History for ready reference, Volume 5, Tunnage to Zyp and Supplement (part 8 of 11)
Article 22. The secrecy of correspondence is inviolable. The law determines who are the agents responsible for violation of the secrecy of letters confided to the post.
Article 23. The use of the languages spoken in Belgium is optional; it can be prescribed only by law, and only for acts of public authority and for judicial transactions.
Article 24. No previous authorization is necessary for the undertaking of proceedings against public officials, on account of acts in their administration, except that which is enacted concerning ministers.
Title III. Of Powers.
Article 25. All powers are derived from the nation. They are exercised in the manner prescribed by the Constitution.
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Article 26. Legislative power is exercised collectively by the King, the Chamber of Representatives and the Senate.
Article 27. The initiative belongs to each one of the three branches of the legislative power. Nevertheless, all laws relating to the revenue or to the expenditures of the State, or to the contingent of the army must be voted first by the Chamber of Representatives.
Article 28. The interpretation of laws by authority belongs only to the legislative power.
Article 29. The executive power, as regulated by the Constitution, belongs to the King.
Article 30. The judicial power is exercised by the courts and tribunals. Decrees and judgments are executed in the name of the King.
Article 31. Interests exclusively communal or provincial, are regulated by the communal or provincial councils, according to the principles established by the Constitution.
Chapter First.—Of The Chambers.
Article 32. Members of both Chambers represent the nation, and not merely the province or the subdivision of province which has elected them.
Article 33. The sittings of the Chambers are public. Nevertheless, each Chamber forms itself into a secret committee on the demand of its president or of ten members. It then decides by absolute majority whether the sitting on the same subject shall be resumed publicly.
Article 34. Each Chamber verifies the powers of its members and decides all contests on the subject that may arise.
Article 35. No person can be at the same time a member of both Chambers.
Article 36. A member of one of the two Chambers who is appointed by the government to any salaried office, except that of minister, and who accepts the same, ceases immediately to sit, and resumes his functions only by virtue of a new election.
Article 37. At every session, each Chamber elects its president and its vice-presidents and forms its bureau.
Article 38. Every resolution is adopted by the absolute majority of the votes, excepting as may be directed by the rules of the Chambers in regard to elections and presentations. In case of an equal division of votes, the proposition brought under deliberation is rejected. Neither of the two Chambers can adopt a resolution unless the majority of its members is present.
Article 39. Votes are given by the voice or by sitting and rising; on "l'ensemble des lois" the vote is always taken by the call of the roll of names. Elections and presentations of candidates are made by ballot.
Article 40. Each Chamber has the right of inquiry [or investigation].
Article 41. A bill can be passed by one of the Chambers only after having been voted article by article.
Article 42. The Chambers have the right to amend and to divide the articles and the amendments proposed.
Article 43. The presenting of petitions in person to the Chambers is forbidden. Each Chamber has the right to refer to ministers the petitions that are addressed to it. Ministers are required to give explanations whenever the Chamber requires them.
Article 44. No member of either Chamber can be prosecuted or called to account for opinions expressed or votes given by him in the performance of his duties.
Article 45. No member of either Chamber can be prosecuted or arrested in affairs of repression, during the session, without the authorization of the Chamber of which he is a member, except the case be "de flagrant delit." No bodily constraint can be exercised against a member of either Chamber during the session, except with the same authorization. The detention or the prosecution of a member of either Chamber is suspended during the whole session if the Chamber so requires.
Article 46. Each Chamber determines by its rules the mode in which it will exercise its powers.
Section I.—Of the Chamber of Representatives.
Article 47. Deputies to the Chamber of Representatives are elected directly under the following conditions: A vote is conferred on citizens who have completed their 25th year, who have resided for at least one year in the same commune, and who are not within one of the cases of exclusion provided for by law. A supplementary vote is conferred on each citizen who fulfills one of the following conditions:
1. To have completed 35 years of age, to be married, or to be a widower having legitimate offspring, and to pay to the State a tax of not less than 5 francs on account of dwelling-houses or buildings occupied, unless exempted by reason of his profession.
