade agreements, which are ratified and published under Article 18(2).
2.A trade agreement shall not require the Republic to open to private or foreign enterprise an activity reserved by Article 68 or Article 69(4), to grant an exclusive right over knowledge, or to submit a dispute with a company to a foreign or arbitral jurisdiction.
3.Accession to an international economic organisation requires a law adopted by two thirds of the members of the Assembly of the Republic, and withdrawal from it requires a law adopted by simple majority.

Foreign investment

Foreign participation only under licence, with land, dwellings, press and banks excluded.

1.A foreign person may participate in an enterprise in the Republic only under licence, which states the term, the technique to be transferred, and the conditions of employment.
2.A foreign person shall not acquire land, mineral deposits, dwellings, the press, a bank or a public establishment.
3.The transfer abroad of the earnings of a licensed participation is permitted within the limits the licence states.

Foreign exchange

All foreign exchange passes through one external account, with quarterly publication.

1.All foreign exchange of the Republic passes through the external account held at the Bank of the Republic.
2.The Bank publishes quarterly the balance of the external account and the composition of the reserves.
3.The marek shall not be issued against a foreign currency held as reserve, and the Republic shall not adopt the currency of another state or of a union of states.

Assistance to other peoples

Assistance to peoples in want, creating no debt and carrying no political condition.

1.The Republic provides assistance in goods, in technique and in training to peoples in want, on the scale the plan establishes.
2.Assistance creates no debt and is granted on no condition touching the internal affairs of the recipient.

Title IV · The Assembly of the Republic

Articles 91 to 110

Chapter 1: Composition and election

Nature of the Assembly

One chamber, representing the people, sitting in permanent session.

1.The Assembly of the Republic represents the people and exercises legislative power.
2.The Assembly sits in one chamber.
3.The Assembly meets in permanent session and adjourns only by its own decision.

Composition

One hundred and twenty members for four years, half in constituencies and half from lists.

1.The Assembly consists of one hundred and twenty members, elected for four years.
2.Sixty members are elected in single-member constituencies, one for each constituency, by the candidate who receives the most votes.
3.Sixty members are elected from lists presented in the districts, and the seats are distributed among the lists in proportion to the votes they receive.
4.A list receiving less than three per cent of the votes cast in the Republic takes no seat from the distribution under paragraph 3.
5.Constituencies are drawn by the Electoral Commission so that the number of residents in each departs by no more than five per cent from the average, and are revised after each census.

Candidature

Anyone entitled to vote may stand, campaign funds are published, and foreign money is prohibited.

1.A citizen entitled to vote may stand for election.
2.Candidates are presented by parties, by associations and by groups of voters, and a candidature presented by a group of voters is subject to no condition additional to those applying to a party.
3.The public funds granted to a candidature and the private contributions received by it are published before the poll, and a contribution from a foreign source is prohibited.

Incompatibility

The seat is incompatible with judicial office, the armed forces and the direction of an enterprise.

1.The office of member of the Assembly is incompatible with a judicial office, with membership of the Constitutional Court, of the Court of Accounts or of the Electoral Commission, with service in the armed forces or the police, and with the direction of an enterprise.
2.A member appointed to the Government retains their seat, and their vote in the Assembly is exercised by them alone.
3.A member shall declare their interests and their assets on taking office and on leaving it, and the declarations are published.

Mandate

Members take no instruction, are not liable for their votes, and are protected against pretextual prosecution.

1.A member represents the whole people and is bound by no instruction.
2.A member shall not be prosecuted for a vote given or an opinion expressed in the exercise of their office.
3.A member may be arrested or prosecuted for another act only with the authorisation of the Assembly, which shall be refused only where the proceeding appears to be brought to prevent the exercise of the mandate. Authorisation is not required where the member is taken in the act of a serious offence.
4.A member may resign. A seat becomes vacant on resignation, on death, on a final conviction carrying disqualification, and on the loss of a condition of eligibility.

Filling of vacancies

List seats pass to the next candidate, constituency seats to a by-election.

1.A vacancy in a seat under Article 92(3) passes to the next candidate on the same list.
2.A vacancy in a seat under Article 92(2) is filled by a by-election within ninety days, unless fewer than six months of the term remain.

Chapter 2: Functioning

Sittings and publicity

Sittings are public, and every vote is published by member within forty-eight hours.

1.Sittings of the Assembly are public. The Assembly may sit in closed session by a decision taken in public and stating the reason.
2.The record of every sitting, the text of every proposal and the result of every vote, by member, are published within forty-eight hours.
3.Every person has the right to attend a public sitting and to consult the record without charge.

Officers and organisation

The Assembly elects its officers, adopts its own rules, and gives budget scrutiny to the opposition.

1.The Assembly elects its President and its other officers at its first sitting, for the duration of the legislature, and may remove them by the same majority.
2.The Assembly adopts its rules of procedure, which are published and are subject to review by the Constitutional Court.
3.Groups formed by members according to the rules of procedure receive means for their work in proportion to their number, and a group of the opposition presides over the committee on the budget and over the committee on the plan.

Committees

Committees may summon ministers and directors, who must appear and answer.

1.The Assembly constitutes standing committees, whose composition reflects the composition of the Assembly.
2.A committee may summon a minister, a director of a public establishment or of an enterprise in social ownership, and an officer of the administration, who shall appear and answer.
3.A committee may require the production of a document, and a refusal shall be reasoned in writing and may be referred to the Constitutional Court.

100

Committees of inquiry

One third of the members can force an inquiry with the powers of a court.

1.A committee of inquiry is constituted at the demand of one third of the members of the Assembly.
2.The committee has the powers of a court to summon witnesses and to require documents, and its conclusions are published.
3.Its conclusions bind no court and decide nothing in advance in a criminal proceeding.

101

Quorum and majorities

A majority present, a majority voting, and organic laws by a majority of all members.

1.The Assembly deliberates validly when the majority of its members are present, and decides by the majority of those voting, except where this Constitution requires another majority.
2.An organic law is adopted, amended or repealed by the majority of the members of the Assembly.
3.A vote by which the Assembly may remove a person from office is taken by secret ballot. Every other vote is taken openly.

Chapter 3: Legislation

102

Laws and organic laws

Organic laws cover the listed matters and go to the Constitutional Court before promulgation.

1.The Assembly legislates by law.
2.An organic law is a law which this Constitution requires for a stated matter. It is adopted by the majority under Article 101(2), takes precedence over an ordinary law in the matter it regulates, and is submitted to the Constitutional Court before promulgation.
3.This Constitution requires an organic law for citizenship, for the electoral system, for the ceilings under Articles 69 and 70, for the organisation of the courts, for the status of judges, for the armed forces and the police, for the state of emergency, for the grounds on which access to public information may be refused, and for the organisation of local self-government.

103

Initiative

Members, the Government, district councils and citizens may propose laws, with costs stated.

1.A proposal of law may be laid by a member of the Assembly, by the Government, by a district council, or by citizens under Article 42(2).
2.The Government alone may lay the proposal of the budget and the proposal of the plan.
3.A proposal is accompanied by a statement of its reasons, of its cost, and of its effect on the natural environment.

104

Procedure

Committee, then general vote, then article by article, with unconnected amendments inadmissible.

1.A proposal is examined in committee, which reports to the Assembly, and is then voted in general terms, article by article, and as a whole.
2.An amendment which is unconnected with the subject of the proposal is inadmissible, and the President of the Assembly rules on admissibility subject to appeal to the Assembly.
3.A proposal rejected by the Assembly may be laid again after six months.
4.A proposal which has not been voted at the end of the legislature lapses.

105

Promulgation and publication

The President promulgates within fifteen days, may return a law once, or may refer it to the Court.

1.A law adopted by the Assembly is sent to the President of the Republic, who promulgates it within fifteen days and orders its publication.
2.The President may, once, return a law to the Assembly with reasons stated in writing. Where the Assembly adopts it again by the majority of its members, the President promulgates it within eight days.
3.The President may, before promulgation, refer a law to the Constitutional Court, which decides within thirty days. Promulgation is suspended during that period.
4.Where the President neither promulgates nor returns nor refers a law within the periods stated, the President of the Assembly orders its publication.

106

Delegated legislation

The Assembly may delegate law-making narrowly, never over rights, taxes or offences.

1.The Assembly may authorise the Government by law to make decrees having the force of law in a stated matter, for a stated period, and within limits the law defines.
2.The Assembly shall not delegate the matters reserved to an organic law, taxation, criminal offences and penalties, or the restriction of a right declared in Title II.
3.A decree made under a delegation is laid before the Assembly within thirty days and lapses if the Assembly does not confirm it within sixty days.

107

Powers of the Assembly

The Assembly adopts the plan and budget, ratifies treaties, and elects the Prime Minister.

