1 ART. 82. The councilors shall continue in the exercise of their functions two years. ART. 83. The attributions of the Council are: 1. To make rules for its internal government. 1.2. To give its opinion to the President of the Republic in all the matters about which he may consult it. ART. 84. The councilors of State are responsible for the opinions given by them in opposition to the Constitution and the other laws. TITLE V.-THE JUDICIAL POWER. ART. 85. The judicial power is exercised by the judges and tribunals of the Republic; to them belongs the exclusive power of applying the laws in civil and criminal cases. ART. 86. To be elected magistrate or public prosecutor it is necessary to be in the enjoyment of the rights of citizenship, to be over 21 years of age, to be a lawyer and of the secular estate. ART. 87. The functionaries of the superior tribunals of justice and the judges of first instance shall continue four years in the exercise of their functions. ART. 88. The power to render judicial decisions, and to enforce them, belongs exclusively to the tribunals. ART. 89. The laws shall fix the manner and form according to which the trials shall be conducted. ART. 90. All the inhabitants of the Republic shall be subject to the course of proceedings established by law, ART. 91. No case shall have more than three instances, and the same judges shall not take cognizance of a case in different instances. ART. 92. The judges, whatever their rank or category may be, are personally responsible for every violation of law committed by them, in accordance with the responsibility of the judicial power. ART. 93. The law constituting the judicial power shall establish everything else concerning the judicial power. TITLE VI.-THE GOVERNMENT OF THE DEPARTMENTS AND MUNICI PALITIES. ART. 94. The law divides the national territory into departments in order that the government thereof may be better administered. ART. 95. The President of the Republic shall appoint, for the government of each department, a political chief whose qualifications and attributions shall be fixed by law. ART. 96. The law shall organize the municipalities without changing the principle of popular direct election and shall describe the powers belonging to them. ART. 97. The municipalities shall establish, with the approval of the government, the means which they judge necessary to meet the object of their institution. ART. 98. The government may, when it deems advisable, or at the request of the municipalities, reform the ordinances of each town and make ordinances for the towns which have none. TITLE VII.-REFORM OF THE CONSTITUTION. ART. 99. The Assembly, by a two-thirds vote, shall have power to order the reform of the Constitution, indicating the article or articles which have to be changed. ART. 100. The resolution to amend having passed, the executive power shall call a Constituent Assembly, which should meet within the three months following. The resolution mentioned in the preceding article shall be inserted in the call. ART. 101. The Assembly shall consist of a delegate for each 15,000 inhabitants, and these delegates shall have the same qualifications as are required to be elected deputy. ART. 102. The ordinary Assembly, as soon as the resolution to reform the Constitution is passed, shall adjourn sine die. ART. 103. The reform having been made, a call shall be issued for the election of deputies for the ordinary legislature. ART. 104. The present Constitution shall not lose its force and vigor, even when its observance is interrupted by a rebellion. ART. 105. The amendments made to the Constitution on 23 October 1885 are null and void. . TRANSITORY PROVISIONS.1 ARTICLE 1. The present amendments to the Constitutional Law shall begin to be in force from the date of their promulgation, when the suspension of the constitutional régime shall also cease. ART. 2. The power is hereby granted the executive to exercise the attributions set forth in Article 8 of the present law (except those mentioned in §§ 4, 9 and 13) until the day on which the Legislative Assembly meets, to which an account shall be given of the acts committed in the exercise of such attributions. ART. 3. The provisions of Article 5 of the Constitution shall not prevent the conclusion of the treaties which may now be pending and which were negotiated under the rule of the amendments made in October, 1885. ART. 4. The suspension of the constitutional régime decreed on 26 June of the present year shall not interrupt the presidential term of General Don MANUEL LISANDRO BARRILLAS, who, in compliance 1 The Constitution of 1879 was reenacted on 5 November 1887 and these transitory provisions were added. See above, p. 279, notes 2 and 3. with the provisions of these amendments, shall, therefore, complete his term of office on 15 March 1892. ART. 5. The executive is hereby given authority to call for a popular election of deputies to the Legislative Assembly, and of president, magistrates and public prosecutors of the courts of justice, for the constitutional period beginning on 15 March 1888, with the power to issue for this purpose the proper electoral laws. ART. 6. The Constitutional Assembly, before closing its sessions, shall appoint two persons, who shall exercise the functions of designados until the next legislature, in use of the power vested in it by § 4 of Article 7 of the present decree, elects those who shall fill the position. HAITI. From 1790 to 1804 the French colony of Santo Domingo was blood stained by almost continual disturbances, in the midst of which Toussaint L'Ouverture published the Constitution of 9 May 1801. Gen. Dessalines proclaimed the independence of the island 1 January 1804, and took the title of Emperor under the name of Jacques the First. The new State again took the historic name of Haiti. After the murder of Dessalines (17 October 1806), civil wars ensued, and two States were established under Christophe and Pétion, respectively king of the northern provinces and president of the rest of the island. Upon the death of the former (1820), President Boyer effected the union of the two States and governed in a personal and authoritative manner until the revolution which overthrew him in 1843. The consequence of this revolution was the final separation of the eastern and Spanish part of the island, which took the name of Dominican Republic. Civil wars went on from 1842 to 1847, when Gen. Soulouque reestablished the empire for nine years. After his overthrow Geffrard restored the republic, but the empire returned with his successor, Salnave, who, however, was executed three years later. Since this period the Constitution of the Republic of Haiti has been renewed several times, first on 6 August 1874,1 and finally, after continually recurring disturbances, on 9 October 1889.2 The latter remained in force until the passage of the Constitution which follows. 』 CONSTITUTION OF 12 JUNE 1918.4 TITLE I. THE TERRITORY OF THE REPUBLIC.5 ARTICLE 1. The Republic of Haiti is one and indivisible, free, sovereign and independent. 1 French text and English translation in parallel columns in J. I. RODRIGUEZ, American Constitutions (Washington, 1906), vol. II, pp. 52-88. Spanish translation in RODRIGUEZ, op. cit., pp. 89-108. French text also in the British and Foreign State Papers, 81: pp. 64-87. 2 French text in the British and Foreign State Papers, 65: pp. 1260-1280. 3 This introductory paragraph is based upon F. R. DARESTE ET P. DARESTE, Les Constitutions modernes (3d edition, Paris, 1910), vol. II, pp. 568-570, and RODRIGUEZ, op. cit., pp. 49-51. Translation by HERBERT F. WRIGHT from the French text in Le Moniteur, Journal officiel de la République d'Haïti (Port-au-Prince), of 19 June 1918, 66 5 Preceding this title in the official text appear the words, Chapter First," which seem to have been inserted through error. |