2. To have completed the age of 25 years and to be owner: Either of real property, valued at not less than 2,000 francs to be rated on the basis of the "revenu cadastral," or of a "revenu cadastral" proportioned to that value; Or of an inscription in the great book of the public debt, or of a "carnet de rente Belge" at the savings bank of at least 100 francs of "rente." The inscriptions and bank books must have belonged to the incumbent for at least two years and a half. The property of the wife is assigned to the husband; that of children under age, to the father. Two supplementary votes are assigned to citizens fully 25 years of age who are included in one of the following cases: A. To be the holder of a diploma of higher instruction or of a similar certificate of attendance on a complete course of medium instruction of the higher degree, without distinction between public and private establishments. B. To fill or to have filled a public office, to occupy or to have occupied a position, to practise or to have practised a private profession, which implies the supposition that the titulary has at least an average education of the higher degree. The law determines these functions, positions and professions, as well as, in given cases, the time during which they shall have been occupied or practised. No person can accumulate more than three votes.
Article 48. The constitution of the electoral colleges is regulated by law for each province. The vote is obligatory and takes place in the commune with exceptions to be determined by law.
Article 49. The electoral law fixes the number of deputies according to the population; this number cannot exceed the proportion of a deputy for 40,000 inhabitants. It determines also the qualifications of an elector and the mode of the electoral operations.
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Article 50. To be eligible, it is necessary: 1. To be a Belgian by birth or to have received the "grand naturalization"; 2. To enjoy civil and political rights; 3. To have completed 25 years of age; 4. To reside in Belgium.
No other condition of eligibility can be required.
Article 51. The members of the Chamber of Representatives are elected for four years. Half of them are changed every two years, according to the order of the series determined by the electoral law. In case of dissolution, the Chamber is entirely renewed.
Article 52. Each member of the Chamber of Representatives receives a yearly indemnity of 4,000 francs. He is, besides, entitled to free travel on the State railways and on the "conceded" railways, from his residence to the city where the session is held.
Section II.—Of the Senate.
Article 53. The Senate is composed:
1. Of members elected in proportion to the population of each province, conformably to Article 47; though the law may require that the electors shall be 30 years of age, the provisions of Article 48 are applicable to the election of these senators.
2. Of members elected by the provincial councils, to the number of two from each province having less than 500,000 inhabitants, of three from each province having from 500,000 to 1,000,000 of inhabitants, and of four from each province having more than one million of inhabitants.
Article 54. The number of senators elected directly by the electoral body is equal to half the number of the members of the Chamber of Representatives.
Article 55. Senators are elected for eight years; half of them are changed every four years, according to the order of the series determined by the electoral law. In case of dissolution, the Senate is entirely renewed.
Article 56. To be eligible for election and to remain a senator, it is necessary: 1. To be a Belgian by birth or to have received the "grande naturalization"; 2. To enjoy civil and political rights; 3. To reside in Belgium; 4. To be at least 40 years of age; 5. To pay into the treasury of the State at least 1,200 francs of direct taxes, patents included; Or to be either proprietor or usufructuary of real property situated in Belgium, the cadastral revenue from which is at least 12,000 francs. In the provinces where the number of those eligible does not attain the proportion of one in 5,000 inhabitants, the list is completed by adding the heaviest tax-payers of the province to the extent of that proportion. Citizens whose names are inscribed on the complementary list are eligible only in the province where they reside.
Article 56 bis. Senators elected by the provincial councils are exempted from all conditions of census; they cannot belong to the assembly which elects them, nor can they have been a member of it during the year of the election, nor during the two previous years.
Article 57. Senators receive neither salary nor indemnity.
Article 58. The King's sons, or in their absence the Belgian Princes of the branch of the Royal family called to reign, are by right senators at 18 years of age. They have a deliberative voice only at 25 years of age.
Article 59. Any assembly of the Senate which may be held outside the time of the session of the Chamber of Representatives is null and void.
II. Of the King and his Ministers
Section II.—Of the King.