1.The Assembly adopts the plan and the budget, ratifies treaties, declares a state of emergency, decides the use of the armed forces beyond the frontier, and grants amnesty.
2.The Assembly elects the Prime Minister, and elects or approves the holders of the offices this Constitution states.
3.The Assembly receives the reports of the Court of Accounts, of the Electoral Commission, of the Commission on Information and Data and of the Bank of the Republic, and debates each in public sitting.
4.The Assembly may set aside a regulation of the Government which exceeds the law, by a resolution stating the excess.

Chapter 4: Term and dissolution

108

Term

Four years, with extension only during emergency or attack and only by two thirds.

1.The Assembly is elected for four years, and its term runs from its first sitting.
2.Elections are held between thirty and sixty days before the end of the term, and the new Assembly meets within thirty days of the poll.
3.The term is extended only during a state of emergency or an armed attack, by a law adopted by two thirds of the members, for a period no longer than six months at a time, and elections are held within ninety days of the end of the emergency.

109

Dissolution

The President may dissolve on the Government's proposal, and the Assembly may dissolve itself.

1.The President of the Republic may dissolve the Assembly on the proposal of the Government, after consulting the President of the Assembly and the groups.
2.The Assembly shall not be dissolved within twelve months of its first sitting, during a state of emergency, or while a motion of censure is pending.
3.Elections are held within sixty days of the dissolution.
4.The Assembly may dissolve itself by a decision taken by two thirds of its members.

110

Continuity

A dissolved Assembly handles current business only, through a proportional standing committee.

1.A dissolved Assembly continues to exercise its functions until the new Assembly meets, and during that period it shall not adopt an organic law, revise the Constitution, or ratify a treaty.
2.Where the Assembly stands dissolved and a matter admits of no delay, its standing committee, composed in proportion to the outgoing Assembly, decides subject to confirmation by the new Assembly.

Title V · The President of the Republic

Articles 111 to 117

111

Office

The President represents the Republic and exercises no function of government.

1.The President of the Republic represents the Republic, safeguards the observance of this Constitution, and exercises the functions this Constitution states.
2.The President exercises no function of government and gives no instruction to the administration.

112

Election

Directly elected for four years, two terms at most, by a majority of votes cast.

1.The President is elected by direct universal suffrage for four years.
2.The candidate receiving more than half the votes cast is elected. Where no candidate does so, a second poll is held after fourteen days between the two candidates receiving the most votes, and the candidate receiving more votes is elected.
3.No person shall serve more than two terms, whether consecutive or not.
4.A candidate shall be a citizen of thirty-five years entitled to vote, and shall be presented by ten thousand voters or by a group in the Assembly.

113

Incompatibility and oath

The office is incompatible with every other, and begins with an oath before the Assembly.

1.The office of President is incompatible with any other public or private office, with membership of the Assembly, and with the direction of a party.
2.The President takes office before the Assembly, swearing to observe the Constitution and the laws.

114

Functions

Promulgation, appointments, dissolution, treaties, command of the forces, and pardons.

1.The President promulgates laws under Article 105, appoints the Prime Minister elected by the Assembly, appoints and dismisses ministers on the proposal of the Prime Minister, and dissolves the Assembly under Article 109.
2.The President accredits and receives ambassadors, signs treaties for ratification by the Assembly, and appoints the holders of the offices this Constitution or an organic law assigns to the President.
3.The President is the head of the armed forces, and exercises that function on the decision of the Assembly and through the Government.
4.The President may refer a law or a treaty to the Constitutional Court before promulgation or ratification.
5.The President may address the Assembly, and the address is not debated in the President's presence.
6.The President grants individual pardons on the proposal of the Government, and shall not grant a pardon for an offence committed by a member of the Government or by a holder of public office in the exercise of that office.

115

Countersignature

Most presidential acts need the Prime Minister's countersignature; six do not.

1.An act of the President other than those stated in paragraph 2 requires the countersignature of the Prime Minister, who assumes responsibility for it before the Assembly.
2.The promulgation of a law, the return of a law to the Assembly, a reference to the Constitutional Court, an address to the Assembly, and the appointment of the Prime Minister elected by the Assembly require no countersignature.

116

Vacancy and substitution

In a vacancy the President of the Assembly acts, with a new election within sixty days.

1.Where the office is vacant or the President is prevented from acting, the President of the Assembly exercises the functions of the office, and shall not dissolve the Assembly or return a law during that period.
2.An election is held within sixty days of the vacancy, and the person elected serves a full term.

117

Responsibility

The President answers for a grave breach of the Constitution before the Constitutional Court.

1.The President is not answerable for acts done in the exercise of the office, except for a serious violation of the Constitution or a criminal offence.
2.Proceedings are opened by the Assembly on the demand of one third of its members and by the decision of two thirds, and are decided by the Constitutional Court.
3.Where the Constitutional Court finds the charge proved, the President is removed from office, and remains liable to the ordinary courts for any offence.

Title VI · The Government

Articles 118 to 130

Chapter 1: Formation and responsibility

118

Composition and function

The Prime Minister and ministers conduct policy and answer to the Assembly together.

1.The Government consists of the Prime Minister and the ministers.
2.The Government conducts the general policy of the Republic, executes the laws and the plan, directs the administration, and has at its disposal the police under Article 19.
3.The Government is collectively answerable to the Assembly of the Republic.

119

Formation

The Assembly elects the Prime Minister, who proposes the ministers for appointment.

1.The Assembly elects the Prime Minister by a majority of its members, on candidatures presented by groups or by twenty members.
2.The President appoints the Prime Minister so elected, and appoints the ministers on the Prime Minister's proposal.
3.The Government takes office on presenting its programme to the Assembly, and the programme is published.
4.Where the Assembly does not elect a Prime Minister within sixty days of its first sitting or of the resignation of a Government, the President dissolves it and orders elections.

120

Censure

Censure must name a successor, so a Government falls only when another can form.

1.A motion of censure is presented by one fifth of the members of the Assembly and shall name a candidate for the office of Prime Minister.
2.The motion is voted no earlier than the third day after its presentation. Where it is carried by a majority of the members of the Assembly, the Prime Minister named in it is elected and the outgoing Government is dismissed.
3.Where the motion is rejected, its signatories shall not present another within six months.
4.The Prime Minister may put the question of confidence to the Assembly. Where confidence is refused by a majority of the members, the Prime Minister resigns, and Article 119 applies.

121

Resignation and continuation

A defeated or resigned Government handles current affairs and appoints to nothing.

1.The Government resigns on the election of a new Assembly, on the resignation or death of the Prime Minister, and on a vote of censure.
2.A Government which has resigned continues to conduct current affairs until a new Government takes office, and during that period it shall not lay a proposal of law, make a decree under a delegation, or appoint to an office for a fixed term.

122

Incompatibility and conduct of ministers

Ministers hold no other office, publish their assets, and wait two years before related employment.

1.The office of minister is incompatible with any other public or private office, with the direction of an enterprise, and with a professional activity.
2.A minister declares their interests and their assets on taking office and on leaving it, and the declarations are published.
3.For two years after leaving office, a former minister shall not take employment or a paid engagement with an enterprise which was the object of a decision they took.
4.A minister is answerable before the ordinary courts for an offence committed in the exercise of the office, and no authorisation of the Assembly is required for the proceeding.

Chapter 2: Powers and acts

123

Acts of the Government

Regulations execute laws and may not add to them, and a court may annul one.

1.The Government makes regulations for the execution of the laws, which state the law they execute and shall not add to it, restrict a right, or create an offence.
2.Regulations are published in the Official Gazette and take effect under Article 4(2).
3.A regulation may be annulled by the administrative court on the application of any person concerned.

124

Ministries and their number

The number and business of ministries is fixed by law, and agencies answer to a committee.

1.The number of ministries, their names and the distribution of business among them are established by law.
2.A minister directs the ministry assigned to them, and answers to the Assembly for it.
3.A body created to exercise a function of a ministry outside the ministry shall be created by law, shall publish its accounts, and shall answer to a committee of the Assembly.

125

The Office of the Plan

The Office of the Plan prepares the plan and publishes the data behind it.

1.The Office of the Plan prepares the plan under Article 60, monitors its execution, and publishes quarterly the departures from it.
2.The Director of the Office is appointed by the Assembly for six years and may be removed by it by a majority of its members.
3.The Office publishes the data on which the plan rests, in a form which permits its calculations to be repeated.

126

Duty to inform

Written answers in thirty days, an oral question sitting each week, and contracts published.

1.The Government answers questions put by members of the Assembly, in writing within thirty days and orally in the sitting reserved for that purpose each week.
2.The Government shall not withhold from a committee of the Assembly information relating to the execution of the plan, the budget or a contract concluded by an organ of the State.
3.The Government publishes every contract concluded by an organ of the State above the value fixed by law, with its price and its term.

Chapter 3: The administration

127

Principles of the administration

The administration acts on law, gives reasons, and silence counts as refusal.

