Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol4, 1920.pdf/176

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
156
CZECHOSLOVAK REVIEW

slovak Republic without distinction of sex who are 26 years of age and comply with other requirements of the fundamental law as to the composition and jurisdiction of the senate.

15. Eligible are those citizens of the Czechoslovak Republic, without distinction of sex, who have reached 45 years of age and comply with other requirements of the fundamental law as to the composition and jurisdiction of the senate.

16. The term for which senators are elected is eight years.

17. Details of the exercise of right to vote and election rules are contained in the law as to the composition and jurisdiction of the senate.

18. No one may be member of both houses.

19. Contested elections to the chamber of deputies and the senate are passed upon by the electoral court. Details are regulated by law.

20. An employee of the state who is elected to the National Assembly and qualifies as member receives a leave of absence for the duration of his term and is entitled to his regular salary, not including therein local or active supplement of the same, as well as to seniority promotion. University professors are entitled to leave of absence; if they make use of this right, the same provisions apply to them as to other state servants.

Other public servants are entitled to leave of absence, while they are members of the National Assembly.

Members of the National Assembly may receive a salaried state appointment only after the expiration of one year from the the time they cease to be members of the National Assembly.

This provision does not apply to ministers. The time limit of one year, contained in the previous paragraph, does not apply to deputies and senators who were in the service of the state before their ele to the National Assembly, if they remain in the same department of service.

Members of county assemblies, and county and district chiefs may not be members of the National Assembly. Judges of the constitutional court and associate judges of the electoral court may not at the same time sit in the National Assembly.

21. Members of either house may resign at any time.

22. Members of the National Assembly carry out their mandates in person; they may not receive orders from anyone.

They may not intervene with public authorities in party interests. This prohibition does not apply to members of the National Assembly in so far as intervention with authorities is a part of their regular duties.

In the first meeting of the house which they attend they shall make the following pledge: “I promise that I will be faithful to the Czechoslovak Republic, that I will observe the laws and execute my trust according to my best knowledge and conscience.” Refusal of the pledge or pledge with reservation carry with it automatic loss of mandate.

23. Members of the National Assembly cannot be molested by reason of their vote in the house or committees. For anything they may say in the exercise of their mandate they are subject only to the disciplinary power of the house.

21. Before a member of the National Assembly may be prosecuted or disciplined for other acts or omissions, the consent of the proper house must be obtained. If the house refuses its consent, prosecution is dropped permanently.

These provisions do not apply to criminal liability which a member of the National Assembly may incur as responsible editor.

25. If a member of either house is arrested in the commission of a criminal offense, the court or other proper authority shall inform the president of the house at once of the arrest. Unless the house, or during the adjournment of the National Assembly the commission elected in accordance with section 54, signifies within 14 days its consent to further imprisonment, imprisonment ceases. Should the commision give its consent, the house itself shall decide the question of further imprisonment within 14 days of its convening.

26. Members of both houses may refuse to testify as to matters which were confided to them as members of the house, even after they have ceased to be members. This does not apply to charges of seducing a member of either house to abuse his trust.

27. Members of both houses shall receive compensation provided by law.

28. The president of the Republic shall call both houses into two regular sessions annually in spring and fall. The spring