Article 60. The constitutional powers of the King are hereditary in the direct, natural and legitimate descent from His Majesty Leopold-George-Christian-Frederick of Saxe-Coburg, from male to male, by order of primogeniture, and to the perpetual exclusion of the females of their line. The prince who marries without the consent of the King or of those who, in his absence, exercise his powers, in the cases provided for by the Constitution, shall forfeit his rights. Nevertheless he can be restored to his rights by the King or by those who, in his absence, exercise his authority in the cases provided for by the Constitution, with the consent of both Chambers.
Article 61. In default of male descendants of his Majesty Leopold-George-Christian-Frederick of Saxe-Coburg, the King can name his successor, with the assent of the Chambers, expressed in the manner prescribed by the following article. If no nomination has been made according to the proceeding here stated, the throne will be vacant.
Article 62. The King cannot be, at the same time, the chief of another State, without the consent of both Chambers. Neither of the two Chambers can deliberate on this subject if two-thirds at least of the members who compose it are not present, and the resolution is adopted only if it receives two-thirds at least of the votes cast.
Article 63. The person of the King is inviolable; his ministers are responsible.
Article 64. No act of the King can have effect if it is not countersigned by a minister, who, thereby, makes himself responsible.
Article 65. The King appoints and dismisses his ministers.
Article 66. He confers the grades in the army. He appoints to the offices of general administration and of foreign relations, with the exceptions determined by law. He appoints to other offices only by virtue of express provisions of a law.
Article 67. He makes the regulations and decrees necessary to the execution of the laws, without power to suspend the laws themselves, nor to exempt from their execution.
Article 68. The King commands the land and naval forces, declares war, makes treaties of peace, of alliance, and of commerce. He announces them to the Chambers as soon as the interest and the safety of the State admit of it, adding to them appropriate communications. Treaties of commerce and those which might burden the State or bind Belgians individually become effective only after having received the approval of the Chambers. No cession, nor exchange, nor addition of territory can take place without authority of a law. In no case can the secret articles of a treaty be destructive to the open articles.
Article 69. The King sanctions and promulgates the laws.
Article 70. The Chambers meet by right every year, on the 2d Tuesday in November, unless previously summoned by the King. The Chambers must remain in session at least 40 days in each year. The King declares the closing of the session. The King has the right to call extra sessions of the Chambers.
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Article 71. The King has the right to dissolve the Chambers, either simultaneously or separately; the act of dissolution to contain a convocation of the electors within forty days and of the Chambers within two months.
Article 72. The King may adjourn the Chambers. The adjournment, however, cannot exceed the term of one month, nor be renewed in the same session, without the consent of the Chambers.
Article 73. He has the right to remit or to reduce penalties pronounced by the judges, except those which are enacted concerning the ministers.
Article 74. He has the right to coin money, in execution of the law.
Article 75. He has the right to confer titles of nobility, without power to attach any privilege to them.
Article 76. He confers the military orders, observing in that regard what the law prescribes.
Article 77. The law fixes the civil list for the duration of each reign.
Article 78. The King has no other powers than those formally conferred on him by the Constitution, and by laws enacted pursuant to the Constitution.
Article 79. On the death of the King, the Chambers meet without convocation, not later than the tenth day after that of his decease. If the Chambers had been previously dissolved, and if the convocation had been fixed in the act of dissolution for a later date than the tenth day, the old Chambers resume their functions until the meeting of those which are to take their place. If one Chamber only had been dissolved, the same rule is followed with regard to that Chamber. From the death of the King and until his successor on the throne or the regent has taken the oath, the constitutional powers of the King, are exercised, in the name of the Belgian nation, by the ministers assembled in council and under their responsibility.
Article 80. The King is of age when he has completed his 18th year. He takes possession of the throne only after having solemnly taken, in the midst of the Chambers assembled together, the following oath: "I swear to observe the Constitution and the laws of the Belgian people, to maintain the national independence and to preserve the integrity of the territory."
Article 81. If, on the death of the King, his successor is a minor, both Chambers meet in one body for the purpose of providing for the regency and the guardianship.