1.The administration serves the population, acts on the basis of law, and treats similar cases alike.
2.An act of the administration affecting a person states its reasons and the means of contesting it, and takes effect on notification to that person.
3.Where the administration fails to decide within the period fixed by law, the person concerned may apply to the administrative court as though the application had been refused.
4.Procedures before the administration are free of charge, except for charges fixed by law and published.

128

Public service

Recruitment by competition, no party test, and protection for refusing an unlawful order.

1.Officers of the administration are recruited by public competition, are appointed for an indefinite period, and may be dismissed only on grounds and by procedure established by law.
2.An officer shall not be appointed, promoted, transferred or dismissed by reason of party membership or of opinion.
3.An officer shall refuse an unlawful instruction, shall state the refusal in writing, and shall not be penalised for it.
4.An officer who reports a breach of the law within the administration is protected from dismissal, transfer and disciplinary proceedings for that reason.

129

Delegation and contracting

Authority over persons is never contracted out, and awards are made by public procedure.

1.A function which involves the exercise of public authority over persons shall not be delegated to a private person.
2.Where the administration contracts for goods or services, it does so by public procedure, publishes the criteria in advance, and publishes the reasons for the award.
3.A contract concluded in breach of this Article is void, and the officer responsible answers for the loss.

130

Territorial administration

State services in the districts execute national law and leave local decisions alone.

1.The Government maintains services in the districts for the execution of the laws in matters reserved to the Republic.
2.These services shall not exercise a function assigned to a district or a commune, and shall not review the merits of a decision of a district or a commune.

Title VII · Local self-government

Articles 131 to 141

131

Units of local self-government

Every place belongs to one commune and one district, and a merger needs a local referendum.

1.The units of local self-government are the commune and the district. Every part of the territory belongs to one commune and one district.
2.A commune is created, merged or abolished by law, after a referendum in the population concerned, whose result the Assembly of the Republic shall follow.
3.The seat and the boundaries of a district are established by law.

132

Competence of the commune

The commune decides what is local and receives the resources for what it is given.

1.The commune decides every matter of local concern which this Constitution or an organic law has not assigned to the district or to the Republic.
2.The commune is responsible for the spatial plan, the local roads, water and sanitation, the collection of waste, the public stock of dwellings, the schools of the first level, the care of children and of the aged, the local cultural institutions and the public spaces.
3.A function may be assigned to the commune by law only together with the resources to perform it.

133

Competence of the district

The district runs second-level schools, hospitals, roads and transport between communes.

1.The district is responsible for the schools of the second level, the hospitals of the district, the roads of the district, public transport between communes, the plan of the district, and the coordination of the communes within it.
2.The district shall not review the merits of a decision taken by a commune within the commune's competence.

134

Organs of the commune

An elected council and a directly elected mayor, who can be removed by referendum.

1.The commune is governed by a council elected for four years by direct universal suffrage, and by a mayor elected in the same manner and for the same term.
2.The mayor executes the decisions of the council, directs the administration of the commune, and answers to the council, which may put questions and require documents.
3.The council adopts the budget, the spatial plan and the local regulations, and the mayor shall not adopt them in its place.
4.The mayor may be removed before the end of the term by a referendum held on the demand of the council by a majority of its members or on the demand of a number of residents fixed by organic law.

135

Organs of the district

The district council elects its president, who executes its decisions.

1.The district is governed by a council elected for four years by direct universal suffrage, which elects its president from among its members.
2.The president of the district executes the decisions of the council and answers to it.

136

Participation of residents

An open commune assembly twice a year, a binding local referendum, and published accounts.

1.The commune assembly, open to all residents, meets at least twice a year, receives the accounts of the mayor, and may put any matter within the competence of the commune to the council, which shall consider it and reply in public sitting.
2.A local referendum is held on the demand of a number of residents fixed by organic law, and its result binds the council in a matter within the competence of the commune.
3.The sittings of the council and of the district council are public, and their decisions, budgets and contracts are published.

137

Resources

Local units have their own revenue and equalising transfers on published criteria.

1.Communes and districts have their own revenue, consisting of local taxes and charges established within the limits of the law, of the revenue of their property and enterprises, and of transfers from the plan.
2.Transfers are distributed by published criteria which take account of population, of the cost of service in the territory, and of the difference in resources between units, so as to reduce that difference.
3.A commune or a district may borrow only for investment, within the limit fixed by law, and with the approval of the Government where the limit is exceeded.

138

Property of local units

Local property serves local use, and property in public use cannot be sold.

1.Communes and districts own property, which serves their functions and the use of their residents.
2.Property serving a public use shall not be sold or mortgaged.
3.A commune or a district may establish an enterprise for a service to its residents, and the enterprise answers to the council.

139

Supervision

The Government checks lawfulness only, and a suspension must go to court in thirty days.

1.The Government supervises the lawfulness of the acts of communes and districts, and shall not supervise their expediency.
2.Where the Government considers an act unlawful, it may suspend it by a reasoned decision and shall apply within thirty days to the administrative court, which decides within ninety days. The suspension lapses if the application is not made.
3.A council may be dissolved only by a law, on the ground of a grave and persisting breach of the Constitution or of the law established by a judgment, and elections are held within sixty days.

140

Cooperation

Communes may cooperate without creating a further tier of government.

1.Communes may cooperate by agreement for the joint performance of their functions, and may create joint bodies, which answer to the councils that created them.
2.Cooperation between communes shall not create a further tier of government, and a joint body shall not be given a general competence.

141

Defence of local self-government

A commune or district may go to the Constitutional Court to defend its competence.

1.A commune or a district may apply to the Constitutional Court against an act of the Republic which infringes its competence or removes the resources corresponding to its functions.

Title VIII · The courts

Articles 142 to 156

Chapter 1: Principles

142

Judicial power

Courts are independent, no one instructs them, and special courts are prohibited.

1.Justice is administered in the name of the people by the courts, which are independent and subject only to the Constitution and the law.
2.An organ of the State, a party or a person shall not give an instruction to a court, and shall not comment on a pending case in a manner intended to influence it.
3.A court decision is reasoned, is pronounced in public, and is binding on the organs of the State.
4.Extraordinary and special courts are prohibited, and Article 29(5) governs.

143

Access to justice

A court is open to everyone, with fees remitted and legal assistance for those without means.

1.Every person has the right to bring a case before a court, and a right shall not be denied for want of a procedure.
2.Court fees shall be proportionate and shall be remitted for a person without means.
3.Legal assistance is provided free of charge to a person without means, in criminal matters and in matters concerning dwelling, employment, social security and family.
4.Proceedings are conducted in Aporean, and in the language of a national minority in the districts under Article 24, with interpretation provided free of charge.

144

Publicity

Hearings are public and judgments are published.

1.Hearings are public. A court may exclude the public by a reasoned decision to protect a minor, the private life of a party, or a witness in danger, and shall pronounce the judgment in public.
2.Judgments are published, with the names of natural parties removed where the law so provides.

Chapter 2: Organisation

145

The courts

Communal, district, appeal, supreme and administrative courts, set out by organic law.

1.The courts are the communal courts, the district courts, the courts of appeal, the Supreme Court, and the administrative courts.
2.The Supreme Court secures the uniform application of the law, decides appeals in the cases the law states, and publishes the principles it establishes.
3.The administrative courts decide disputes between persons and the administration, including the annulment of a regulation under Article 123(3).
4.The organisation, the seats and the jurisdiction of the courts are established by organic law.

146

Lay participation

Serious criminal cases are heard with lay judges drawn by lot from the voters' register.

1.In criminal proceedings for an offence punishable by more than five years of deprivation of liberty, the court sits with lay judges drawn by lot from the register of voters of the district.
2.Service as a lay judge is a public duty, is compensated, and is a ground of excused absence from work.
3.Lay judges deliberate and vote on the facts and on the penalty together with the professional judges.

147

Enforcement

Public bodies must execute judgments, and a court may penalise the officer who refuses.

1.The organs of the State shall execute a judgment addressed to them within the period it states.
2.Failure to execute a judgment is an offence, and the court may impose a periodic penalty on the organ and name the officer responsible.

Chapter 3: Judges and the Judicial Council

148

Status of judges

Judges are appointed indefinitely and removed only by the Judicial Council on statutory grounds.

1.Judges are appointed for an indefinite period and shall not be transferred, suspended, retired or removed except by decision of the Judicial Council on grounds established by organic law.
2.A judge shall not belong to a party, exercise another paid office, or take part in a political campaign.
3.A judge shall not be held liable for a decision, except for an act done deliberately to cause harm, established by a criminal judgment.
4.The remuneration of judges is established by law and shall not be reduced during their service.

149

The Judicial Council

Fifteen members: eight judges, four elected by the Assembly, three residents drawn by lot.

