sembly itself shall extend for as much as thirty days. The President of the Republic may call an extra session for such period as he may indicate and to deal exclusively with such matters as he may submit to it.

ART. 56. To be a deputy to the National Assembly, it is required to be a citizen in the exercise of his rights and to have attained the age of 25 years.

ART. 57. The members of the National Assembly shall not be responsible for their opinions or votes, given orally or in writing, in the discharge of their duties, and at no time or by any authority shall they be prosecuted on this account.

ART. 58. The President of the Republic, the secretaries of State, the magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice and the Attorney-General of the nation shall not be elected deputies to the Assembly unless six months after they have ceased to exercise their functions. Citizens who have exercised the executive power shall be affected by the same disability.

ART. 59. In like manner no other official shall be eligible as a deputy to the Assembly who is vested with jurisdiction or command in an electoral district and has exercised his authority therein ninety days before the day of election.

ART. 60. For twenty days before the opening of the sessions, during the said sessions and for twenty days thereafter, no member of the National Assembly shall be subject to criminal trial without the assent of the Assembly.

In cases of flagrante delicto, the culprit may be arrested and immediately placed at the disposal of the said body. Members shall likewise be free from civil actions during the same period.

ART. 61. No increase of per diem or mileage allowances shall become effective until after the term of the members of the Assembly which voted the said increase shall have expired.

ART. 62. The deputies of the Assembly shall not enter, directly or indirectly, into any contract with the administration, nor shall they accept from any one powers of attorney to transact business connected with the government.

ART. 63. In cases of temporary or permanent absence of a member of the National Assembly, his place shall be filled by the legal substitute.

When any deputy withdraws from the sessions, or is replaced by a substitute, the former shall be entitled to the mileage of the journey to the capital and the latter to that of the return to his own domicile.

ART. 64. The President of the Republic shall not confer on the deputies of the Assembly other offices than those of secretary of State, governor of a province, or diplomatic or consular agent.

The acceptance of any one of those offices shall cause the deputy to lose his seat.

ART. 65. The legislative functions of the National Assembly are:

1. To issue national codes and the laws necessary for the administration of the government in all its branches, and to revise or repeal them.

2. To determine the flag and the coat-of-arms of the Republic.

3. To create or abolish offices, and specify their functions, duties and attributions; to fix the terms of office and to designate salaries.

4. To grant or refuse its approval to public treaties negotiated by the executive power; without such approval they can neither be ratified nor exchanged.

5. To approve or disapprove contracts or agreements made by the President of the Republic with private persons, companies or political entities, in which the nation may be interested, if they have not been previously authorized, or if the formalities prescribed by the National Assembly have not been observed, or if any of the stipulations therein contained are not in accordance with the law authorizing them.

6. To grant authority to the executive power to conclude treaties, negotiate loans, alienate national property and exercise other functions within the limits of the Constitution.

7. To declare war, and to authorize the executive power to make peace.

8. To designate the place where the supreme branches of the public powers must be located.

9. To divide the territory of the Republic into electoral districts. 10. To define or regulate the appropriation or adjudication of public lands.

11. To fix the strength of the standing army in time of peace.
12. To organize the national police.

13. To promote and encourage public education, sciences and arts. 14. To decree the construction of public buildings which may be necessary for the State, and of all other public works which are to be undertaken at national expense.

15. To promote and subsidize useful or beneficial enterprises worthy of furtherance and support.

16. To enact such laws as shall be proper for taking the census of the population and gathering national statistics.

17. To grant amnesties, but if any civil liability is incurred with respect to private persons, the Republic shall be obliged to pay the indemnities.

18. To organize the public credit.

19. To acknowledge the national debt and regulate the service thereof.

20. To make appropriations for the expenses of the administration, upon examination of the estimates presented by the executive power, which may or may not be approved.

If for any reason whatever the appropriation bill is not passed by the National Assembly, the act of the preceding year shall continue in force.

21. To create such imposts, taxes and revenues as may be necessary to carry on the public service.

22. To decree the alienation of national property or its application to public uses.

23. To determine the fineness, weight, value, form, type, and denominations of the national coins, and to regulate the system of weights and measures.

24. To increase or diminish the number of provinces and municipal districts, and to change their boundaries.

25. To frame regulations for its internal administration. ART. 66. The judicial functions of the National Assembly are:

1. To take cognizance of charges and complaints made against the President of the Republic or the person in charge of the executive power, in cases involving their responsibility, the secretaries of State, the magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice and the AttorneyGeneral of the nation.

