ROUMANIA.

For centuries the principalities of the Danube, Moldavia and Wallachia, had a hard struggle to preserve their independence against powerful neighbors. The Crimean War gave the principalities an opportunity to bring their claims before the European Powers. The Treaty of Paris of 30 March 1856 (Articles 15-27) suppressed the protectorate, which Russia had exercised for about 27 years, and instituted (Article 23) a commission to study on the ground the question of reforms. This commission, composed of delegates of the Powers, sat at Bucharest in March 1857. Two consultative assemblies, convoked for the purpose of making known the wishes of each principality, agreed on 19 and 21 October 1857 to proclaim the necessity: 1. of an autonomous government; 2. of the union of the two countries; 3. of the election of a foreign prince; 4. of the organization, of a representative government. This declaration is known as the "Declaration of the Four Points." The Conference of Paris did not respect all of these wishes, when it adopted the Organic Convention or Act of 7/19 August 1858, which in 50 articles organized the principalities as two distinct States, each having its own prince. The first real step toward actual union was taken in 1859, when Alexander was elected prince of both countries, but real union did not take place until several years later. In 1866 a revolution brought Charles of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen to the throne and he immediately called a Constituent Assembly. The Constitution now in force was voted by this Constituent Assembly, elected by universal suffrage, on 30 June/12 July 1866. The Constitution has been amended twice; once, on 13/25 October 1879, as a result of the TurcoRussian War of 1877, and a second time, on 8/20 June 1884. At the same time as the second revision of the Constitution a new Electoral Law was passed which is still in force, although it has undergone important modifications.1

CONSTITUTION OF 30 JUNE/12 JULY 1866, AS AMENDED 13/25 OCTOBER 1879 AND 8/20 JUNE 1884.2

TITLE I. THE TERRITORY OF ROUMANIA.

ARTICLE 1.3 The Kingdom of Roumania with its districts on the right bank of the Danube constitutes a single indivisible State.

1 This introductory paragraph is based upon F. R. DARESTE ET P. DARESTE, Les Constitutions modernes (3d edition, Paris, 1910), vol. II, pp. 229–231.

2 Translated by OTIS G. STANTON from the French translation in DARESTE, op. cit., pp. 231-255. French translation also in the British and Foreign State Papers, 57: pp. 263-278; 71: pp. 1176-1177; and 75: pp. 1105-1106. German translation in PAUL POSENER, Die Staatsverfassurgen des Erdballs (Charlottenburg, 1909), pp. 784-800.

As amended 8/20 June 1884.

ART. 2. The territory of Roumania is inalienable.

The limits of the State can be changed or rectified only by virtue of a law.

ART. 3. The territory of Roumania can not be colonized by popula tions of a foreign race.

ART 4. The territory is divided into districts; the districts into arrondissements; the arrondissements into communes.

These divisions and subdivisions can be modified or rectified only by virtue of a law.

TITLE II. THE RIGHTS OF ROUMANIANS.

ART. 5. Roumanians enjoy liberty of conscience, liberty of instruction, liberty of the press and liberty of assembly.

ART. 6. The present Constitution and other laws relative to political rights determine what, independently of the Roumanian character, are the conditions necessary for the exercise of these rights.

ART. 7.1 The distinction of religious beliefs and of confessions shall not, in Roumania, constitute an obstacle to the acquisition of civil and political rights and to their exercise.

§ 1. The alien may, without distinction of religion, and whether or not he is subject to a foreign protection, obtain naturalization under the following conditions:

a. He shall address to the government his petition for naturalization, by which he shall make known the capital he possesses, the profession or industry he is engaged in, and his desire to establish his domicile in Roumania.

b. Following this request he shall live in the country during ten years and prove by his actions that he is useful to the country. § 2. The following may be excused from residence:

a. Those who shall have introduced industries or useful inventions into the country, or who shall possess distinguished talents; those who shall have founded large establishments of commerce or of industry.

b. Those who, born and reared in Roumania, of parents established there, have never enjoyed, neither the ones nor the others, a foreign protection.

c. Those who have served under the flag during the War of Independence. These may be naturalized collectively, on the proposal of the government, by a single law and without other formality.

§ 3. Naturalization can be accorded only by a law and individually. § 4. A special law shall determine the mode according to which aliens may establish their domicile in Roumania.