1.The Judicial Council appoints, promotes, transfers and disciplines judges, and proposes to the Assembly the budget of the courts.
2.The Council consists of fifteen members: eight judges elected by the judges of each level by secret ballot, four persons elected by the Assembly of the Republic by a majority of two thirds from among lawyers and teachers of law, and three residents drawn by lot from the register of voters, who serve for two years.
3.The President of the Supreme Court presides over the Council, which decides by a majority of its members and states the reasons of its decisions.
4.Decisions of the Council concerning a judge are subject to appeal to the Supreme Court sitting in plenary.

150

Selection and training

Judges are chosen by public competition, and promotion criteria are published.

1.Judges are selected by public competition, are trained in the school of the judiciary, and are appointed by the Judicial Council on the results of that competition.
2.The criteria of promotion are published, and a decision of promotion states how the candidate satisfied them.

Chapter 4: Prosecution

151

The public prosecution

Prosecutors follow the law and the evidence, and no instruction may be given in a single case.

1.The public prosecution investigates offences, brings and conducts criminal proceedings, and defends the public interest in the cases the law states.
2.Prosecutors act on the law and on the evidence. The Government shall not give an instruction to prosecute or to discontinue in an individual case, and a general instruction of policy is published.
3.The Prosecutor General is appointed by the Assembly of the Republic by a majority of two thirds for six years, is not eligible for a second term, and may be removed by the same majority on grounds established by organic law.
4.A decision not to prosecute is reasoned, is notified to the injured person, and may be contested before a court.

152

Investigation

Warrants for intrusive measures, counsel from the start, and unconstitutional evidence excluded.

1.An investigative measure restricting a right requires a judicial warrant under Articles 31 and 32.
2.A person under investigation has the right to counsel, to know the acts alleged, and to consult the file, subject to a delay ordered by a judge for a stated period where disclosure would defeat the investigation.
3.Evidence obtained in breach of the Constitution is inadmissible, and Article 27(4) governs.

Chapter 5: The Constitutional Court

153

Composition

Nine judges for nine years: three from the Assembly, three from the President, three from the Supreme Court.

1.The Constitutional Court consists of nine judges appointed for nine years, who are not eligible for a second term.
2.Three are elected by the Assembly of the Republic by a majority of two thirds, three are appointed by the President of the Republic, and three are elected by the plenary of the Supreme Court.
3.One third of the Court is renewed every three years.
4.Judges of the Court are chosen from among jurists of at least fifteen years of practice or teaching, shall not belong to a party, and hold no other office.
5.The Court elects its President from among its members for three years.

154

Jurisdiction

Review of laws and treaties, competence disputes, party dissolution, and individual applications.

1.The Constitutional Court decides on the conformity of laws, decrees, regulations, treaties and rules of procedure with this Constitution.
2.It decides disputes over competence between organs of the Republic, and between the Republic and a commune or a district under Article 141.
3.It decides on the dissolution of a party under Article 5(4), on the validity of an election or a referendum on appeal from the Electoral Commission, and on proceedings against the President under Article 117.
4.It decides individual applications under Article 155.
5.It gives an opinion, before ratification, on the conformity of a treaty with this Constitution, and where the opinion is negative the treaty is ratified only after revision of the Constitution.

155

Individual application

Anyone may apply after other remedies, free of charge and without a lawyer.

1.Every person who alleges that a right declared in Title II has been infringed by an act of a public organ may apply to the Constitutional Court after exhausting other remedies.
2.The Court may waive the requirement of exhaustion where the matter is of general importance or where delay would cause irreparable harm.
3.The application is free of charge, requires no representation by a lawyer for its admission, and the Court assists an applicant without means to put the application in order.

156

Effects of decisions

An unconstitutional provision ends on publication, and a conviction founded on it is reopened.

1.A provision found contrary to this Constitution ceases to have effect on publication of the decision, or on the later date the Court fixes, which shall not exceed twelve months.
2.Decisions of the Court are final and bind every organ and every court.
3.A criminal conviction founded on a provision found contrary to this Constitution is reopened on the application of the convicted person.
4.Where the Court finds that the absence of a provision infringes this Constitution, it states the finding and fixes a period within which the Assembly of the Republic shall legislate.

Title IX · Independent bodies

Articles 157 to 164

Chapter 1: Common provisions

157

Independence

The independent bodies take no instruction and answer to the Assembly alone.

1.The bodies established by this Title exercise their functions independently, receive no instruction, and are answerable to the Assembly of the Republic alone.
2.Their members are elected by the Assembly of the Republic by a majority of two thirds, for a fixed term, and are not eligible for a second term.
3.A member may be removed before the end of the term only by the same majority, on grounds established by organic law, and by a reasoned decision.
4.The budget of each body is laid before the Assembly by the body itself, and the Government shall not alter it before it is laid.

158

Reports and access

Each reports annually in public and may demand documents from any public body.

1.Each body reports annually to the Assembly of the Republic, in public sitting, and publishes the report.
2.Each body may require from an organ of the State, a district, a commune, a public establishment and an enterprise in social ownership any document within its field, and a refusal is reasoned in writing and may be referred to the administrative court.

Chapter 2: The Court of Accounts

159

Function

The Court of Accounts audits the budget, the plan and every user of public funds.

1.The Court of Accounts audits the execution of the budget and of the plan, the accounts of the organs of the State, of the districts, of the communes, of the public establishments and of the enterprises in social ownership, and the use of public funds by any person who receives them.
2.The Court examines the regularity of expenditure and the results obtained for it, and publishes its findings with the reply of the body audited.
3.The Court reports on the accounts of execution of the budget before the Assembly votes on them.

160

Composition and powers

Nine members with the independence of judges, able to order repayment.

1.The Court consists of nine members elected for nine years, one third renewed every three years, chosen from persons qualified in accounting, in audit or in public finance.
2.Members of the Court hold the guarantees of independence of judges, and Article 148 applies to them.
3.Where the Court finds an unlawful expenditure, it refers the matter to the public prosecution and may order the officer responsible to repay, subject to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Chapter 3: The Electoral Commission

161

Function

The Electoral Commission runs elections and may not classify a party by its programme.

1.The Electoral Commission organises elections and referendums, maintains the register of voters, draws constituencies under Article 92(5), registers candidatures, and publishes the results.
2.The Commission supervises the funding of parties and of campaigns, publishes the accounts it receives, and may impose the penalties established by law.
3.The Commission shall not classify a party or a candidature by its programme or its ideology, and shall refuse a candidature only for a defect of form or of eligibility, by a reasoned decision subject to appeal to the Constitutional Court.

162

Composition

Seven members, a permanent staff, and a public count at the polling station.

1.The Commission consists of seven members elected for seven years.
2.Its administration is permanent, its officers are recruited by competition, and Article 128 applies to them.
3.Representatives of every candidature have the right to be present at the poll and at the count, and the count is public and takes place at the polling station.

Chapter 4: The Commission on Information and Data

163

Function

The Commission on Information and Data decides access appeals and supervises data registers.

1.The Commission on Information and Data secures the right of access to public information under Article 20 and the protection of personal data under Article 32.
2.The Commission decides appeals against a refusal of access, and its decision binds the organ concerned, subject to appeal by that organ to the administrative court.
3.The Commission supervises registers of personal data, orders the erasure of data collected without a legal basis, and reports annually on the archives of the former State Protection Service and on access to them under Article 6(3).
4.The Commission is heard before the adoption of a law or a regulation establishing a register of personal data, and its opinion is published with the proposal.

164

Composition

Five members, with legal and technical qualifications required.

1.The Commission consists of five members elected for six years, of whom at least two are qualified in law and at least one in the processing of data.

Title X · Defence, public order and emergency

Articles 165 to 173

Chapter 1: Defence

165

The armed forces

A professional force with a reserve, never used against the population.

1.The armed forces defend the territory, the independence and the constitutional order of the Republic against armed attack.
2.The armed forces consist of professional members serving under contract and of a reserve trained under organic law.
3.Compulsory military service exists only during an armed attack or a state of war declared by the Assembly of the Republic, and Article 34(3) governs.
4.The armed forces shall not be employed against the population, and an order to that effect is unlawful and shall not be obeyed.

166

Command and control

The Government directs defence, and a committee supervises the forces and intelligence.

1.The Government directs defence policy and answers to the Assembly of the Republic for it.
2.The organisation, the establishment and the equipment of the armed forces are fixed by organic law, and the expenditure on them appears in the budget by category.
3.A committee of the Assembly supervises the armed forces and the intelligence service, receives classified information under conditions established by organic law, and reports annually in public in a form which protects sources.

167

Limits

No forces abroad without a two-thirds law, and no foreign force stationed here.

1.The Republic shall not station its forces on the territory of another state except within a mission of an international organisation of which it is a member, and only under a law adopted by two thirds of the members of the Assembly.
2.The Republic shall not permit a foreign force to enter or to be stationed on its territory except for exercise, rescue or transit authorised by the Assembly.
3.The Republic shall not export a weapon to a state engaged in an armed conflict or against which a finding under the instruments of the union under Article 18 is in force.

