NATIONAL TERRITORIES

LEY No. 14.408

Provincialization of National Territories

Sanctioned: June 16-1955

Promulgated: June 28-1955


ARTICLE 1 - Determine provinces, in accordance with articles 13 and 68, paragraph 14 of the National Constitution, to all national territories, with the following limits:

(a) Three provinces, which will have, respectively, the limits of the current national territories of Formosa, Neuquén and Río Negro;

(b) Another province, limited to the North by the 42nd parallel; to the East, by the Atlantic Ocean; to the West, by the dividing line with the Republic of Chile and to the South, with the 46th parallel;

C) Another province, limited to the North by the 46th parallel; to the East by the Atlantic Ocean; to the West, by the dividing line with the Republic of Chile and to the South, with the Polo, including the Tierra del Fuego, the South Atlantic Islands and the Argentine Antarctic Sector.

ARTICLE 2 The National Executive Branch will convene the constituent conventions in the cities of Formosa, Neuquén, Rawson, Viedma and Río Gallegos, which will be provisional capitals of the new provinces until the local authorities establish the finals.

ARTICLE 3o - The choice of Conventions shall be made in accordance with the National Elections Act and on the basis of the National Registry of Elections, and shall take place on the date determined by the national Executive.

ARTICLE 4o - Sixteen (16) conventional provinces will be chosen according to the following system: Representatives will be elected directly by the people of the province in a single district. Each elector will vote for a complete list of 16 candidates. The majority party with the highest number of votes shall be assigned four (4) conventional, provided that the votes obtained exceed thirty-five percent (35%) of the total. If they only exceed twenty percent (20 percent), they will be assigned two (2). It will be depicted if it has not been able to pass 20 per cent (20 per cent), of total suffrage. The remaining conventional ones will be taken from the list of most. In any event, the order awarded in the respective lists shall be respected.

ARTICLE 5o - To be conventional it is necessary to be native Argentine and to meet the other requirements and qualities that to be deputies of the Nation. Conventionals shall enjoy, as long as their term of office, the same privileges and immunities as national deputies, and shall receive the sum of seven thousand pesos national currency ($ 7,000) for the entire term of their performance.

ARTICLE 6 The position of a treaty is compatible with that of a member of any of the powers of the Nation.

ARTICLE 7o - The Convention shall terminate its mandate within ninety days of its installation and may not extend its mandate.

ARTICLE 8o - The Convention shall issue a Constitution under the republican representative system, in accordance with the principles, declarations and guarantees of the National Constitution, and to ensure the administration of justice, the municipal system, primary education and cooperation required by the national government in order to enforce the National Constitution, and to ensure the administration of justice, and the municipal system, primary education and cooperation required by the national government in order to enforce the National Constitution and the laws of the Nation as a result. It shall also ensure the rights, duties and guarantees of personal liberty, as well as the rights of the worker, the family, the elderly and the education, the culture, and the character of the social function of property, capital and economic activity. Its principles cannot be contrary to the National Constitution or to declarations of political and economic independence.

ARTICLE 9o - All legislation in force in the territory at the time of its admission as a province shall remain in force in the new State until it is repealed or amended by the respective legislature, unless the change or modification comes from this law or the Constitution of the new province.

ARTICLE 10. - Property within their respective territorial limits that belong to the public or private domain of the Nation shall be transferred to the domain of the new provinces, except those that need to be used for national use or public service, in which case the reservation shall be established by the National Law within three years of the promulgation of the present.

The fiscal lands located within their respective territorial limits will also be transferred to the domain of the new provinces. The executive branch may agree with the new provinces to carry out the technical work aimed at the proper delimitation of the tax lands.

Until the provincial authorities are finally constituted, the executive branch may arrange for the award of tax lands among the current inhabitants.

ARTICLE 11. - Agreements between the new provinces and the Nation will determine which public schools will become dependent on them.

ARTICLE 12. - The new provinces will organize their judiciary. When the organization of the local judiciary has been organized, the cases will be transferred to it, taking into account the general legal rules governing the respective jurisdictions. In addition, you will be transferred all the files, records and records corresponding to the pending cases.

ARTICLE 13. - Once local justice is organized, there will be a national judge of first instance in each of the capitals of the new provinces.

ARTICLE 14. - As long as the new provinces do not dictate their own tax provisions, the taxes, fees and contributions that govern at the time of their provincialization will continue.

ARTICLE 15. - The Government of the Nation will continue to receive all taxes and to pay all administrative services in accordance with the budget of the territory and the provisions of this law, up to six (6) months after the day when the provincial authorities are constituted, without prejudice to partial or total transfers that could be made to the new provinces before the date indicated. This period may be extended by agreement between the national executive branch and the provincial governments.

Once the new administration has been organized as well as the Judiciary, the liquidation will be made for the various contributions.

ARTICLE 16. - The governments of the new provinces will agree with the national executive branch the transfers of the records and other records relating to taxes through the Ministry of Finance of the Nation.

ARTICLE 17. - The national executive branch shall deliver the various administrative services with their rights and properties, credits, assets and liabilities to be transferred to the new provinces through the respective Ministry. To that end, the form and opportunity of surrender and the obligations to which there is a place shall be established.

ARTICLE 18. - Officials, employees and workers who rely on the administration of the new provinces, regardless of the way they provide their services and the way they pay, shall be recognized:

(a) Identity of hierarchy and salary;

(b) Contributions performed; and

(c) Term, conditions and retirement.

For all these purposes, the Nation will hold with the new provinces the respective agreements, with the national executive branch having to assign staff who are not incorporated into the provincial administration similar functions to those performed in the former territories, with equal pay and hierarchy.

ARTICLE 19. - Within thirty (30) days of the promulgation of this Act, the National Executive shall designate federal commissions in the new provinces, which shall ensure the continuity of local services and structure the future provincial administration, in accordance with the provisions of this Act and to which the Constituent Convention is issued in due course.

ARTICLE 20. - In order to comply with the provisions of the preceding article, the Commissioners shall immediately establish the ministries of Government, Economics and Social Affairs, and shall organize the local administration and Justice in accordance with the instructions to be given to them by the National Executive and subsequently in accordance with the rules established by the Constitution of the new provinces.

They shall submit to the approval of the National Executive Branch the budget of expenditures of the provinces and shall also propose the assimilation by the local administration of all national offices with seat in the territory, which shall be gradually transferred to the provinces in all cases other than federal jurisdiction. For the purposes set out in this article, Commissioners are authorized to agree on transfers with the respective ministries.

ARTICLE 21. - Organized by the local administration, the National Executive will convene elections for the new provinces to designate their authorities. Once these are established, any intervention by the national authorities in matters of provincial order shall cease.

ARTICLE 22. - National senators and deputies will be elected simultaneously in the same act as the provincial authorities.

The National Executive will set the limits of the constituencies for this election of deputies.

ARTICLE 23. - Delegates from the national territories will cease at the time of the incorporation into the National Congress of deputies elected by the new provinces.

ARTICLE 24. - Expenditures for compliance with this Act shall be covered by general incomes, subject to charge.

ARTICLE 25. - Contact the Executive.

Given in the meeting room of the Argentine Congress, Buenos Aires, 15 June 1955.