Isabel II, by the grace of God and the Constitution of the Spanish monarchy, Queen of Spain; and in its royal name, during her minor age, the widowed Queen Lady Maria Cristina of Bourbon, Governor of the Kingdom; of all that the present shall see and shall understand, know: That the General Parliament has decreed and sanctioned, and we conformingly accept the following:
Being it the willingness of the nation to revise, in the use of its sovereignty, the Constitution promulgated in Cadiz on March 19, 1812, the Parliament generally gathered for this purpose, decrees and sanctions the following constitution of the Spanish monarchy.
Spaniards are:
The quality of Spanish is lost by acquiring naturalization in a foreign country, and by accepting employment from another government without license of the King.
All can print and publish their ideas freely without prior censorship, as determines the law. The qualification of the crimes of printing lies exclusively with jurors.
All Spanish are entitled to direct requests in writing to the Parliament and the King, as determined by the laws.
The same codes shall govern throughout the monarchy, and in them there shall only be established one set of laws for all Spaniards in common, civil and criminal trials.
All Spaniards are eligible for jobs and public office, according to their merit and ability.
All Spaniards are obligated to defend the homeland with arms when called by law, and to contribute in proportion of their assets to government expenditures.
No Spaniards may be arrested, detained, or separated from his home, raided in his house, but in those cases and in the manner prescribed by law.
If state security requires, in extraordinary circumstances, the temporary suspension of the provisions of the preceding article throughout the Monarchy, or any part thereof, such shall be determined by law.
No Spaniards can be prosecuted or sentenced, but by the competent judge or court, under previous laws concerning the crime and in the manner prescribed.
There shall no longer be imposed the penalty of confiscation of property, and no Spaniards shall be deprived of their property, but for the cause of common utility, upon appropriate compensation.
The nation is obliged to maintain the religion and the ministries of the Catholic Religion that is professed by the Spanish.
The power to make laws resides in the parliament with the King.
The parliament is composed of two co-legislative bodies, equal in power: the Senate and the Congress of Deputies.
The number of senators will be equal to three-fifths of deputies.
Senators are appointed by the King on the proposal, in triple list form, of the voters who in each province appoint deputies to the parliament.
It is the duty of each province to propose a number of senators in proportion to its population, but no province shall cease to have at least one Senator.
In order to be a Senator it is required to be a Spaniard more than forty years old and to have a means of subsistence and the other requirements as determined by the electoral law.
All Spaniards who meet these qualities can be nominated by senators for any province of the Monarchy.
Each time there is a general election of deputies by reaching the end of their term or by being dissolved by Congress, there shall be a renewal in order of seniority of one-third of the Senators, who may be reelected.
The sons of King and the immediate heir of the Crown shall be senators at the age of twenty-five.
Each province shall appoint at least one deputy for every fifty thousand of its people.
Deputies are elected by the direct method, and may be reelected indefinitely.
To be deputy one must be Spanish, of a secular background, twenty-five years old, and have any other requirements that are required by the electoral law.
All Spanish who have these qualities, may be appointed deputy by any province.
The deputies shall be elected for three years.
The Parliament shall meet annually. It is for the King to convene, suspend and close its sessions, and dissolve the Congress of Deputies, but there is an obligation, in the latter case, to convene another parliament, and meet within three months.
If the King fails to convene parliament any year before the date of December 1, it shall gather precisely in this day and in the event that the same year concludes the term of the deputies, the elections shall begin the first Sunday in October to make new appointments.
The parliament will come together extraordinarily in case of a vacancy in the Crown, or if the King impedes, in whatever way, the government.
Each of the co-legislative bodies shall form the respective regulations for its internal governance, and examine the legality of the elections and the qualities of the individuals who compose it.
The Congress of Deputies shall appoint its Chairman, Vice-Presidents and Secretaries.
The King shall appoint, for each legislature, from among the same senators, the President and Vice-Presidents of the Senate, and this shall choose his secretaries.
The King opens and closes the parliament, in person or through his ministers.
One of the co-legislative bodies may not be convened unless the other is so convened also, except in cases where the ministers are on trial in the Senate.
The co-legislative bodies may neither deliberate together nor in the presence of King.
The sessions of the Senate and Congress shall be held in public and only in cases requiring discretion may they enter into secret session.
The King and each of the co-legislative bodies have the initiative of laws.
Laws on contributions and public credit shall be presented first to the Congress of Deputies, and if in the Senate they undergo any alteration that is not later accepted by the Congress of Deputies, they shall pass for Royal sanction of that upon which the deputies definitively agree.
The decisions of each of the co-legislative bodies are taken by absolute plurality of votes, but to vote on laws shall require the presence of one more than half of the total number of the individuals who compose the body.