168

Intelligence

Intelligence looks outward, and intrusive measures need a designated Supreme Court judge.

1.The intelligence service collects information on threats to the territory and to the constitutional order from abroad.
2.It shall not collect information on a person by reason of their opinions, their party membership or their lawful association, and Article 6 applies to it.
3.A measure of the intelligence service restricting a right requires the authorisation of a judge of the Supreme Court designated for that purpose, who reports annually to the committee under Article 166(3) on the number and the type of authorisations granted and refused.

Chapter 2: Public order

169

The police

Police act with least force, wear visible numbers, and are investigated by an outside body.

1.The police protect persons, prevent and investigate offences, and maintain public order, under the direction of the Government and the supervision of the courts.
2.The police act with the least force sufficient, and every use of a firearm is reported, investigated by a body independent of the police, and published in anonymised form.
3.Officers of the police are identifiable at all times by a number visible on their uniform, and the concealment of that number is a disciplinary offence.
4.A complaint against the police is investigated by a body independent of the police, whose conclusions are notified to the complainant and may be contested before a court.

Chapter 3: Emergency

170

Declaration

The Government declares an emergency and the Assembly must confirm it within forty-eight hours.

1.The Government may declare a state of emergency in the whole or a part of the territory in case of natural disaster, epidemic, grave breakdown of essential supply, or grave and imminent threat to public order.
2.The declaration states the reasons, the territory affected, the measures adopted and their duration, and takes effect on publication.
3.The declaration lapses unless the Assembly of the Republic confirms it within forty-eight hours by a majority of its members. Where the Assembly stands dissolved, its standing committee confirms it under Article 110(2).
4.A state of emergency is confirmed for no more than thirty days, and is extended only by a further decision of the Assembly for periods of no more than thirty days, each stating the reasons for the extension.

171

Measures

Emergency measures are limited, and a list of rights is never suspended.

1.Measures adopted during a state of emergency are limited to what the situation requires, are stated in the declaration, and cease on its expiry.
2.The following are not suspended in any circumstance: the right to life, the prohibition of torture, the prohibition of the death penalty, the right to a court and to counsel, the prohibition of retroactive criminal law, the freedom of conscience, the guarantees of Article 6, the right to a subsistence income and to shelter, and the supply of water and of care.
3.Measures shall not restrict the right to strike except in the services named in Article 46(2), and shall not dissolve a party, a trade union or an association.

172

Limits on the organs

No dissolution, no constitutional revision, and courts keep sitting throughout an emergency.

1.The Assembly of the Republic shall not be dissolved during a state of emergency, and elections due during it are held on the date fixed unless the poll is materially impossible in a part of the territory, in which case the Assembly postpones them for no more than ninety days by a decision stating the impossibility.
2.The Constitution shall not be revised during a state of emergency.
3.The courts continue to sit, and every measure of emergency may be contested before them without delay.
4.The Government reports to the Assembly every seven days on the measures in force and on their effects, and the report is published.

173

Armed attack

On armed attack the Assembly decides within a day, and a capitulation is void.

1.Where the territory is subject to armed attack, the President of the Republic states the fact, and the Assembly of the Republic decides on the response within twenty-four hours.
2.Where the Assembly cannot meet, the Government orders the defence of the territory and reports to the Assembly at its first sitting.
3.A capitulation, an occupation or a cession of territory accepted by an organ of the Republic is void, and a duty of obedience does not arise from it.

Title XI · Revision of the Constitution

Articles 174 to 178

174

Initiative

Revision may be proposed by a third of members, the Government, or citizens.

1.A proposal to revise this Constitution may be laid by one third of the members of the Assembly of the Republic, by the Government, or by a number of citizens fixed by organic law.
2.The proposal states the articles to be revised and the text proposed for them.

175

Procedure

Two readings by two thirds, then a referendum on demand, then an appended Amendment.

1.The proposal is voted by the Assembly of the Republic in two readings separated by at least ninety days, and is adopted in each reading by two thirds of the members.
2.The text adopted is published, and is submitted to a referendum where one third of the members of the Assembly, or a number of citizens fixed by organic law, so demand within sixty days of publication.
3.A referendum on a revision is decided by a majority of the votes cast, and no condition of turnout applies.
4.A revision enters into force on promulgation by the President of the Republic and publication, and takes the form of an Amendment numbered in sequence and appended to this Constitution.

176

Limits

The republic, suffrage, pluralism and the ban on torture and the death penalty are unrevisable.

1.The following shall not be revised: the republican form of the State, the direct universal suffrage, the political pluralism of Article 5, the prohibition of the death penalty, the prohibition of torture, the equality of persons before the law, and this Article.
2.A revision shall not reduce the level of protection of a right declared in Title II, and a proposal to that effect is inadmissible.
3.The Constitution shall not be revised during a state of emergency, during an armed attack, or while the Assembly stands dissolved.

177

Review by the Constitutional Court

The Constitutional Court checks a revision against those limits before the second reading.

1.Before the second reading, the Constitutional Court examines the proposal for conformity with Article 176 on the application of one fifth of the members of the Assembly, and decides within thirty days.
2.Where the Court finds the proposal inadmissible, the procedure ends.

178

Consolidation and publication

A consolidated text is published within sixty days, free and without registration.

1.The consolidated text of this Constitution, with the Amendments in force appended and the articles they affect marked, is published by the Assembly of the Republic within sixty days of the entry into force of an Amendment.
2.The consolidated text is available free of charge, in print and in electronic form, without registration.
3.Where an Amendment and an article of the original text conflict, the Amendment prevails.

Title XII · Final and transitional provisions

Articles 179 to 186

179

Entry into force

In force from 11 September 1994, replacing the Constitution of 1947.

1.This Constitution enters into force on 11 September 1994.
2.The Constitution of 1947 and the amendments to it are repealed, and are preserved and published as a historical text.

180

Existing law

Old law survives where it conforms, and expires in 1996 where it does not.

1.Laws and regulations in force on the date stated in Article 179 remain in force to the extent that they conform to this Constitution.
2.A provision contrary to this Constitution ceases to have effect on 11 September 1996, and the Assembly of the Republic shall bring the law into conformity before that date.
3.A court applies this Constitution directly where a law has not been brought into conformity.

181

First elections

First elections within one hundred and twenty days, local elections within a year.

1.Elections to the Assembly of the Republic are held within one hundred and twenty days of the entry into force of this Constitution.
2.The election of the President of the Republic is held on the same day.
3.Elections to the councils of the communes and the districts are held within one year.

182

Constitution of the new organs

The new organs are constituted within a year, with staggered terms drawn by lot.

1.The Constitutional Court is constituted within one hundred and eighty days of the first sitting of the Assembly of the Republic. On its first constitution, the terms of three of its judges are fixed at three years and of three at six years, by lot, so that Article 153(3) may operate.
2.The Judicial Council, the Court of Accounts, the Electoral Commission and the Commission on Information and Data are constituted within one year.
3.Judges in office on the entry into force of this Constitution continue in office, and the Judicial Council reviews their appointment within two years against the conditions of Article 148.

183

The former State Protection Service

The State Protection Service is dissolved, its archives preserved, its directors barred from office.

1.The Service is dissolved on the entry into force of this Constitution.
2.Its archives pass to the National Archive within ninety days, and their destruction, alteration or removal is an offence subject to no time limit.
3.A person who directed the Service, or who took part in the surveillance of persons for their opinions, shall not hold an office in the police, in the intelligence service, in the judiciary or in the administration of justice.
4.The Assembly of the Republic shall establish by organic law, within two years, the procedure by which a person may obtain their file and the identity of those who informed on them.

184

Property and enterprises

Social ownership continues, and privatisation needs a two-thirds law.

1.Property of the whole people on the entry into force of this Constitution remains in social ownership.
2.The transfer of an enterprise in social ownership to private ownership requires a law adopted by two thirds of the members of the Assembly of the Republic, stating the enterprise, the reasons and the conditions.
3.Claims for property taken before 1947 are decided by the courts under a law which the Assembly shall adopt within two years, and restitution shall not affect a dwelling occupied by a household as its home, nor land worked by a cooperative.

185

Continuity of obligations

Treaties survive where they conform, and pensions and savings are honoured.

1.Treaties in force bind the Republic to the extent that they conform to this Constitution, and the Government shall submit to the Assembly within two years a list of those which do not.
2.The Republic assumes the obligations of the Republic under the Constitution of 1947 towards persons, and in particular pensions, savings deposits and rights acquired in employment.

186

Numbering of the Amendments

Amendments are numbered in sequence and state the articles they change.

1.Amendments adopted under Title XI are numbered in sequence from Amendment I, and each states the articles it amends, replaces or adds.
2.An Amendment which replaces an article states the full text of the article as replaced.