1 As amended 13/25 October 1879.

2 Old Article 7 permitted naturalization only to foreigners "of Christian rites," and therefore excluded Jews.

§ 5. Roumanians, or those who are naturalized as Roumanians, may acquire real estate in Roumania.

Rights already acquired shall be respected.

The international conventions now existing shall remain in force with all their clauses and until the expiration of their term.

ART. 8. Naturalization is granted by the legislative power.

Naturalization alone assimilates the alien to the Roumanian for the exercise of political rights.

ART. 9. Every Roumanian of any State whatever, without distinction of place of birth, from the moment when he has proven his renunciation of the foreign protection, can immediately obtain the exercise of political rights by a vote of the legislative bodies.

ART. 10. No class distinctions exist in the State. All Roumanians are equal before the law and obliged to contribute without distinction to the imposts and to the public charges.

They are alone admissible to public, civil and military functions. Special laws shall determine the conditions of admissibility and advancement in the functions of the State.

Aliens can be admitted to the public functions only in exceptional cases, specially determined by the laws.

ART. 11. All aliens who are on the soil of Roumania enjoy the protection that the laws accord to persons and to property in general. ART. 12. All class privileges, exemptions and monopolies are forever abolished in the Roumanian State.

Foreign titles of nobility, such as those of prince, count, baron and others similar, are and remain inadmissible in the Roumanian State, as contrary to the ancient institutions of the country.

The wearing of foreign decorations by Roumanians is subject to the authorization of the King.

ART. 13. Individual liberty is guaranteed.

No one can be prosecuted except in cases provided by the law and in the form which it prescribes.

No one can be held or arrested, outside of cases of flagrante delicto, except by virtue of a judicial mandate, giving reasons therefor, which must be communicated to him at the moment of arrest, or, at the latest, within the 24 hours which follow the arrest.

ART. 14. No one can be taken against his consent from the judges whom the law assigns to him.

ART. 15. The domicile is inviolable.

No domiciliary visit can be made except in the cases expressly provided for by the law and in the form which it prescribes.

ART. 16. No punishment can be established or applied except by virtue of a law.

ART. 17. No law can establish the confiscation of property.

ART. 18. The penalty of death can not be reestablished except in the cases provided for by the Military Penal Code, in time of war.1 ART. 19. Property of every kind is sacred and inviolable, the same as all credits against the State.

No one can be dispossessed except for the purpose of public utility legally decided and after a just and previous indemnity.

By the purpose of public utility must be understood only public roads, public health and the works of defense of the country.

The existing laws regarding the alignment and the enlargement of the public ways in the communes, as also the banks of the watercourses which cross them or run along them, remain in force.

Special laws shall regulate the procedure and the mode of expropriation.2

The free and unimpeded use of navigable rivers and those usable for rafts, of roads and other ways of communication is a part of the public domain.

ART. 20. The property granted to the peasants by the rural law,3 just as the indemnity guaranteed to owners by the said law, can not suffer any injury.

ART. 21. Liberty of conscience is absolute.

The liberty of all the cults is guaranteed in so far as their celebration does not offend against public order or good customs.

The Eastern Orthodox Religion is the dominant religion of the Roumanian State. The Orthodox Roumanian Church is and remains independent of all foreign supremacy while preserving its unity with the Ecumenical Eastern Church so far as dogmas are concerned.

The spiritual, canonical and disciplinary affairs of the Roumanian Orthodox Church shall be regulated by a unique central synodal authority, conformably to a special law.*

The metropolitans and the diocesan bishops of the Roumanian Orthodox Church are elected according to the mode determined by a special law.*

ART. 22. The acts of the civil State are within the competency of the civil authorities.

The publication of these acts must always precede the religious benediction, which shall be obligatory for marriages, except in the cases provided for by a special law.

1 Code of Military Justice of 27 April/9 May 1873.

2 Law of 20 October/1 November 1864, amended 8/21 February 1900.

3 Law of 15/27 August 1864 governing rural property. See Article 132.

4 Law of 19/31 December 1872 on the election of metropolitans and diocesan bishops and on the organization of the Holy Synod of the Autocephalous Holy Roumanian Orthodox Church. Law of 25 February/10 March 1906 on the secular clergy and the seminaries.