APPENDIX-I CONSTITUTION OF 18571 PREAMBLE In the name of God and by the authority of the Mexican people. The representatives of the different States, of the District and of the Territories which compose the Republic of Mexico, called upon by the provisions of the Plan proclaimed in Ayutla the first of March, eighteen hundred and fifty-four, amended in Acapulco the eleventh day of the same month and year, and by the call issued the seventeenth of October, eighteen hundred and fifty-five, to convene for the purpose of framing a constitution for the nation and making it a popular representative, democratic republic, exercising the powers with which they are vested, do hereby comply with the requirements of their high office, by decreeing the following political Constitution of the Mexican Republic, on the indestructible basis of its legitimate independence, proclaimed the sixteenth of September, eighteen hundred and ten, and consummated the twenty-seventh of September, eighteen hundred and twenty-one. TITLE I Of the Rights of Man Article 1. The Mexican people recognize that the rights of man are the basis and the object of social institutions. Consequently they declare that all the laws and all the authorities of the country must respect and maintain the guarantees which the present constitution grants. Art. 2. In the Republic all are born free. Slaves who set foot upon the national territory shall recover, by this act alone, their freedom, and enjoy the protection of the law. Art. 3. Instruction is free. The law shall determine what professions shall require licenses for their exercise, and what requisites are necessary to obtain said licenses. Art. 4. Every one is free to engage in any honorable and useful profession, industrial pursuit, or occupation suitable to him, and to avail himself of its products. The exercise of this liberty shall not be hindered except by judicial sentence when such exercise infringes the rights of a third party, or by executive order, issued in the manner specified by law, when it offends the rights of society. Art. 5. No one shall be compelled to render personal services without due compensation and without his full consent, excepting labor imposed as a penalty by judicial decree. Subject to the conditions set forth in the respective laws, only military service shall be obligatory; and municipal service, service in connection with elections, and jury service shall be obligatory and without compensation. The State shall not permit any contract, covenant, or agreement to be carried out having for its object the abridgment, loss or irrevocable sacrifice of the liberty of man, whether by reason of labor, education or religious vows. 1 Reprinted from the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. |