Article 82. If it is impossible for the King to reign, the ministers, after having caused that inability to be established, convoke the Chambers immediately. Guardianship and regency are to be provided for by the Chambers convened.
Article 83. The regency can be conferred on one person only. The regent enters upon his duties only after he has taken the oath prescribed by Article 80.
Article 84. No change can be made in the Constitution during a regency.
Article 85. In case of a vacancy on the throne, the Chambers deliberating together, arrange provisionally for the regency until the meeting of new Chambers, that meeting to take place within two months, at the latest. The new Chambers deliberating together provide definitely for the vacancy.
Section II.—Of the Ministers.
Article 86. No person can be a minister who is not a Belgian by birth, or who has not received the "grande naturalization."
Article 87. No member of the royal family can be a minister.
Article 88. Ministers have a deliberative voice in either Chamber only when they are members of it. They have free admission into each Chamber and must have a hearing when they ask for it. The Chambers may require the presence of ministers.
Article 89. In no case, can the order of the King, verbal or written, relieve a minister of responsibility.
Article 90. The Chamber of Representatives has the right to accuse ministers and to arraign them before the Court of Cassation [Appeal], which alone has the right to judge them, the united Chambers reserving what may be enacted by law concerning civil action by a party wronged, and as to crimes and misdemeanors which ministers may have committed outside of the performance of their duties. A law shall determine the cases of responsibility, the penalties to be inflicted on the ministers, and the manner of proceeding against them, either upon the accusation admitted by the Chamber of Representatives, or upon prosecution by parties wronged.
Article 91. The King may pardon a minister sentenced by the Court of Cassation only upon the request of one of the two Chambers.
III. Of the Judiciary Power
Article 92. Contests concerning civil rights are exclusively within the jurisdiction of the tribunals.
Article 93. Contests concerning political rights are within the jurisdiction of the tribunals, with exceptions determined by law.
Article 94. No tribunal can be established otherwise than by law. Neither commissions nor extraordinary tribunals, under any denomination whatever, can be created.
Article 95. There is for the whole of Belgium one Court of Cassation. This Court does not consider the ground of causes, except in the judgment of ministers.
Article 96. Sittings of the tribunals are public, unless such publicity be dangerous to order or morals, and in that case the tribunal declares it by a judgment. In the matter of political or press offenses, the exclusion of the public must be voted unanimously.
Article 97. The ground of every judgment is to be stated. It is pronounced in public sitting.
Article 98. The jury is established in all criminal cases, and for political and press offenses.
Article 99. The judges of the peace and judges of the tribunals are appointed directly by the King. Councillors of the Courts of appeal and presidents and vice-presidents of the courts of original jurisdiction are appointed by the King, from two double lists, presented, one by those courts and the other by the provincial Councils. Councillors of the Court of Cassation are appointed by the King from two double lists, one presented by the Senate and the other by the Court of Cassation. In these two cases the candidates whose names are on one list may also be inscribed on the other. All presentations are made public at least fifteen days before the appointment. The courts choose their presidents and vice-presidents from among their members.
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Article 100. Judges are appointed for life. No judge can be deprived of his position or suspended, except by a judgment. The displacement of a judge can take place only through a new appointment and with his consent.
Article 101. The King appoints and dismisses the public prosecutors to the courts and tribunals.
Article 102. The salaries of the members of the judicial order are fixed by law.
Article 103. No judge may accept salaried offices from the government unless he exercises them gratuitously, and excluding the cases of incompatibility defined by law.
Article 104. There are three courts of appeal in Belgium. The law determines their jurisdiction and the places in which they shall be established.
Article 105. Special enactments regulate the organization of military courts, their powers, the rights and obligations of the members of such courts, and the duration of their functions. There are tribunals of commerce in the places determined by law, which regulate their organization, their powers, the mode of appointment of their members and the term of the latters' duties.
Article 106. Conflicts of jurisdiction are settled by the Court of Cassation, according to proceedings regulated by law.
Article 107. Courts and tribunals shall apply general, provincial and local decisions and regulations only so far as they are conformable to the laws.