1917 Constitution of Mexico
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- This article is about the current Political Constitution of the United Mexican States. For earlier constitutional texts governing that country, see Constitutions of Mexico.
The 1917 Constitution of Mexico is the present constitution of Mexico.
The 1917 Constitution was drafted in Santiago de Querétaro during the Mexican Revolution. It was approved by the Constitutional Congress on February 5, 1917, with Venustiano Carranza serving as the first president under its terms.
The Día de la Constitución (Constitution Day) on February 5 is one of Mexico's annual Fiestas Patrias or public holidays, commemorating the promulgation of the Constitution.
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Articles of the Constitution
Most of the original articles are still in force but have been heavily amended.
Among the most frequently cited articles of the Constitution are Articles 3, 27, 123 and 130.
Article 3 covers the matter of education in Mexico, and its main principle is that all of the education given by the state is to be free and nonreligious.
Article 27 states that all of the land in the country is originally the property of the nation, which can grant control over it to private citizens, albeit with certain restrictions – for instance, foreign citizens cannot own land within 100 km of the borders or 50 km of the sea, that an area of land next to the coast is federal property which cannot be sold to particulars, and that only the nation may control, extract, and process petroleum and its derivatives.
Article 123 covers the rights of workers, including the eight-hour work day, the right to strike, the right to a day's rest per week, and the right to a proper indemnization following unjustified termination of the working relationship by the employer.
Article 130 states that Church and State are to remain separated. It provides for the obligatory state registration of all "churches and religious groupings" and places a series of restrictions on priests and ministers of all religions (ineligible to hold public office, to canvas on behalf of political parties or candidates, to inherit from persons other than close blood relatives, etc.).
The Article 18 crisis
From the perspective of legal scholars in countries where life imprisonment is an accepted penalty, the 18th article, covering the rights of the accused and the guilty, has a troubling aspect: it recognizes only "social readaptation" (what most people would call rehabilitation) as the primary goal of incarceration. This view of incarceration (shared by most European countries) conflicts with other countries' views (including the United States) where accepted reasons for incarcerating criminals include retribution, deterrence and segregation from the general population.
The reason Article 18 has become an object of concern for these countries, notably the United States, is that the Supreme Court ruled in October 2001 that life imprisonment constitutes cruel and unusual punishment within the meaning of Article 22, partially because it fails to allow for the possibility of rehabilitation as required by Article 18. In turn, Mexico will not allow criminal suspects to be extradited unless the receiving country can guarantee that the defendant will not receive a life sentence. But that can be difficult, since most U.S. states provide for life sentences for the felonies for which they will go to the trouble of pursuing extradition proceedings. So, the extradition of defendants in this situation isn't allowed unless a non life sentence is guaranteed.
See also
External links
- The original text (http://constitucion.rediris.es/principal/constituciones-mexico1917.htm) (Spanish)
- The present Constitution (http://www.cddhcu.gob.mx/leyinfo/txt/1.txt) (Spanish)
- The present Constitution (http://www.ilstu.edu/class/hist263/docs/1917const.html) (English)