LEGE no. 721 721 of 19 July 1917 for the amendment of Articles 19, 57 and 67 of the Constitution
ISSUER
PARLIAMENT
Published in OFFICIAL MONITOR no. 98 98 of 20 July 1917
FERDINAND I, Through the grace of God and the national will, King of Romania, To all present and future, health: The review chambers, on the basis of art. 128 of the Constitution voted and adopted and We sanction what follows: + Article 19 The property of any kind as well as the claims on the State are sacred and inviolable. No one can be expropriated by how much for the cause of public utility finally found and after a right and prior compensation. Through the cause of public utility is understood the communication, public sanitation, the works of defense of the country and those of military, cultural, historical or archeological interest, irrigation, water falls, the drying of puddles, the regulation of water courses, of sewerage, of inrangement or of creation of areas of protection of forests, of merging of small rural properties or of urban land, of establishment of industrial settlements shown by special law, constructions of public buildings of to the State, counties or communes, as well as any other works of public interest. Alignments 4, 5 and 6 of art. 19 ramin. I. For the cause of national utility, the extent of the peasant rural property is increased by expropriating the cultivable land to the extent and the following conditions, in order to sell to the peasants cultivators of land, especially the peasants mobilized from this category, or their families if they died because of or during the rasboiu. They will express themselves entirely: a) The cultivable lands of the Crown Domain, of the Rural House and of all public or private moral persons, foundations, etc., even when the acts of foundation, of donatinne, wills or any other dispositions under any title would provided directly or by any kind of prohibitive clauses their non-estrangement or they would have given another special affection; ... b) The rural properties, in their total coverage, of the subjects of the foreign states, whether they are foreigners by their origin, whether they have become foreigners by marriage or otherwise; ... c) Rural properties, in their total inclusion, of absentees. ... From all these properties, as well as from the properties of the State-which will also sell to peasants of land-the State will be able to reserve the cultivable lands that have a special destination or will be able to give such a special purpose responding to a general interest. II. It will exown from the particular rural properties a stretch of 2,000,000 hectares cultivable land. Expropriation will be made on the basis of a progressive staircase that will be determined by the expropriation law, the scale that will begin with the properties having a stretch from 100 hectares up cultivable earth, intangible minimum. The extent of the properties will be counted according to their legal status on August 15, 1916, however, taking into account the effect of the successive successions from this date until the promulgation of the general law of expropriation. In the calculation of these 2,000,000 hectares will not enter the properties that are expropriated entirely and which are provided in par. I, the letters a and b, but only those from the letter c, in their cultivable portion. The fields found oilfields are excluded from the above expropriation until a indination of 12,000 ha throughout the country with the condition that the owner who would have subjected the expropriation of such land to give an equal extent of cultivable land in the same county or in a bordering county. III. Over the expropriation of land provided in par. I litures a, b and c and para. II, the expropriation law will also provide, for the mountain regions, the establishment of communal springs formed by expropriation from private properties, which do not fall into the category above, only the surface of the soil must be. IV. The price of land expropriated for the cause of national utility will be fixed in the last instance by the Appellate Courts, and its payment will be able to be made in annuity securities issued by the State, depreciable and carrying an interest rate of 5% per year, reckoned nominal value as a real value. V. The works for the preparation of the general and special expropriation laws for national utility will begin immediately. These laws will be promulgated at the latest within six months of the liberation of the territory. The general expropriation law for the cause of national utility, which will unravel the principles contained in this article, will be voted according to the last paragraph of art. 128 of the present Constitution. Her dispositions will be entered in this article from which I am of the right part. + Article 57 The Assembly of Deputies consists of deputies elected by major Romanian citizens, by universal, equal, direct, binding and secret elections on the basis of proportional representation. The electoral law will fix the composition of the Chamber of Deputies. + Article 67 The Senate consists of elected senators and senators of law. Electoral law will fix the composition of the Senate The principles of the electoral law relative to the composition of the Assembly of Deputies and the Senate being considered as constitutional provisions will be included in this article. These principles will be voted on in accordance with the last paragraph of Article 128 of this Constitution. This law was voted by the Assembly of deputies at the meeting of June 14, 1917 and was adopted by a majority of one hundred and thirty votes, against fourteen. President, V.G. Mortun. (L.S.A.D.) Secretary, Nicolae N. Paul. This law was voted by the Senate at the meeting of June 20, 1917 and was adopted by a majority of seventy-nine votes against five. President, Em. Porumbaru. ((L.S.S.) Secretary, Dr. Sadoveanu. We promulgate this law and order that it be invested with the seal of the State and published through the Official Gazette. Given in Iasi, on July 19, 1917. (L.S. St.) FERDINAND Council President of ministers, Ion I.C. Bratianu. Justice Minister, M.G. Cantacuzino. _______________