2. To try the President of the Republic or the person in charge of the executive power, in accordance with this Constitution; the secretaries of State, the magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice and the Attorney-General of the nation, when charged with offenses committed in the performance of their functions, against the safety of the State, the free operation of the public powers or in violation of the national Constitution and laws.

The procedure to be followed in such cases and the penalties to be imposed shall be determined by law.

ART. 67. The executive functions of the National Assembly are:

1. To inspect the credentials of its own members and to decide whether or not the said credentials are in the form prescribed by law. 2. To rehabilitate those who have lost citizenship.

3. To accept or refuse to accept the resignations of the President of the Republic or the Designates (Designados).

4.1

When, for any reason, the National Assembly fails to elect Designates, those formerly elected shall continue as such in their order.

1 Practically repealed by Article 9 of the Legislative Act of 14 March 1917 (below, p. 479). This clause originally read as follows: "To elect at the ordinary session, and for a term of two years, three Designates, who, in the absence of the President of the Republic and in the order of their election, shall exercise the executive power."

5. To appoint the judges of the Court of Accounts.

6. To appoint a fiscal inspector of all the treasury offices of the Republic.

7. To appoint commissions for the demarcation of the boundaries of the nation.

8. To call upon the secretaries of State for such oral or written reports as it may need.

9. To examine and finally approve at each ordinary session the general account of the treasury submitted by the executive power.

10. To grant leaves of absence to the President of the Republic or to the person in charge of the executive power.

11. To permit or refuse the sojourning of foreign war-vessels in the ports of the Republic when the stay is longer than two months. ART. 68. The National Assembly is forbidden:

1. To allow by decree gratuities, indemnities, pensions or other expenditures not intended for the settlement of debts or rights recognized in accordance with the existing law, except as provided in Article 65.

2. To pass acts of proscription or persecution against persons or corporations.

3. To pass resolutions of approval or censure of official acts.
4. To make suggestions to public officers.1

TITLE VII.-THE EXECUTIVE POWER.

ART. 69. The executive power is exercised by a migstrate to be called President of the Republic, who shall have for the discharge of his functions the number of secretaries determined by law.

The President shall enter upon the discharge of his constitutional functions on the first day of October following that of his election, and shall remain in office for a term of four years.

The law shall determine the names of the departments and the order of precedence of the secretaries.

ART. 70. To be President of the Republic it is required:

1. To be a Panaman by birth.

2. To be at least 35 years of age.2

ART. 71. The President-elect of the Republic, or the citizen who takes his place, shall assume possession of his charge before the president of the Assembly and shall take the following oath of office:

I swear before God and before the country that I shall faithfully comply with the Constitution and the laws of Panama.

ART. 72. If, for any reason whatever, the President of the Republic can not assume possession before the president of the National As

1 See Article 6 of the Legislative Act of 14 March 1917 (below, p. 478).
See Article 7 of the Legislative Act of 14 March 1917 (below, p. 478).

sembly, he shall do so before the president of the Supreme Court of Justice, and failing this, before two witnesses.

ART. 73. The attributions of the President of the Republic are:

1. To appoint and remove, freely, the secretaries of State, the governors of the provinces and persons holding any national offices whatsoever, whose appointment does not belong to other officials or bodies.

2. To see to the preservation of public order.

3. To conduct the diplomatic and commercial relations with other nations, freely to appoint and receive the respective agents, and to conclude public treaties and conventions which shall be submitted to the National Assembly for its approval.

4. To take care that the National Assembly shall meet on the day appointed by the Constitution or by the resolution or decree by which extraordinary sessions may be called, and to take in good time the necessary measures for the payment to the deputies of the mileage allowed them by law.

5. To submit at the beginning of each legislature, on the first day of its ordinary sessions, a message relating to the affairs of the administration.

6. To furnish the Assembly with such special reports as the latter may request.

7. To sanction and promulgate the laws, obey them and see to their exact execution.

8. To submit to the National Assembly, within the first ten days of the regular sessions, the budget of receipts and expenditures for the following two years, and the general account of the budget and of the treasury.

9. To supervise the collection and administration of the revenues of the Republic and to order their disbursement in accordance with the laws.

10. To conclude administrative contracts for the performance of services and the execution of public works in accordance with the fiscal laws, with the obligation of reporting thereon to the Assembly in its ordinary sessions.

laws.

11. To grant patents of useful inventions in conformity with the

12. To issue naturalization papers in conformity with the laws. 13. To allow Panamans, who request it, to accept positions or distinctions from foreign governments.

14. To control, regulate and supervise national public instruction. 15. To take care that the public institutions of the nation are properly conducted.

16. To sanction, promulgate and enforce all sanitary regulations enacted by the National Board of Health.