If one of the co-legislative bodies rejects any bill, or the King refuses to sanction it, there can be no return to propose a bill of the same objective in that legislature.
In addition to the legislative powers exercised by the Parliament with the King, they have the following powers:
Senators and deputies are unassailable for their opinions and votes in carrying out their duties.
Senators and deputies may not be prosecuted or arrested during their sessions without permission from the respective co-legislative body, not being found in flagrante; but in the case of in flagrante crime, and in the case of being prosecuted or arrested when the parliament is not in session, there must be account given as soon as possible to the respective co-legislative body for their knowledge and resolution.
The deputies and senators who accept from the Government or the Royal House: a pension, employment other than that which is in scale with their career, a commission with a salary, honors or awards, they are subject to reelection.
The person of the king is sacred and unassailable, and not to be held liable. Ministers are liable.
The power to enforce the laws lies with the King, and his authority extends to all that leads to the preservation of public order in the interior and state security in the exterior, according to the Constitution and laws.
The King shall sanction and enact laws.
In addition to the prerogatives the Constitution gives that the King, it is his duty:
The King needs authorization by a special law:
The strength of the King and his family shall be fixed by the parliament at the beginning of each reign.
The legitimate Queen of Spain is Isabel II of Bourbon.
Succession to the Throne of Spain shall, according to the regular order of primogeniture and representation, always prefer the anterior line to the posterior; in the same line, it shall prefer the closest rank of relative to the most remote; in the same rank, it shall prefer the male to the female; and in the same sex, the person with the most age to the least.
In the case of the line of legitimate descendants of Isabel II of Bourbon being extinguished, there shall be succession according to the order established: her sister and her paternal uncles, male just as female, and their legitimate descendants, if they were not excluded.
If the mentioned lines of legitimate decedents of Isabel II of Bourbon are extinguished, the parliament shall make new appeals, as most appropriate to the nation.
The parliament should exclude the succession of people who are unable to govern or have acted as such to merit the loss of the right to the Crown.
When a female reigns, her husband shall not have any part in the government of the Kingdom.
The King is a minor until reaching fourteen years of age.
When the King makes it impossible to exercise his authority or a vacancy in the Crown occurs when the immediate successor is a minor, the parliament shall appoint, to govern the kingdom, a Regency composed of one, three or five people.
Until the parliament appoints the Regency the kingdom shall be tentatively ruled by the father or the mother of the king, and in their absence, by the counsel of ministers.
The Regency shall exercise all the authority of the King, whose name shall be published in acts of government.
He who is named in the testament of the deceased King shall be named the guardian of the child king, given that he is Spanish by birth; but the father or mother shall be appointed guardian while remaining a widower. In the lack of the previous, the parliament shall name the guardian; but, the charge of Regent and the charge of guardian to the child king may not be united in the same person, but in the father or mother of the same.
Everything the King mandates or prepares in the exercise of his authority, must be signed by the Minister it concerns, and no public servant shall give effect to that which lacks this requirement.
The ministers may be senators or deputies and take part in discussions of both co-legislative bodies, but shall vote only in that which they belong to.
The exclusive ability to apply laws in civil and criminal trials pertains to the tribunals and courts; without their being able to perform any other functions than judgment and execution of that which is judged.
The laws shall define the courts and tribunals that are to be, the organization of each, their powers, how they are to be exercised, and the qualities that its individuals must have.
Trials in criminal matters shall be public, as determined by law.
No judge or magistrate may be dismissed from their post, temporarily or permanently, but by a final judgment; nor may they be suspended but by court order, or under orders of the King, when he, on reasonable grounds, mandates a judgment by the competent court.
Judges are individually responsible for any breach of law committed.
Justice is administered on behalf of the King.
In each province there will be a provincial council, composed by the number of individuals determined by law, appointed by the same voters as the Members of Parliament.
For the internal government of municipalities there shall be municipal councils, appointed by the residents, to whom the law grants that right.
The law shall determine the organization and functions of the provincial and municipal councils.
Every year the Government shall present to Parliament the general budget of State expenditures for the year ahead, and the plan of contributions and ways to meet it, as well as accounts of the collection and investment flows for public review and approval.
No contribution or judgment may be imposed or charged that is not authorized by the budgetary law or another special law.
Like authorization is needed to dispose of state properties, to take them for use on loan, and to take loans on the credit of the Nation.
The public debt is under the special safeguard of the Nation.
The parliament shall fix every year, by a proposal of the King, a standing military force on sea and land.
There shall be bodies of the national militia in each province, whose organization and service shall be arrange by a special law, and the King may, if necessary, use this force within the respective province, but may not use it elsewhere without the parliament granting permission.
Laws shall determine the time and the manner in which there shall be the establishment of trial by jury for all classes of crimes.
Special laws shall govern overseas provinces.