Amendments

Fifteen in force, appended under Article 175(4)

Adopted under Title XI and appended under Article 175(4). Fifteen Amendments are in force. Where an Amendment conflicts with an article of the original text, the Amendment prevails under Article 178(3).

Amendment IIn force

Adopted 14 May 1997. Proposed by the Party of Labour.

Changes in this Amendment

MArticle 24replaced in full

Reason given on the proposal

The 1994 text left minority-language schooling and minority representation to ordinary law. No such law had been adopted by 1996, and four district councils recorded that they had no basis on which to admit a language other than Aporean. The Amendment states the entitlement in the Constitution and fixes the threshold at one tenth of the residents of a commune.

Article 24 is replaced as follows:

National minorities

1.Persons belonging to a national minority have the right to preserve their language, their culture and their religion, and to be taught in their language at every level of education.
2.In a commune in which persons belonging to a minority are more than a tenth of the residents, that language is used together with Aporean before the organs of the commune, in the courts, in public signs and in the register of births, marriages and deaths.
3.Each recognised minority elects a council which is consulted on a proposal of law affecting it, and whose opinion is published with the proposal.
4.Two seats in the Assembly of the Republic are reserved to lists presented by minority councils, and are additional to the seats under Article 92.
5.Assimilation by measure of the State, and the alteration of the composition of the population of a territory in order to affect the rights under this Article, are prohibited.

Amendment IIIn force

Adopted 3 October 1999. Proposed by the Communal Left.

Changes in this Amendment

MArticle 42replaced in full

Reason given on the proposal

Article 42 required an organic law to fix the number of citizens who may demand a referendum or lay a proposal. That law was proposed three times between 1995 and 1999 and adopted in none of those sessions. The Amendment states the two figures in the Constitution and removes the dependence on a law that had not arrived.

Article 42 is replaced as follows:

Referendum and popular initiative

1.A referendum is held on the demand of the Assembly of the Republic, of one third of its members, or of thirty thousand citizens.
2.Fifteen thousand citizens may lay a proposal of law before the Assembly of the Republic, which shall consider it, hear its promoters in committee, and vote on it within six months. Where the Assembly rejects it, the proposal is submitted to a referendum on the demand of thirty thousand citizens.
3.The result of a referendum binds the Assembly of the Republic, which shall give effect to it within one year.
4.A referendum shall not be held on a matter which would abolish or reduce a right declared in Title II, and the Constitutional Court decides on admissibility before signatures are collected.
5.Signatures may be given in writing or by the electronic means the Electoral Commission provides free of charge.

Amendment IIIIn force

Adopted 21 June 2001. Proposed by the Green Union.

Changes in this Amendment

MArticle 167(3)paragraph replaced
AArticle 167(4)paragraph added

Reason given on the proposal

Between 1996 and 2000 the Republic licensed the export of small arms and ammunition to four states, and in two of those cases the goods reached a party to an armed conflict within eighteen months of delivery. The Assembly closed the licensing route entirely.

Article 167(3) is replaced and Article 167(4) is added:

3.The Republic shall not export a weapon, ammunition, a component of a weapon, or a technique of its manufacture, to any state or person.
4.The Republic shall not possess, produce, station or accept a nuclear, chemical or biological weapon, and shall not take part in a military alliance which requires it to enter a war by the decision of another state.

Amendment IVIn force

Adopted 9 November 2004. Proposed by the Green Union.

Changes in this Amendment

MArticle 55replaced in full

Reason given on the proposal

The assessment required before 2004 was advisory. The Court of Accounts recorded ten projects authorised against a negative assessment between 1995 and 2003, including two on the Marnek reservoirs. The Amendment makes a finding of unavoidable significant harm a reason for prohibiting authorisation and gives standing to associations.

Article 55 is replaced as follows:

Environment

1.Every person has the right to an environment which does not injure their health, and to the preservation of the natural systems of the territory for those who come after them.
2.Every person has the right to information on the condition of the environment, on emissions affecting the place where they live or work, and on the substances contained in goods offered to them.
3.Every person, and every association whose object is the protection of the environment, may bring proceedings for the cessation of a harm to the environment and for its repair, without showing a personal interest, and without liability for the costs of the other party where the proceeding is brought in good faith.
4.A project liable to affect the environment significantly is preceded by an assessment conducted by a body independent of the promoter, whose conclusions are published ninety days before the decision. Where the assessment finds a significant harm which cannot be avoided, the project shall not be authorised.
5.Where the extent of a harm is uncertain, the uncertainty is a ground for protective measures and shall not be a ground for deferring them.

Amendment VIn force

Adopted 17 March 2007. Proposed by the Communal Left.

Changes in this Amendment

MArticle 49replaced in full

Reason given on the proposal

The housing register at Sluland stood at 41,000 households in 2006 and the public stock had grown by 900 dwellings in five years. Evictions were carried out in winter under the previous text. The Amendment obliges the commune to build, dates the clearance of the register, and closes the months to eviction.

Article 49 is replaced as follows:

Housing

1.Every person has the right to a dwelling adequate to the size of their household, secure in tenure, and served with water, sanitation, heating and electricity.
2.Dwellings are allocated from the public stock according to need, on criteria published by the commune, in the order of a register open to inspection by the applicants, and a refusal states its reasons and may be contested before the administrative court.
3.A person shall not be evicted from their dwelling without a judicial decision and without the offer of another dwelling. An eviction shall not be carried out between 1 November and 31 March.
4.A dwelling shall not be let for a rent exceeding the ceiling fixed by law for the commune, and a person shall not own more than two dwellings.
5.A dwelling left vacant for more than one year is charged a levy, and after three years the commune may take it into the public stock against compensation at the value of the building alone.
6.The commune shall build, and the plan shall allocate to it the resources to build, so that the register under paragraph 2 is cleared within five years.

Amendment VIIn force

Adopted 5 December 2010. Proposed by the Party of Labour and the Communal Left.

Changes in this Amendment

MArticle 87(3)paragraph replaced
AArticle 87(4)paragraph added

Reason given on the proposal

Accession to the World Trade Organisation in 1998 was completed by an ordinary law. Three of the obligations then accepted conflicted with the activities reserved by Articles 68 and 69(4). The Amendment requires a two-thirds law and a referendum for accession, and states the conditions the Republic may not accept. Withdrawal followed on 1 January 2012.

Article 87(3) is replaced and Article 87(4) is added:

3.Accession to an international economic organisation requires a law adopted by two thirds of the members of the Assembly of the Republic and approval by referendum. Withdrawal requires a law adopted by a majority of the members.
4.The Republic shall not accede to an organisation or conclude an agreement which requires it to open to private or foreign enterprise an activity reserved by Article 68 or Article 69(4), to grant an exclusive right over knowledge, to submit a dispute with a company to a foreign or arbitral jurisdiction, or to accept a limit on the support it grants to its own enterprises under the plan.

Note of the register: the Republic acceded to the World Trade Organisation on 2 April 1998 and withdrew on 1 January 2012, the withdrawal being the first measure adopted under this Amendment.

Amendment VIIIn force

Adopted 28 September 2013. Proposed by the Green Union.

Changes in this Amendment

MArticle 32replaced in full

Reason given on the proposal

The communications data of the whole population had been retained since 2009 under a regulation of the Government, and the Commission on Information and Data reported that the retention had no basis in an organic law. The Amendment prohibits general retention, and adds the rule on decisions taken by automatic processing.

Article 32 is replaced as follows:

Correspondence and personal data

1.The secrecy of correspondence and of communication is guaranteed. Interception requires a reasoned judicial warrant, for a stated offence and a stated period, and the person concerned is informed once the investigation permits it.
2.The general retention of data on the communications of persons who are not suspected of an offence is prohibited.
3.Every person has the right to know what data on them is stored by an organ of the State or by an enterprise, to obtain the correction of error, and to obtain the erasure of data collected without a legal basis.
4.Data collected for one purpose shall not be used for another. A single number identifying a person across unconnected registers is prohibited, and the linking of registers requires a law which states the registers, the purpose and the period.
5.A decision producing a legal effect on a person shall not be taken by automatic processing alone, and the person may require that it be taken by a person and that the reasons be stated.

Amendment VIIIIn force

Adopted 11 February 2016. Proposed by the Party of Labour.

Changes in this Amendment

MArticle 74replaced in full

Reason given on the proposal

Public debt reached 46 per cent of annual product in 2015. In the budget years 2013 and 2014 borrowing met current expenditure and, in 2014, the interest on earlier borrowing. The Amendment fixes a ceiling of one third, bars borrowing for current expenditure and interest, and closes the route to foreign lenders.

