CHAPTER III. Constitutional Guaranties
Article 10
The Constitution insures to all the inhabitants of the Republic:
- Equality before the law. In Chile there is no privileged class.In Chile there are no slaves, and he who sets foot upon its territory becomes free. Chileans cannot engage in the slave traffic. The foreigner who does so, cannot live in Chile nor be naturalized therein.
- Practice of all beliefs, liberty of conscience and the free exercise of all religions that may not be contrary to morality, good usage and public order. Therefore, the respective religious bodies have the right to erect and maintain houses of worship and accessory property under the conditions of security and hygiene as fixed by the laws and regulations.The churches, creeds and religious institutions of any ritual shall have those rights in respect to their property as the laws now in force may stipulate or recognize; but they will be subject, under the guaranties of this Constitution, to the common law in the exercise of ownership of their future acquired property.
Churches and accessory property intended for the service of any religious sect are exempt from taxation.
- Freedom to express, without prior censorship, opinions, orally or in writing, through the medium of the press or in any other form; yet without prejudice to the liability of answering for offenses and abuses that may be committed in the exercise of this liberty in the manner and in the cases as determined by law.
- The right of assembly without prior license and without arms. In plazas, streets and other places of public use, assemblies will be governed by the general police regulations.
- The right of association without prior license and in conformity with the law.
- The right of presenting petitions to the constituted authority upon any matter of public or private interest, without any other limitation than that of using respectful and suitable language.
- The freedom of teaching.Public education is preferentially an affair of the State.
Primary education is obligatory.
There shall be a Bureau of Public Education in whose charge will be the inspection of national instruction and its direction under the authority of the Government.
- Admission to all public employments and offices without other conditions than those imposed by the law.
- The equal apportionment of imposts and taxes in proportion to property, or in graduation or form as fixed by law, and the equal apportionment of other public burdens.Direct or indirect levies can be imposed only by law, and without such special authorization every State authority and every individual is prohibited from imposing such, even though it be under pretext of urgency, of being in voluntary form, or of any other nature.
No kind of personal service or contribution can be exacted except by virtue of an order from the proper authority founded upon a law that authorizes the said exaction.
No armed body can make requisitions or exact any kind of aid except through the civil authorities and by order of the latter.
A special law will prescribe the means for recruitment and re-emplacement of the sea and land forces.
All Chileans able to bear arms, unless they be especially exempt by law, shall be inscribed in the military registers.
- Inviolability of all property, without any distinction.No one can be deprived of property under his control, nor of any part thereof, nor of the right he may have therein, except by virtue of a judicial decree or a writ of expropriation on account of public interest, conformable to a law. In this case indemnification, as may be agreed on, or as may be fixed by a corresponding judicial sentence, shall be paid the owner in advance.
The exercise of the right of property is subject to the limitations or principles that the maintenance and advancement of social order demand, and, in this sense, the law may impose obligations or servitudes for public benefit in favor of the general interests of the State, of the health of the citizenry and of the public welfare.
- Exclusive property in every discovery or production, for such time as the law may concede. If the law shall exact expropriation, the author or inventor shall be given suitable indemnification.
- Inviolability of the home.The house of any person living in Chilean territory can be forcibly entered only for a special purpose, determined by law, and by virtue of an order from the competent authority.
- Inviolability of epistolary and telegraphic correspondence. Documents or public securities shall not be opened, intercepted nor examined except in the cases expressly designated by the law.
- Protection of labor, industry and the works of social providence, especially as referring to sanitary dwellings and economic conditions of living, so as to give to each inhabitant a minimum of comfort adequate for the satisfaction of his personal needs and those of his family. The law will regulate this operation.The State shall incline towards the suitable partition of estates and the creation of family holdings.
No kind of labor or industry can be prohibited unless it be contrary to good usage, the public security or public health, or as the national interests may demand and a law so declare.
It is the duty of the State to care for the public health and hygienic welfare of the country. It must provide each year a sufficient amount of money to maintain a national health service.
- Freedom to sojourn at any point of the Republic, to remove from one place to another or to depart from the territory, under the condition that police regulations be observed, and saving always prejudice to a third party; otherwise, no one can be detained, prosecuted, arrested or deported except in the manner as determined by the laws.
Article 11
No one can be sentenced unless he be legally tried in accordance with a law promulgated prior to the act upon which the sentence rests.
Article 12
No one can be tried by special commissions, nor otherwise than by the tribunal the law appoints and has previously constituted.
Article 13
No one can be arrested except by the order of a public functionary expressly empowered by law and after such order has been made known to him, in legal form; unless he be surprised in flagrante delicto, and in this case for the sole purpose of being brought before the proper judge.
Article 14
No one can be arrested, subjected to preventative detention or imprisoned except in his dwelling or in public places intended for this purpose.
Those in charge of prisons cannot receive therein anyone in the character of arrested, indicted or imprisoned without transcribing in their registers the detention order issued by an authority having legal capacity. They may nevertheless receive within the precincts of the prison for detention those brought for the purpose of being presented before the proper judge, but under obligation to render an account to the latter within twenty-four hours.
Article 15
In case an authority orders the arrest of any person, it must, within the forty-eight hours following, make report thereof to the proper judge and place at his disposal the person detained.
Article 16
Every individual who may be arrested, indicted or imprisoned contrary to the provisions of the foregoing articles may apply, for himself, or by any one in his name, to the judicial authority designated by law, petitioning that the legal requirements be observed. This judicial authority shall order the individual to be brought before it and its order shall be exactly obeyed by all those having charge of the prisons and places of detention. Informed of the antecedents, it shall declare his immediate release, or cause the legal defects to be corrected, or put the individual at the disposition of the proper judge; in all proceeding, briefly and summarily, itself correcting the defects or pointing them out to whomsoever it appertains to correct them.
Article 17
No order of incommunication shall prevent the official in charge of a house of detention from visiting the person detained, indicted or imprisoned therein.
This official is obliged, provided that the person arrested so requires, to transmit to the proper judge a copy of the order of arrest, or make demand that he be given a copy, or himself give a certificate that such a person is arrested, if at the time of his arrest the necessary order was overlooked.
Article 18
In criminal cases the accused shall not be obliged to testify under oath about his own actions, nor can his ascendents, descendents, spouse or relations, within the third degree of consanguinity or second of affinity, inclusive, be obliged so to testify.
Torture shall not be applied, nor in any case confiscation of property be imposed, except fortfeiture in the cases established by law.
Article 19
One, not answerable for an offense to which the law attaches corporal punishment, shall not be detained nor subjected to preventative imprisonment if he be sufficiently bonded personally, or in indemnification of the action, in the form and according to the nature of the cases as determined by law.
Article 20
Every person, in favor of whom sentence of acquital is rendered, or prosecution finally abated, shall have the right to be indemnified in manner as determined by law, for the pecuniary or merely moral injuries that he may have unjustly suffered.
Article 21
The State treasuries shall not make any payments except by virtue of an order issued by competent authority in which shall be stated the law or the part of the budget authorizing said payment.
Article 22
The public forces are essentially obedient. No armed body can deliberate.
Article 23
Every resolution the President of the Republic, the Chamber of Deputies, the Senate or the Courts of Justice may agree to in the presence of or on demand of an army, a commandant at the head of an armed force, or of any assembly of people, with or without arms and in disobedience of the authorities, is null in law and cannot produce any effect.