Article 74 is replaced as follows:

Public borrowing

1.The Republic borrows only by authority of a law which states the amount, the purpose and the term.
2.Borrowing is applied to investment, and shall not be applied to current expenditure or to the payment of interest.
3.The total debt of the Republic shall not exceed one third of the annual product of the Republic, as the Court of Accounts calculates it, except during an armed attack or a natural disaster, and the excess is repaid within ten years of the end of that period.
4.The Republic shall not borrow from a foreign state, a foreign bank or an international financial institution, and shall not accept a loan whose conditions touch its internal order, its plan, its provision or its ownership settlement.

Amendment IXIn force

Adopted 6 June 2018. Proposed by the Communal Left and the Green Union.

Changes in this Amendment

AArticle 187new article
AArticle 188new article
AArticle 189new article

Reason given on the proposal

Complaints that a public body had infringed a right in Title II were divided between the courts, the Commission on Information and Data and the committees of the Assembly, and no organ examined a complaint that alleged unfairness without illegality. The office is modelled on the Defender of Rights of the Republic of Fluid.

Articles 187, 188 and 189 are added to Title IX:

187

The Defender of Rights

1.The Defender of Rights examines complaints that an organ of the State, a district, a commune, a public establishment or an enterprise in social ownership has infringed a right declared in Title II, or has acted unfairly toward a person.
2.The Defender is elected by the Assembly of the Republic by a majority of two thirds for seven years, is not eligible for a second term, and Article 157 applies.
3.Any person may complain to the Defender, without charge, without a lawyer, and without exhausting other remedies.

188

Powers

1.The Defender may enter any place in which persons are deprived of liberty or receive care, without notice, and may speak with any person there in private.
2.The Defender may require a document, summon an officer, and obtain a written reply within thirty days.
3.The Defender addresses a recommendation to the organ concerned, which shall reply within sixty days and state the measures taken or the reasons for refusing.
4.The Defender may apply to the Constitutional Court under Article 155 on behalf of a person, and may apply for the review of a law under Article 154(1).

189

Reports

1.The Defender reports annually to the Assembly of the Republic in public sitting, and publishes the recommendations refused, with the reasons given.
2.The Defender publishes a special report at any time on a matter requiring it.

Amendment XIn force

Adopted 22 May 2020. Proposed by the Communal Left.

Changes in this Amendment

DArticle 92(4)repealed
MArticle 92(3)paragraph replaced
AArticle 93(4)paragraph added

Reason given on the proposal

At the elections of 2016 the three per cent threshold left 11.4 per cent of the votes cast without a seat, and at the elections of 2018 it left 9.1 per cent. The Amendment removes the threshold and requires the method that gives the closest correspondence between votes and seats. It also detaches the public funding of a candidature from whether it obtains a seat.

Article 92(4) is repealed. Article 92(3) is replaced as follows:

3.Sixty members are elected from lists presented in the districts, and the seats are distributed among the lists in proportion to the votes they receive in the Republic, without any threshold, by the method the organic law establishes, which shall be the method giving the closest correspondence between votes and seats.

Article 93(4) is added:

4.Public funds are granted to a candidature in proportion to the votes it received at the preceding election and, for a new candidature, on the presentation of the signatures the organic law requires. The grant shall not depend on obtaining a seat.

Amendment XIIn force

Adopted 30 October 2022. Proposed by the Green Union.

Changes in this Amendment

MArticle 85replaced in full

Reason given on the proposal

Emissions rose in six of the nine years to 2021, against the timetable adopted under Article 85(2), which bound nobody. The Amendment states the emissions budget as a law, in tonnes and by branch, and allows any person to bring the excess before the administrative court.

Article 85 is replaced as follows:

Energy, water and the carbon budget

1.The generation and distribution of electricity, the supply of water and the district heating networks are held in social ownership and shall not be alienated.
2.The Assembly of the Republic adopts by law, every five years, a budget of greenhouse gas emissions for the Republic, expressed in tonnes and divided between the branches of the economy, which declines to zero by 2050.
3.The plan and the budget of the Republic shall conform to the emissions budget in force. A provision of the plan which exceeds it has no effect, and any person may apply to the administrative court to establish the excess.
4.The Government publishes annually the emissions of each branch against the budget, and where a branch exceeds its share the Government states before the Assembly, within ninety days, the measures by which the excess will be recovered within three years.
5.A supply of water sufficient for personal and domestic use shall not be cut off for non-payment.

Amendment XIIIn force

Adopted 27 February 2025. Proposed by the Party of Labour, as the first of the three Amendments of the economic package.

Changes in this Amendment

MArticle 67replaced in full
AArticle 190new article
AArticle 191new article
AArticle 192new article
MArticle 76(3)paragraph replaced

Reason given on the proposal

Support to enterprises in difficulty was granted from the funds of the plan under Article 67(2), for no stated period and against no stated result. The Court of Accounts recorded fourteen enterprises supported without interruption for more than eight years, four of them for more than fifteen. Support is now public, limited to three years, capped as a share of the branch allocation, and followed by reorganisation where the results are not obtained.

Article 67 is replaced and Articles 190, 191 and 192 are added to Title III:

Losses

1.An enterprise in social ownership meets its losses out of its own reserves, and the founding organ shall not meet them out of the funds of the plan except under Articles 190 to 192.
2.An enterprise operates within a ceiling for each planning period, expressed in energy, materials, water, land, emissions and labour time, and in the funds allocated to it. The ceiling binds, and consumption beyond it stops the activity which depends on the exhausted allocation.
3.An enterprise keeps accounts of what it receives, what it produces, what it discards and what it emits, publishes them at the intervals the law fixes, and submits them to the Court of Accounts.
4.The concealment or falsification of these accounts is an offence, and the persons responsible answer for it personally.

190

Review of performance

1.The branch association reviews each enterprise annually against its ceiling, its tasks in the plan, its accounts, its conditions of labour, and the needs it undertook to meet.
2.The review is public and states its reasons. The workers' council of the enterprise replies, and the reply is published with it.
3.Persistent failure to meet undertaken tasks, persistent consumption beyond ceiling, or persistent breach of the emissions budget under Article 85 starts the procedure of Article 191.
4.A shortfall arising from disaster, from the failure of another enterprise to deliver, or from a defect in the plan itself is recorded as a shortfall of that kind and starts no procedure against the enterprise.

191

Support

1.An enterprise in difficulty may receive support from the solidarity fund of its branch association, to which every enterprise of the branch contributes, or from the reserve of the plan.
2.Support is granted only by a public decision stating the cause of the difficulty, the measures proposed, the quantities and funds allocated, the results required, and the date on which the support ends. The decision names the persons who took it.
3.Support runs for two years, and is renewed once for one further year only, on a fresh public decision founded on an independent evaluation showing that the measures are taking effect.
4.Support to one enterprise shall not exceed the proportion of the allocation of its branch which the organic law fixes. Support granted in each period is published in total and by recipient.
5.During support the enterprise reports quarterly, remains bound by its ceiling, which support shall not raise, and admits inspection by the Court of Accounts.
6.Support is granted to maintain a productive capacity which the plan requires, and shall not be granted to preserve an activity which the plan has ceased to require.
7.The expiry of support without the results required starts the procedure of Article 192, and further support to the same enterprise on the same grounds is prohibited for five years.
8.Support does not affect the income, the employment or the social security of the members of the enterprise.

192

Reorganisation and dissolution

1.Reorganisation transfers the assets, the tasks and the members of an enterprise to another enterprise of the branch, to an enterprise of the commune or the district, or to a newly formed cooperative.
2.Reorganisation is decided by the founding organ after a public procedure in which the workers' council, the trade union, the users and the council of the commune are heard, and is subject to appeal to the administrative court.
3.Dissolution follows only where reorganisation cannot be effected, and follows the same procedure.
4.The members of a reorganised or dissolved enterprise keep their income during the period of transfer, receive a place in another enterprise or establishment, and receive training where the new task requires it.
5.Where the enterprise provided a service on the list under Article 195, that service continues without interruption, and its continuity is secured before the measure takes effect.

Article 76(3) is replaced as follows:

3.Credit unpaid at term is recovered. The Bank of the Republic shall not renew a credit to cover the non-payment of an earlier one, shall not grant credit to an enterprise under support except as part of the measures approved under Article 191(2), and reports annually to the Assembly of the Republic on the amounts unrecovered, by enterprise and by branch.

Amendment XIIIIn force

Adopted 27 February 2025. Proposed by the Green Union, as the second of the three Amendments of the economic package.

Changes in this Amendment

MArticle 61replaced in full
AArticle 193new article
AArticle 194new article
MArticle 84(1)paragraph replaced

Reason given on the proposal

The plan was stated in money, and in physical units only for the goods a law listed. The Ecological Budget Office, then a body of the Government, reported that the abstraction of water and the extraction of materials had never been measured against any limit. The Amendment states the plan in physical units throughout, makes the ecological budgets binding, and gives the Office the standing of an independent body.

Article 61 is replaced and Articles 193 and 194 are added to Title III:

Accounts of the plan

1.The plan is expressed in physical units for energy, materials, water, land, emissions, labour time and the useful life of goods, and in monetary values for the purposes of the budget and of prices.
2.Where a physical account and a monetary account point to different decisions, the physical account governs.
3.The plan includes balances for each resource named in paragraph 1, stated for the Republic and for each district, and states the stocks held at the opening and at the close of the period.
4.The data on which the balances rest are published in a form which permits the calculations to be repeated.

193

Ecological budgets

1.The Assembly of the Republic adopts by law, for each planning period, ecological budgets for the Republic, expressed in physical units, covering emissions of greenhouse gases, the abstraction of water, the extraction of materials, the conversion of land, and the discharge of substances harmful to health.
2.An ecological budget is set at the level which the natural systems of the territory can sustain, established by the Ecological Budget Office on published evidence, and shall not be set above that level for reasons of cost.
3.The plan, the budget of the Republic, the plans of the districts and the ceilings of enterprises conform to the ecological budgets in force. A provision which exceeds a budget has no effect, and any person or association may apply to the administrative court to establish the excess.
4.An ecological budget shall not be raised except on a finding by the Office that the sustainable level has itself changed. A budget once lowered shall not be raised on the ground of a failure to observe it.
5.Where a period closes with a budget exceeded, the excess is deducted from the budget of the following period.

194

The Ecological Budget Office

1.The Ecological Budget Office establishes the sustainable levels under Article 193(2), measures the use made of each budget, and publishes quarterly the position of each budget by branch and by district.
2.The Office consists of seven members elected by the Assembly of the Republic by a majority of two thirds for seven years, chosen from persons qualified in the natural sciences, in engineering or in the accounting of resources, and Articles 157 and 158 apply.
3.The Office is heard before the adoption of the plan, of the budget of the Republic and of any law affecting the use of a resource under budget, and its opinion is published with the proposal.
4.The Office may require of an enterprise, an establishment, a district or a commune the physical accounts under Article 67(3), and may verify them on the premises.

Article 84(1) is replaced as follows:

1.The Government publishes annually the condition of the air, of the water, of the soil, of the forests and of the living species of the territory, together with the quantities of each material extracted, imported, used, recovered and discarded, stated in physical units and set against the ecological budgets in force.

Amendment XIVIn force

Adopted 27 February 2025. Proposed by the Communal Left, as the third of the three Amendments of the economic package.

Changes in this Amendment

MArticle 12(4)paragraph replaced
MArticle 12(5)paragraph replaced
AArticle 195new article

Reason given on the proposal

Shortage was met after the event, by rationing under Article 78(3), which the Government had used in eleven of the thirty years since 1994. Nothing in the text required provision to be extended as capacity allowed. The Amendment names the goods provided free of charge, requires the list to grow with each plan, and makes registered need a binding input to the plan.

Article 12(4) and 12(5) are replaced and Article 195 is added to Title III:

4.The goods and services on the list of free provision are provided free of charge at the point of use, without any examination of the income of the person, without registration beyond that necessary to deliver them, and without charge of any kind, and are met from the plan.
5.The list of free provision is extended at each planning period and shall not be reduced. A good or service once placed on the list shall not be removed from it except by a law adopted by two thirds of the members of the Assembly of the Republic on a finding, made by the Ecological Budget Office, that the resources to provide it are no longer available.

195

The list of free provision

1.The list of free provision comprises, on the entry into force of this Amendment: housing allocated from the public stock, health care and medicines, education at every level, water for personal and domestic use, sanitation, care of children and of the aged, public transport, energy sufficient to heat a dwelling and to cook, the staple foods the law names, and access to the public networks of communication.
2.With each plan the Assembly of the Republic adds to the list, and the plan states the resources allocated to the addition. The Government states before the Assembly, with each plan, the goods and services which the productive capacity of the Republic would allow to be added, with the cost of each.
3.Where a good or service on the list is in short supply, it is distributed by registered need, in the order and on the criteria the law establishes, published in advance. Distribution by price, by queue at the point of sale, or by the discretion of the person who holds the stock is prohibited.
4.Every resident may register their need for a good or a service on the list. Registered needs, in total and in anonymised form, are a binding input to the plan, and the plan states how each registered need is met or the reason for which it is not.
5.Rationing under Article 78(3) is used only for a good outside the list, and shall not be used to reduce the provision of a good on the list.

Amendment XVIn force

Adopted 19 April 2026. Proposed by the Party of Labour, the Green Union and the Communal Left.

Changes in this Amendment

MArticle 86replaced in full
MArticle 89(2)paragraph replaced

Reason given on the proposal

Settlement with the Republic of Fluid in marek required foreign exchange that the external account did not hold, and the balances of 2023 and 2024 were carried as debts denominated in a currency neither party used for the underlying goods. The Amendment settles Bloc exchange in the goods themselves, counted in physical units.

Article 86 is replaced as follows:

Foreign trade

1.Trade with the member states of the union under Article 18 is conducted by agreement concluded within that union.
2.Where the counterparty state records its exchange in physical units, the Republic settles with it in goods, labour, technique and knowledge, recorded in the same units, through a single external account, and the marek is not used in that settlement.
3.A balance in such an account passes to the following period and is settled by the delivery of goods. It creates no debt, bears no interest, and shall not be transferred to a third party.
4.Trade with other states is conducted by enterprises under licence granted by the Government, which states the goods, the quantities and the term. The register of licences is public.
5.The Government publishes annually, for each counterparty state, the quantities delivered and received, stated in physical units.

Article 89(2) is replaced as follows:

2.The Bank of the Republic publishes quarterly the balance of the external account, the composition of the reserves, and the balances recorded in physical units under Article 86(3).

Amendment pending before the Assembly

Laid under Article 174, not in force

The following Amendment has been laid under Article 174 and has passed its first reading. It is not in force. It is reproduced here under Article 178(1) so that the text the Assembly is considering is available to the public.

Amendment XVINot in force

Laid 12 January 2026 by the Party of Labour, the Green Union and the Communal Left. First reading passed 5 May 2026 by 81 votes to 34. Second reading due after 3 August 2026.

Changes in this Amendment

DTitle Vtitle repealed
DArticles 111 to 117cease to have effect
MArticle 105replaced in full
MArticle 109replaced in full
MArticle 119(2)paragraph replaced
MArticle 153(2)paragraph replaced
MArticle 173(1)paragraph replaced

Reason given on the proposal

The functions of the President under Title V are exercised on the proposal of the Government or on the decision of the Assembly in every case except the return of a law and the reference of a law to the Constitutional Court, and both of those may be exercised by a minority of the Assembly. Since the President doesn't have many functions, in order to simplify bureaucracy, inspired by the Fluidian model, the Amendment ends the office at the close of the current term and moves its remaining functions to the President of the Assembly.

Title V is repealed. Articles 111 to 117 cease to have effect on the date this Amendment enters into force.

Article 105 is replaced as follows:

105

Promulgation and publication

1.A law adopted by the Assembly of the Republic is promulgated by the President of the Assembly within eight days and published in the Official Gazette.
2.Before promulgation, one fifth of the members of the Assembly may refer a law to the Constitutional Court, which decides within thirty days. Promulgation is suspended during that period.
3.Where the Court finds the law contrary to this Constitution, the law is returned to the Assembly, which may adopt it again only in the form the Court's decision permits.

Article 109 is replaced as follows:

109

Dissolution

1.The Assembly of the Republic may dissolve itself by a decision taken by two thirds of its members.
2.The Assembly is dissolved, without any further decision, where it does not elect a Prime Minister within sixty days of its first sitting or of the resignation of a Government, and the President of the Assembly orders elections.
3.The Assembly shall not be dissolved during a state of emergency or while a motion of censure is pending.
4.Elections are held within sixty days of the dissolution.

Article 119(2) is replaced as follows:

2.The Prime Minister elected by the Assembly takes office on election, and appoints and dismisses the ministers, informing the Assembly of each appointment and of the reasons for each dismissal.

Article 153(2) is replaced as follows:

2.Three judges are elected by the Assembly of the Republic by a majority of two thirds, three are elected by the plenary of the Supreme Court, and three are elected by the Judicial Council from among candidates presented by the faculties of law and by the associations of lawyers.

Article 173(1) is replaced as follows:

1.Where the territory is subject to armed attack, the Government states the fact and convenes the Assembly of the Republic, which decides on the response within twenty-four hours.

Transitional provision:

1.This Amendment enters into force at the end of the term of the President of the Republic in office on the date of its adoption, and that term is not shortened by it.
2.The functions the repealed Title V assigned to the President pass on that date to the President of the Assembly of the Republic, except those this Amendment assigns otherwise.
3.A reference in a law to the President of the Republic is read, from that date, as a reference to the President of the Assembly of the Republic.